Ivo Kalina

The exhibition Ivo Kalina, organized by the Croatian Museum of Tourism, will be opened at 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday, September 15th of 2010, at the Juraj Šporer Art Pavilion in Opatija.

The great Croatian painter Ivo Kalina was born in Zagreb on February 21st of 1925. He graduated painting, also in Zagreb. After completing his studies, he was an associate of the Master workshop of Krsto Hegedušić (1950 -1956) and a member of the Mart art group (1956 – 1962). Since 1953, his work was also shown on exhibitions with the Group of Five (Dogan, Kalina, Kulmer, Kujundžić, and Perić). His first exhibitions were held in Zagreb in 1958 and 1960.

Kalina was one of the first Croatian abstract expressionists, as well as one of the earliest proponents of Art Informel, a painer of broad strokes and powerful expression. Although he was classified as an artist from Rijeka and Opatija because, in 1963, he moved back to Opatija where he grew up, Kalina painted some of his best works in Zagreb where he lived from 1941 to 1963.

During the 1980s, when his art had matured, Kalina revisited his old source of inspiration – the female nude. This exhibition will show his female nudes created between 1946 and 1994.

This author has received a number of awards. The Ivo Kalina Art Award, given to the best modern art exhibition in the Rijeka area, was named after him.

This exhibition at the Juraj Šporer Art Pavilion commemorates the 85th anniversary of his birth and the 15th anniversary of his death. The exhibition will remain open until October 3rd of 2010.