July 11 – August 8, 2019

Iva Despić Simonović was born in Hrastovica near Petrinja in 1891. Upon completion of primary and junior high school, Iva, who always showed affinity towards artistic expression, is enrolled in the Crafts Course for Girls at the Crafts School in Zagreb, and when the Course was discontinued in 1908, she enrolled in the College of Arts and Crafts. She chose the department of sculpture, which was unusual for women at that time. Her professors were Robert Frangeš Mihanović and Rudolf Valdec. Extremely talented and hardworking, she immediately drew attention of the professors and public. She had her first exhibition, together with school colleague Ljubo Babić, in the “Art Salon Ullrich” in 1910. This exhibition has attracted critical attention to her work, and the reviews were very positive, emphasizing her competence, talent, and independent performance, especially with regard to children’s portraits.

She continues her education in Munich and Paris, where she mastered making plaques and medallions, in which she will, along with the aforementioned portraits of children, excel in the years to come, and which will make her famous and unparalleled in the history of Yugoslav sculpture.

This young sculptor successfully exhibited at the Croatian Spring Salons (1911-1917) and in 1916 she had a very notable exhibition with Zdenka Pexidr-Sieger with the title “Intimate Exhibition”.

After her marriage to Aco Despić in 1920, she moves to Sarajevo where she lived until her death in 1961.

She had her first and only solo exhibition at the Officers’ Club in Belgrade in November 1927.

“Restrained” is the name of one of the most famous Iva Despić’s sculptures. Although we do not know the exact year of its production, it is known that this sculpture was first exhibited at the exhibition in 1948. “Restrained” is recorded in the inventory of the National Gallery of BiH also as “Self-portrait,” and critics mention it under that title, alluding to the artist’s feeling of restraint by the family and environment. With naming the exhibition (UN)RESTRAINED, I wanted to highlight the opinion I formed after reading available material about the life and work of this artist – the life lived by Iva Despić was the life Iva Despić wanted to live, unrestrained by anyone. On the contrary. It seems she accomplished everything she wanted, exactly the way she wanted, and as much as she wanted. At the time when women just started to fight for rights and equality, Iva Despić was highly educated, respected, and the accomplished artist. She traveled, exhibited, made commissioned portraits, lived and worked at the Palace, and was virtually a “court artist.” She participated in women’s movements, but never loudly, but rather quietly and modestly, in accordance with her personality.  Besides all this, she was a mother committed to her children.

Maja Abdomerović