Miroslav Kraljevicˇ (Gospicˇ 1885 – Zagreb 1913) is without doubt a key figure in early 20th-century Croatian painting.

As a result of his early death (when he was just 28 years old), his oeuvre is relatively small but it also accounts for the fascination modern Croatian art has had with his work. Kraljevicˇ directed Croatian artists who were then looking to Vienna and Munich (both cities being frequented to finish one’s artistic education) instead towards Paris, where he developed a new iconographic potential and in so doing, brought the modern and avant-garde currents in art to Zagreb at the very beginning of the 20th century.

Arising from a project by Živa Kraus, the exhibition is organised in close synergy between the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia and the Moderna Galerija of Zagreb.

On display are a selection of 20 works by the Croatian artist – better known as the painter of the soul – including paintings, drawings and gouaches, which fill an art-historical gap for the Italian public, and at the same time reveal an artist who is surprising for his expressive refinement and technical ability.

For the exhibition, which will be inaugurated at the same time as the first anniversary of the Croatian Republic’s entry into the European Union, a conference and screening of a film on the artist will take place on Wednesday 14th May at the Ateneo Veneto.