ZORAN KRŽIŠNIK’S INTERNATIONAL MANAGERIAL ACTIVITIES IN THE 1950S AND EARLY 1960S
Keywords:
Zoran Kržišnik, cultural manager, art market, Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts, Moderna galerija Ljubljana, international art networksAbstract
The article illuminates aspects of the international managerial work of Dr Zoran Kržišnik (1920–2008), director of Ljubljana’s Moderna Galerija and the founder of the Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts. The article focuses on the 1950s and the early 1960s when, in art and other cultural spheres, there was a desire to bridge the gulf that the war and the post-war isolation had created between Yugoslavia and the West. I highlight Kržišnik’s strategies and projects from this early period of his career, emphasizing the Ljubljana Biennial, founded in 1955. This cyclical exhibition proved to be the foundation upon which Kržišnik would further build international networks and alliances with foreign institutions and influential foreign art workers. Those alliances, in turn, contributed to the successful breakthrough of Slovene and other Yugoslav artists into the international arena.
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