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News, Croatia

Autumn 2012 saw the inauguraion of two medal exhibitions in Zagreb in close proximity to each other. The first, which opened on 28 September at the Zagreb Archaeological Museum, was of the medallic work of Stjepan Divković (b. 1961), one of Croatia's most productive and talented medallist. Although Divković has been represented in many group exhibitions at home and abroad since 1986, including FIDEM, thi was his first solo exhibition. The exhibition included around four hundred objects, lent by the Croatian National Bank, the Croatian Monetary Institute, the Technical Museum in Zagreb and the artist himself, with some medals belonging to the Zagreb Archaeological Museum's Numismatic Department. Zagreb's Ujević Foundry organised the casting of the artist's most recent medal, of the palaeontologist Dragutin Gorjanović Kramberger, which was filmed, so that all the stages of its creation could be shown in the exhibition, from the drawing and modelling to the casting in plaster of both the negative and positive model, the preparation of the sand mould, and the casting, finishing and patinating of the medal. The Croatian Monetary Institute also permitted filming of the preparation of the punches and dies and the minting process, which included a medal by Divković. Several struck medals and coin were exhibited in different stages of production: drawings, models, punches, dies and the final struck medals or coins in gold, silver, and so on, which enabled the general public to become acquainted with this technique. Whereas in the accompanying catalogue the medals appear chronologically, in the exhibition they were grouped by subject. A the exhibition was at the Archaeological Museum, the accent was put on archaeology and archaeologists ; Divković has for several year been entrusted with the modelling of the medals of the Croatian Archaeological Society. Other group consisted of medals dedicated to Zagreb, to Osijek, to the great women and men - scienti ts, artists, writers and so on - from the Croatian past, and Divković's many religious medals. The exhibition remained on show for two months. The second exhibition was devoted to the medallic oeuvre of the sculptor Grga Antunac (1906-70), many of whose descendants, including his daughter, Nataša Sladoljev, were present at the opening. Held in Zagreb's Modern Gallery, the exhibition, which was open from 11 to 28 October, was one in a series of thematic exhibitions intended to introduce the public to the extensive medal collection assembled by Dragutin Mandi and purchased by the Modern Gallery in the 1960s. The thirty-three exhibits were chiefly medals and plaquettes, but included also two larger sculptures. Among the plaquettes were portraits of Marshal Tito and Joseph Stalin. A British visitor's interest might have been aroused by a medal of 1953 bearing portraits of Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh.

Sjepan Divković; Grga Antunac; medals; plaquettes

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