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Narodna galerija | |
Established | 1918 |
---|---|
Location | Ljubljana |
Coordinates | 46°3′13″N14°30′0″E / 46.05361°N 14.50000°E |
Type | art gallery |
Website | www |
The National Gallery of Slovenia (Slovene : Narodna galerija) is the national art gallery of Slovenia. It is located in the capital Ljubljana. It was founded in 1918, after the dissolution of Austria-Hungary and the establishment of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs. [1] Initially, it was hosted in the Kresija Palace of Ljubljana, but moved to the present location in 1925. [2]
The present building was built in 1896, during the administration of Mayor Ivan Hribar, whose ambition was to transform Ljubljana into a representative capital of all the Slovene Lands. [3] It was designed by the Czech architect František Škabrout [4] and was first used as a Slovenian cultural center (Narodni dom) as the central seat of various cultural associations of national importance. The building stands near Tivoli Park and was completely renovated in 2013-2016.
In the early 1990s, an extension to the main building was built by the Slovene architect Edvard Ravnikar. [5] In 2001, a large transparent glass gallery, designed by the Sadar + Vuga architecture bureau, was built to connect the two wings of the building.
The gallery hosts a permanent art collection from the Middle Ages to the early 20th century. The original of the Baroque Robba fountain can also be seen in the central glass gallery of the building, where it was moved after extensive restoration in 2008. [6]
The notable Slovene and European artists whose works are exhibited in the gallery include:
Ivana Kobilca was a Slovene painter, and is considered the most prominent female painter and a key figure of Slovene cultural identity. She was a realist painter who studied and worked in Vienna, Munich, Paris, Sarajevo, Berlin, and Ljubljana. She mostly painted oil paintings and pastels, whereas her drawings are few. The themes include still life, portraits, genre works, allegories, and religious scenes. She was a controversial person, criticized for following movements that had not developed further in later periods.
The Sower, created in 1907, is an oil on canvas painting by the Slovene Impressionist painter and musician Ivan Grohar. It is an image of a peasant sowing seeds on a ploughed field in an early and foggy morning. A hayrack, typical of the Slovene landscape, stands in the back, and even farther, the rocks of the small hill Kamnitnik near Škofja Loka. It has been a metaphor for the 19th-century myth of Slovenes as a vigorous nation in front of an unclear destiny, a symbol for the Slovene nation that sows in order that it could harvest, and a depiction of human interrelatedness with the nature. It is also a reflection of the context of Slovene transition from a rural to an urban culture. It has become one of the most characteristic and established Slovene creations in visual arts. It has been used by the IRWIN art group as well as the Semenarna Ljubljana seed company, and is depicted on the Slovenian 5 cent euro coin.
Rihard Jakopič was a Slovene painter. He was the leading Slovene Impressionist painter, patron of arts and theoretician. Together with Matej Sternen, Matija Jama and Ivan Grohar, he is considered the pioneer of Slovene Impressionist painting.
Ivan Grohar was a Slovene Impressionist painter. Together with Rihard Jakopič, Matej Sternen, and Matija Jama, he is considered one of the leading figures of Slovene impressionism in the fin de siecle period. He is known by his landscapes and portraits. He was also an established guitarist and singer.
Slovene culture is the culture of the Slovenes, a south Slavic ethnic group. It is incredibly diverse for the country's small size, spanning the southern portion of Central Europe, being the melting pot of Slavic, Germanic and Romance cultures while encompassing parts of the Eastern Alps, the Pannonian Basin, the Balkan Peninsula and the Mediterranean.
Ivan Vurnik was a Slovene architect that helped found the Ljubljana School of Architecture. His early style in the 1920s is associated with the search for Slovene "National Style", inspired by Slovene folk art and the Vienna Secession style of architecture. Upon embracing the functionalist approach in the 1930s, Vurnik rivaled the more conservative Plečnik's approach. The Cooperative Business Bank, designed by Vurnik and his wife Helena Kottler Vurnik who designed the decorative facade in the colors of Slovene tricolor, has been called the most beautiful building in Ljubljana. Vurnik has also drawn a number of urban plans, among these the plans for Bled (1930), Kranj (1933–1937), and Ljubljana (1935).
Ivan Hribar was a Slovene and Yugoslav banker, politician, diplomat and journalist. During the start of the 20th century, he was one of the leaders of the National Progressive Party, and one of the most important figures of Slovene liberal nationalism. Between 1896 and 1910, he was the mayor of Ljubljana, and greatly contributed to its rebuilding and modernisation after the 1895 earthquake.
The National Museum of Slovenia is located in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. It is located in the Center district of the city near Tivoli City Park. Along with the Slovenian Museum of Natural History, located in the same building, the National Museum of Slovenia is the country's oldest scientific and cultural institution. The museum has an extensive collection of archaeological artefacts, old coins and banknotes and displays related to the applied arts. In 2021 it's been given the golden Order for Exceptional Merits by the president of Slovenia, Borut Pahor.
Cekin Mansion is a mansion on the northern edge of Tivoli Park in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. It is located next to Tivoli Hall in the Šiška District. It houses the Museum of Contemporary History of Slovenia.
Navje Memorial Park, the redesigned part of the former St. Christopher's Cemetery, is a memorial park in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. It is located in the Bežigrad district, just behind the Ljubljana railway station.
The Government Building and President's Office, also simply the Government Building or the President's Office, is a building in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, that houses the Office of the President of Slovenia, the Secretary-General of the Government of Slovenia, and the Protocol of Slovenia. It stands at the corner of Prešeren Street, Erjavec Street, and Gregorčič Street in the Center District, next to the Cankar Centre. It is used for state and ceremonial functions, as well as for receptions and meetings with visiting foreign dignitaries and heads of state. Occasionally, exhibits take place there.
The Museum of Modern Art in Ljubljana, Slovenia, is the central museum and gallery of the Slovenian art works from the 20th and 21st centuries.
Zaprice Castle is a castle in Zaprice, now part of the town of Kamnik, Slovenia.
The Water Man was the first Slovene art ballad. It was written around 1825 by the Slovene Romantic poet France Prešeren and published in 1830 in the first almanac of Krajnska čbelica. It is a narration about Urška, a flirt from Ljubljana who ended up in the hands of a handsome man who happened to be a vodyanoy. The poem was based on a story from The Glory of Carniola about a dance at Old Square in Ljubljana in July 1547, when Urška Šefer was enchanted by a vodyanoy and pulled into the Ljubljanica. Prešeren wrote it against the backdrop of his unfulfilled love for Zalika Dolenc. In the first publication of the poem, Urška was named Zalika. Later, in Prešeren's Poems (1847), she was named Urška.
Art of Slovenia refers to all forms of visual art in or associated with Slovenia, both before and after the country's Independence from Yugoslavia in 1991. Art in Slovenia has been shaped by a number of Slovenian painters, sculptors, architects, photographers, graphics artists, comics, illustration, and conceptual artists. The most prestigious institutions exhibiting works of Slovene visual artists are the National Gallery of Slovenia and the Museum of Modern Art in Ljubljana.
The Jakopič Pavilion was an art gallery in Ljubljana, the first purpose-built art exhibition venue in the territory of modern Slovenia. It was built in 1908 by the painter Rihard Jakopič upon the plans of the architect Max Fabiani. The pavilion stood at the beginning of the Latterman Avenue in Tivoli Park. Until World War II, it was the central exhibition place of Slovene visual artists, presenting exhibitions from the fields of painting, sculpture and photography.
Lojze Dolinar was a Slovenian sculptor recognized for his impact on local and global 19th- and 20th-century art. When he moved to America he worked in architectural plastic art and thereafter in antique and modern art. In 1931 he went to Belgrade and between World War I and World War II he became one of the most sought-out monument sculptors. In 1946 he joined the Belgrade Fine Arts Academy and three years later got a professorship there. Among others he was taught by Alojzij Repič and worked with Jože Plečnik.
Franc Berneker was a 19th- and early-20th-century Slovene tomb sculptor, who had a strong impact on Slovenj Gradec gaining recognition for his work in bronze, marble and monuments. His art focus went from realism to modernism to psychology, drama and an exploration of the relationship between worked and unworked, smooth and rough. He studied with Edmund von Hellmer at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts and Ivan Zajec on monuments of national heroes His art work is displayed at the Resau Art Nouveau Network.