Authors

Rudolf Mosinger Workshop

The R. Mosinger Collotype Institute was established in 1900. It was founded by photographer Rudolf Mosinger (1865-1918) as a privately owned company which since 1904 also included a lithography department. The Institute terminated its activities in 1912.

Pavao Bolkovac

Graphic designer, propagandist. The author of the ZZ trademark and the entire visual identity, as well as the promotional activities manager for the Zagreb Assembly trade exhibitions in 1922 and 1923. He was the editor-in-chief of the newspapers Službeni vjesnik Zagrebačkog sajma uzoraka (1922) and Kazališni list (1921-1922).

Ljubo Babić
(Jastrebarsko, 1890 – Zagreb, 1974)

Painter, graphic designer, art historian. He went to high school in Bjelovar and Zagreb and attended M. Cl. Crnčić and B. Csikos Sessia’s private painting school. In 1913 he graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich (A. Janko, F. von Stuck) and enrolled in Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris (1913/14). In 1932 he graduated in Art History from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb. In 1915 he opened a private painting school and in 1916 he became a teacher at Zagreb’s Arts and Crafts College, which later became the Academy of Fine Arts, where he worked as a full professor (1940-1941). He took part in the establishment of the Spring Salon in 1916, the organisation of the Independent Group of Croatian Artists (1923), the establishment of the Group of Four (1928), Group of Three (1929) and Group of Croatian Artists (1939). He curated the display of Zagreb’s Modern Gallery (1919). A full member of the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts since 1950. Between 1947 and 1964 he was the general manager of the Strossmayer Gallery of Old Masters and the curator of its display. An extremely important personality in the development of Croatian fine arts and the establishment of visual specificities of the ‘Croatian expression’. In addition to painting, he also pursued set design, graphic design of posters and books, museum studies, criticism and theory.

Maksimilijan Vanka
(Zagreb, 1998 – Puerto Vallarta, 1963)

A painter. After graduation (1908), he attended the Temporary Arts and Crafts College (under professor B. C. Sessia). Between 1911 and 1914 he improved his skills at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts and School of Decorative Arts in Brussels (professors C. Montald and Jean Delville). In Zagreb since 1920 he taught at the Royal College of Arts and Crafts. Between 1926 and 1929 he exhibited with the Group of Four, opposite Lj. Babić, V. Becić and J. Miše. Since 1934 he lived and worked in the USA. In addition to painting, with a focus on landscapes, portraits and folklore and religious compositions, he also pursued set design, wall painting and graphic design.

Zdenka Sertić
(Sv. Ivan Zelina, 1988 – Zagreb, 1986)

Painter and ethnographer. She attended the College of Arts and Crafts in Zagreb since 1917 (under professor Lj. Babić). She improved her skills in Berlin (1922) and Paris (1925). She worked at the Ethnographic Museum in Zagreb (1927-1959). Her focus was on the visual processing of folklore motifs and national costume representations, as well as illustrations for numerous books.

Sergije Glumac
(Uzhhorod, 1903 – Zagreb, 1964)

Painter, graphic designer, set designer. He attended high school and, part-time, the School of Arts and Crafts in Belgrade (under professor Lj. Ivanović), after which he spent one semester studying architecture in Berlin (1923). In Zagreb in 1924-1927 he studied at the Royal Academy of Arts and Crafts (under professors F. Kovačević, J. Kljaković and T. Krizman). In 1925/26 he attended Academié André Lothe in Paris. He was an associate with the Institute for Advertising Studies and Artistic Advertising Production – IMAGO (1928/29). Between 1930 and 1937 he worked as a set designer at the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb. He created prints and designed posters and magazines, as well as many advertising campaigns, and his work plays an important role in the history of prints and graphic design in Croatia.

Kornel Becić Rustenberg*
(Graz, 1910 – 1999)

Painter, graphic designer, illustrator. Trained at the Royal Academy of Arts and Crafts in Zagreb, where between 1930 and 1933 he attended Jozo Kljaković and Ljubo Babić’s painting school. Active for many years in Croatia as a designer and illustrator, and after moving to Austria he continued his artistic activities under the name Cornel von Becic-Rustenberg; in addition to painting, he designed some of the iconic Austrian travel posters.
* Biographic information source: Magaš Bilandžić, Lovorka (2014), “Plakati Zagrebačkog zbora u međuratnom razdoblju (1922. – 1940.): prilog povijesti hrvatskog grafičkog dizajna”, Peristil, Zagreb, no. 57, pp. 209-219.

Emil Vičić
(Slavonski Brod, 1907 – Zagreb, 1985)

Architect, designer. He graduated from the Department of Architecture of the Technical University in Zagreb. He worked in poster design and curated several visual displays, the most prominent being the permanent exhibition of the Technical Museum in Zagreb (1963).

Edo Murtić
(Velika Pisanica near Bjelovar, 1921 – Zagreb, 2005)

Painter, graphic artist. In 1939 he graduated from the School of Crafts in Zagreb. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb (1939), then in Belgrade (1940) (P. Dobrović) and again in Zagreb (1941-1943) (Lj. Babić). He studied set design in Rome (1941). One of the founders of the Mart Group (1957) and the Forum Gallery (1969) in Zagreb. In the early 1950s he sojourned in America and Canada and created the cycle Experience of America, followed by other important pieces that propelled him among the most prominent envoys of Croatian abstract painting. A full member of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts since 1997. Author of a series of drawings, prints, set designs, posters, murals, mosaics, ceramics. He exhibited at countless solo and group exhibitions worldwide and won several awards and honours.

Atelijer Tri

Active in Zagreb between 1929 and 1941.
Founded by brothers Vladimir Mirosavljević (Zagreb, 1908 – 1975) and Zvonimir Mirosavljević (Zagreb, 1905 – 1952) and Božidar Kocmut (Banja Luka, 1899 – Zagreb, 1977). Following up on the work of the IMAGO Institute (V. Mirosavljević and Kocmut were among the members), Atelijer Tri became the most important graphic studio in the 1930s in the country. Its activity was based on scholarly, theoretical and practical study of advertising. They created many advertising campaigns and visual designs which exemplify high standards of graphic design and visual culture.