Vojin Bakić

Vojin Bakić (Војин Бакић; 5 June 1915 – 18 December 1992) was a prominent Yugoslav sculptor.

Educated at the Zagreb Academy of Fine Arts and by Ivan Meštrović and Frano Kršinić, Bakić's early works were dominated by a figurative depiction of female nudity with reduced breasts and closed volumes.

At his first solo exhibition (Bjelovar, 1940) he exhibited drawings and sculptures where the predominating subjects were female nudes in stone, characterized by reduced curves and closed volumes.

From 1940 he participated at many national and international exhibitions: the Venice Biennial (1950, 1956, 1964), the Mediterranean Biennial in Alexandria (1956, 1969), the Milan Triennial XI (1957), Documenta in Kassel (1959), the Rijeka Salon (1959, 1961).

After 1945, he moved towards the impressionistic treatment of the surface with expressive transitions of light and shadow without superfluous details, which, according to him, represented the expression of the joy of life, flash, and light, something he shared with his contemporaries who wanted to create a better and more humane world in post-World War II Yugoslavia.

He was at first influenced by the socialist realism, but later shifted towards modernism in the late 50s, embracing the challenges of an open form, interior spaces and light reflections, being among the first sculptors in Croatia that followed the program principles of geometric - in his case mostly circular - abstraction and optical research.

His best-known works are busts of I. G. Kovačić and S. S. Kranjčević, Bjelovarac, Taurus, Light Forms, and WWII monuments at Petrova Gora, Kamenska, Kragujevac and Dotršćina.

Bakić succeeded in realizing the avant-gardism of abstraction with the monumentality and immediacy that were traditionally features of classical figurative sculpture.

During his lifetime, Bakić exhibited in over 200 group exhibitions in Yugoslavia, of which 75 were organized abroad.

Uninterested in his own promotion, deeply immersed in creation, he had only a handful of solo exhibitions.

After 1945 he gravitated towards the impressionistic treatment of the surface.

He executed many public sculptures notably, the Call to Arms (the man from Bjelovar), Bjelovar (1946) the Monument to the Revolution in Kamenska (1958–1968), the Monument to the Train Accident Victims in Zagreb (1975–1978), the Monument to the Uprising of the People of Kordun and Banija on Petrova Gora (1982) as well as monuments in Kragujevac and Dotrščina (Valley of Graves).

This period is primarily marked by his portraits of Ivan Goran Kovačić (1946) and Silvije Strahimir Kranjčević (1948).

Bakić was an important figure, particularly in the 1950s and 1960s Croatian contemporary art scene, and collaborated with the group EXAT-51 and the Nove tendencije (New Tendencies) movement.

During the 1950s Bakić reduced the volume of his sculptures by the use of sharp fractures as edges, and later by merging the details of the sculptural mass (Self-portrait, 1952 and sketch for the Marx and Engels Monument, 1950–1953).

During that time, he made an entire series of bull sculptures in various dimensions (Bull, 1950, 1956).

With the series entitled Nudes, Torsos and Heads he completed his focus on organic, associative shapes, and from 1958 he turned towards the challenge of open forms, inner spaces and light reflections.

Further professional development made him the first artist in a local context to follow the principles of geometric abstraction and to start the study of optic effects.

By alternating concave and convex surfaces, he made "light shapes" which were close to constructivist poetics.

He also exhibited with Ivan Picelj and Aleksandar Srnec in Paris (Gallery Denis René, 1959) and London (1960).

In Elaborated Surfaces (1960–1964) he articulated strict and consistent units made of lined-up elements, whereas in Light-bearing Shapes (1963–1964) he created effective structures by means of modulating identical mirror units, for which he also used new materials, such as stainless steel.

He participated at the New Tendencies exhibitions (Zagreb, 1963, 1969, Gelsenkirchen, 1969 and Mainz, 1971), the São Paulo Biennial (1969), and at the exhibition Constructivism and Kinetic Art (Zagreb, 1995).

In 1979, he received the Vladimir Nazor Award for lifetime and achievements in the arts.

In 1979 he received the Vladimir Nazor Award for life achievement.

During the early 1990s, after the fall of the Communist regime, many of Bakić's Yugoslav World War II monuments and memorials in Croatia were damaged, destroyed or removed from public spaces.

a) Destroyed monuments from 1990 to 1995:

b) Damaged monuments:

Gallery Nova (Zagreb, 2007), in collaboration with the artist's family, organized the opening of Bakić's first solo exhibition in Croatia after 41 years.