Press

In summer 2024, the Infeld Cultural Centre in Dobrinj, Krk Island, Croatia, will focus on the representation of women in art. The “Women” collection exhibition showcases the evolving perception of women in relation to the progressive detachment from traditional gender roles. Old ideas and patterns are reimagined and painted, including works from female perspectives. The collection features approximately 130 works by 47 artists. Kicking things off are the Pop Art superstars Andy Warhol (USA, 1928-1987) with his iconic “Marylin” portrait and Allen Jones (UK, 1937) with the extraordinary table study for Stanley Kubrick’s film “Clockwork Orange”. Heroines, goddesses and wonder women are also the erotic power women depicted by Mel Ramos (USA, 1935-2018). The naked beauties gaze down coquettishly and seductively from their cosy Olympus, lending a friendly warmth to the forced alliance between the female body and mass-produced goods.

The exhibition “Woman Power” in the Infeld Haus der Kultur in Halbturn brings together works of art, sculptures and sacred art objects. Created in Europe, Asia and Africa, the works show characteristic aspects of the representation of women in art. How has the view of women changed over the decades in connection with the progressive detachment from traditional gender roles? The approximately 70 exhibited works by 34 artists that cover 100 years of art history offer suggestions for seeing and thinking about old ideas and patterns in a new way. The show starts with artists from Vienna around 1900 such as Koloman Moser and Gustav Klimt with their refined presentations of female beauty, as well as the Tyrolean Alfons Walde with his women in traditional dresses. The fascination of the female body can be seen in the art works of the Croatian painter Edo Murtic, the filmmaker Kurt Stenvert and female positions such as Martha Jungwirth.

The Infeld Cultural Centre in Dobrinj, on the island of Krk, Croatia, is one of the most important exhibition venues for contemporary art in Croatia. The current collection show provides an in-depth and surprising insight into the diverse holdings of Croatian, Austrian and international art. Around 100 works by 30 artists are on display. The exhibition highlights the special features of the collection and facilitates interesting and unusual dialogues between the works. Thematic brackets are dedicated to relevant aspects of contemporary art such as colour rush, natural landscape, facial representation. The selection now on display provides a comprehensive insight into the works of well-known artists acquired in recent years.

After the exhibition "Not a dream, just an experience" with Art Brut works from the Infeld Collection in summer 2022 at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MSU) in Zagreb, this year exceptional Croatian artists will be presented at the Infeld Haus der Kultur in Halbturn. For the first time in Austria, the exhibition "Finder of miraculous” (“Wunderfinder") provides a representative insight into the impressive diversity of the outstanding Art Brut and Outsider Art collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb. Approximately 50 works on canvas, paper and wood by 17 artists invite discussion of social conditions and art historical concepts. The works were created in the last 40 years. Influenced by their own life experiences, the authors deal with the existential questions of human existence: fate and suffering, delusion and inspiration, love and creative power. One of them is the self-taught Melita Kraus. She graduated from the Faculty of Political Sciences in Zagreb, paints and writes since the 1990s. Her work is like an open book that tells, reveals or partially hides her dreamed life in order to offer free space for the viewer's imagination. The artist reveals about herself: "I live in a fairy tale."