Mirko Rački

Mirko Rački was born on 13 October 1879 in Novi Marof. After graduating from the Teaching School in Zagreb (1898), he attended the private painting school of H. Strehblow in Vienna (1901-1903), the Prague Academy (1903-1905, V. Bukovac) and the Vienna Academy (1906, W. Unger). In the period between 1906 and 1914 he lived in Munich, with occasional trips to Florence and Venice and Rijeka Dubrovačka. After a short stint in Rome in 1914, during the First World War he lived in Geneva and returned to Zagreb in 1920, where he remained until his relocation to Split in 1980.

Under the patronage of I. Kršnjavi, he painted symbolist compositions and illustrations for Dante’s The Divine Comedy, influenced by Vienna and Munich’s Art Nouveau trends. He focused on Dantean topics in several drawing and etching cycles and in large oil compositions: The City of Dis (1906), Crossing Acheron (1907), Francesca da Rimini (1908-1909). He was a prominent member of the Medulić Group (1908), at whose exhibitions he took part with his paintings in the spirit of ideologised monumentalism in the wake of heroic poems (Prince Marko’s life cycle, 1910). Thanks to I. Kršnjavi’s lobbying, he graced the large reading hall of the old National and University Library in Zagreb (1912-1913) with his allegorical paintings. In the eight decades of painting activity, dominated by symbolical compositions, he painted portraits, nudes, historical/political and religious motifs, as well as landscapes from the Zagreb and Dalmatia region. He was commissioned for several book designs and numerous illustrations for the Croatian editions of Dante’s The Divine Comedy (1919, 1937, 1939), illustrations for Mažuranić’s epic Smrt Smail-age Čengića (1914, unpublished) and for Zbornik junačkih epskih narodnih pjesama (ed. Narodno delo, 1930.), and he also illustrated two of Izidor Kršnjavi’s novels: Božji vitez (1935) and Božji sirotan (1926). He painted the Church of St. Peter and Paul in Osijek and the Church of the Holy Trinity in Ludbreg (1939-1942). Since 1921 he was a corresponding member and in 1941 he became a full member of the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts. After World War II he resumed his public activities as the director of the Modern Gallery of the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts (1946-1947), thanks to the exhibition at Croatian Fine Artists’ Association ahead of his 90^th birthday. Jelena Uskoković organised a retrospective exhibition of his work at the Art Pavilion in Zagreb in 1970. He won the Vladimir Nazor Lifetime Achievement Award (1966) and passed away in Split on 21 August 1982 at the age of 102.

* Truda Braun Šaban: Portrait of Rački, 1947 / charcoal drawing / inv.  no. KG HAZU 3477

Solo exhibitions: 1906, Zagreb, JAZU Gallery; 1910, Zagreb, Art Pavilion, Meštrović – Rački; 1921, Zagreb, Art Pavilion; Ulrich Salon; 1922, Varaždin, Theatre; 1923, Zagreb, Ulrich Salon; 1924, Bjelovar; 1926, Zagreb, Church of St. Blasius; 1928. Zagreb, Salon Ulrich; 1930. Osijek, County Inspectorate Hall; 1934, Zagreb, Ulrich Salon; 1936, Belgrade, Cvijeta Zuzorić Pavilion; 1958, Zagreb, ULUH Salon, with P. Šimaga; 1969, Zagreb, ULUH Social Hall, 90 ^th birthday celebration; 1970, Zagreb, Art Pavilion, Retrospective; 1979, Zagreb, Karas Gallery, Themes from Dante; JAZU Department of Prints and Drawings, Mirko Rački – Drawings and Prints, 100 ^th birthday celebration. Posthumous exhibitions: 1988, Stari Grad, Ivan Meštrović – Mirko Rački; 1984, Split, Mirko Rački; 1990, Dubrovnik, Fresco Studies by Mirko Rački; Omiš, M. Rački, J. Knežević, M. Stanić; 1999, Ludbreg, Batthyany Castle; 2011/2012, Dubrovnik, Art Gallery, Mirko Rački. Religious Motifs – From the Holdings of the Dubrovnik Art Gallery; 2021, HAZU Department of Prints and Drawings, Dante’s Divine Comedy in Mirko Rački’s Drawings.

During his long life characterised by incessant and prolific creative activity, he took part in many group exhibitions in Croatia and internationally, among the most important being: 1905, Zagreb, Art Pavilion, Art Society Anniversary Exhibition; 1906, Zagreb, Art Pavilion, HDU Exhibition; 1908, Split, Croatian Hall, I Dalmatian Art Exhibition; 1910, Zagreb, Art Pavilion, exhibition Medulić; 1911, Rome, Kingdom of Serbia Art Pavilion, International Exhibition; 1912, Amsterdam, City Museum, International Exhibition; 1913, Zagreb, Art Pavilion, HDU Exhibition; 1917, Lyon, Palais du Commerce, Art Exhibition; London, Grafton Galleries, Exhibition of Serbian and Croatian Artists (I. Meštrović, T. Rosandić, M. Rački); Bradford, Corporation Art Gallery, Spring Exhibition. During World War I he took part in exhibitions of Yugoslav artists abroad: 1917, Lyon, London; 1918, Bradford, Geneva; 1919, Paris and Brighton. After the war he fully retired from the politics and public life and exhibited less (1920, Osijek, VII Spring Salon; 1922. Vinkovci, Ulrich Salon Exhibition; 1925, Rijeka, 1 ^st International Exhibition; 1930, London, Exhibition of Yugoslav Painting and Sculpture; 1943, Berlin, Vienna, Ausstellung kroatischer Kunst. After World War II he took part in a series of group exhibitions: ULUH (Zagreb, 1946, 1947, 1948); Painting and Sculpture of the People of Yugoslavia (1946, Belgrade, 1947, Zagreb, Ljubljana, Moscow, Leningrad, Bratislava, 1948, Prague, Warsaw); Half a Century of Yugoslav Painting (1950, Zagreb, Ljubljana, Belgrade); 60 Years of Painting and Sculpture in Croatia (1961, Zagreb); Medulić Croatian Artists Association / 8 ^th Historic Retrospective Exhibition of the JAZU Modern Gallery (1962, Zagreb, Art Pavilion); Early Days of Yugoslav Modern Painting 1900–1920 (1972, Belgrade); Poster in Croatia before 1941 (1975, Zagreb, HAZU Department of Prints and Drawings); Art Nouveau in Croatia (1977, Zagreb, Museum of Arts and Crafts); Yugoslav Prints 1900–1950 (1978, Belgrade, Zagreb); Seven Centuries of Painting Heritage (1979, Zagreb). Posthumous exhibitions (selection): Dante in Croatian Fine Arts (1982, Zagreb); Painters and Sculptors / Members of JAZU Art Section (1986, Zagreb, Strossmayer Gallery of Old Masters); Croatian Modernism (1998, Rijeka); Century of Croatian Poster (2001, Zagreb, Art Pavilion); Art Nouveau in Croatia (2003/2004, Zagreb, Museum of Arts and Crafts); Croatian Modernism 1892– 1953 (2005, Pécz, J. Pannonius Museum); Croatian Art in European Context 19 ^th/20 ^th Century (2011/2012, Ulm, Central Museum); Reflections of Time (2013, Zagreb, Klovićevi dvori Gallery); Demon of Modernity (2015, Zagreb, Modern Gallery); Challenge of Modernism (2017, Zagreb, Klovićevi dvori Gallery).