21. Mother's Game [1968.]

Frano Kršinić is one of the more significant Croatian sculptors of the 20th century, whose opus combines the elegance and rhythm of classical, realistic sculpture with synthesized shapes, characteristics of modernism. Kršinić was greatly inspired by the works of French sculptor Aristide Maillol who strived to find a bond between the shape of classical sculpture and modern expressions that reduce the description. He was born in Lumbarda on Korčula, in 1897, and died in Zagreb in 1982. He was active in the establishment of the Earth group, and after the Second World War he ran the Master's Workshop at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb. The composition for the Mother's Game sculpture, along with several other motifs depicting the relationship between mother and child, was conceived in the 1930s, and with some revisions and on a larger scale, the sculpture was installed in front of the Dr. Andrija Štampar Public Health Institute in Zagreb in 1978. This is a smaller version of that cult Kršinić's sculptural composition. In a dynamically balanced composition, a moment is captured in which the mother spreads her arms to the child in her lap. The anatomies are, as usual with Kršinić, precise and recognizable, but simplified, displayed without too many details. As a result, they are reduced to a very elegant game in which parts of the body fluidly pour into one another. In this way, the temporal dimension of the scene is emphasized, or the impression of a stopped moment of an action that is in constant motion. In the harmonious, open and dynamic form of this sculpture, an ideal archetype of motherhood is depicted as a transfer of tenderness and cheerfulness. FG

Dimensions

depth 22 cm, width 42 cm, height 52 cm

Description

bronze, signed at the base, "KRŠINIĆ"

Research information

The work comes with an original casting document from the Foundry of Fine Arts Zagreb, dated 29.04.1968. and approved by Frane Kršinić.

Dating

1968.

PROVENANCE

from 1968, historical collection of Jozo Dujmić; Dalmatian collection.

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