GABRIJEL

Gabrijel Jurkić

June 22 – September 2, 2023

National Gallery of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Opening: June 22 at 8 p.m.

This summer, the National Gallery of Bosnia and Herzegovina presents to its audience the works of Gabrijel Jurkić (Livno, BiH, 1886 – Livno, BiH, 1974) from its own collection.

Miloš Radić, a great connoisseur of Jurkić’s work, wrote that he is the most significant representative of “that artistic current of modern art, whose origins are symbolism and secession” in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In his work, apart from symbolism and secession, Jurkić sublimated the influences of Viennese academicism, plein air, especially Segantini, he also touched on impressionism and remained faithful to those influences until the end of his life, no matter how anachronistic they were.

He was one of the most prolific artists from Bosnia and Herzegovina – he left behind a large oeuvre, and given that he managed to sell a large number of paintings during his lifetime, today Jurkić’s works can be found in numerous museum institutions, monastery collections and private collections in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia.

He graduated from the Technical School in Sarajevo. In 1906, he went to Zagreb and became a student of Čikoš-Sesija and Crnčić. Next year, he was one of the first students of the newly founded Temporary High School for Arts and Crafts in Zagreb (Privremena viša škola za umjetnost i umjetni obrt). At the end of 1907/08, he was admitted to the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, where he completed his studies at the painting department in 1909, and devoted himself to the study of the “art of Bosnian history”, with the idea of “illustrating all the important historical events of our homeland from Kulin Ban to the downfall of the kingdom.” That cycle was never fully realized and remained at the level of sketches and studies.

From 1911 he settled in Sarajevo. That same year, his painting “Beech Forest in Summer” was exhibited at the spring exhibition of the Vienna Secession.

In the fall of 1911, he held his first solo exhibition where he presented more than 350 works. The exhibition attracted a lot of media and public attention. With the same exhibition, he presented himself in Zagreb and Vienna, and many paintings from that exhibition were sold out.

Jurkić gained a reputation as a recognized painter.

Two important commissions follow: “The City of Jajce” for the University Library in Zagreb and “The First Opening of the Bosnian-Herzegovinian Parliament” for the main hall of the new Parliament Palace. The latter was never realized due to the war.

He had his second solo exhibition in 1922 in Ulrich’s salon in Zagreb. He exhibited a cycle of 226 paintings entitled “Winter”. His intention was to show “what richness of colors and how many variations there are in the simple winter white.”

A new big cycle “Evenings” follows, on which he worked until 1934, when he exhibited 128 paintings in Ulrich’s salon. After this exhibition, he retires from public art life. In Sarajevo, he lives in seclusion and paints diligently.

In 1956, he moved with his wife Štefa to the Franciscan monastery Gorica in Livno, where he lived until his death. A large and significant collection of Jurkić’s works is preserved in the Franciscan Gallery and Museum of Gorica.

In addition to Bosnian and coastal landscapes, for which Jurkić is recognizable and which make up the largest part of his oeuvre, portrait painting, book and magazine illustrations, and especially religious themes are significant part of Jurkić’s production until he stopped painting in 1966, due to impaired eyesight.

“Plateau in Bloom” (1914), a masterpiece of 20th century Bosnian-Herzegovinian art, is Jurkić’s most famous painting and also the most famous painting in the collection of the National Gallery of Bosnia and Herzegovina. According to the artist’s own testimony, it was created on the day when news of the outbreak of the First World War arrived. He sought solace and salvation in nature. He found them on the Kupres plateau, near Mali Molovan.