Zoran Mušič

Zoran Mušič (12 February 1909 – 25 May 2005), baptised as Anton Zoran Musič, was a Slovene painter, printmaker, and draughtsman. He was the only painter of Slovene descent who managed to establish himself in the elite cultural circles of Italy and France, particularly Paris in the second half of the 20th century, where he lived for most of his later life. He painted landscapes, still lifes, portraits, and self-portraits, as well as scenes of horror from the Dachau concentration camp and vedute of Venice.

Life
Zoran Mušič was born in a Slovene-speaking family in Bukovica, a small village in the Vipava Valley near Gorizia, in what was then the Austrian County of Gorizia and Gradisca (now in Slovenia). Mušič's father Anton was the headmaster of the local school, and his mother Marija (née Blažič) was a teacher there. Both parents were Slovenes from the Goriška region: his father was from the village of Šmartno in the Gorizia Hills – Brda Collio, and his mother was born in the hamlet of Kostanjevica in the village of Lig.

Mušič's father was mobilized and served on various battlefields during the First World War. In 1915, during the Battles of the Isonzo, the family (his mother with two children) was forced to flee to Arnače, a village near Velenje in the Duchy of Styria, where Zoran attended elementary school. In the spring of 1918, toward the end of World War I, the family moved back to Gorizia, but they were expelled again in late August 1919 by the Italian authorities, which had occupied the region. They moved to Griffen in Carinthia, but were expelled once again by the Austrian authorities after the Carinthian Plebiscite in late October 1920. They finally settled in Lower Styria, then part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.

Mušič attended two high schools in Maribor till September 1928. After, he visited Vienna for a short time. Between 1930 and 1935 he continued his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb. Mušič spoke Slovene, German, Croatian, Italian, French and some Friulian.

After graduation in 1934, he travelled extensively around Europe. He spent three months (April to June 1935) in Spain, mainly Madrid. Later he served his obligatory army service in Bileća (November 1935 to July 1936) in Yugoslavia. Later he spent each summer in Dalmatia while being based in Maribor and nearest village Hoče. In 1940, he moved to Ljubljana permanently. During this period (1942), he painted in two churches in his native Goriška region, together with his friend, painter Avgust Černigoj (Drežnica, Grahovo) and later one in village Gradno with another Slovenian painter Lojze Spacal. In October 1943, he moved to Trieste and for some weeks for the first time to Venice. He had his first one-man show (outside Yugoslavia) in Trieste and several months later in Venice. In early October 1944, he was arrested by the Nazi German forces because he was in a group of Slovene anti-fascists. The group had hidden transmitter and was connected with British IS. His drawing and painting in Venice raised suspicions that he was a spy, and a month later he was sent to Dachau concentration camp, where he made more than 180 sketches of life in the camp, some under extremely difficult circumstances. From the drawings, mainly executed in May 1945, he managed to save around one hundred (some more with his friends). After liberation by Americans on April 29, 1945, Mušič returned to his hometown Ljubljana in early June. There, he was sent to a hospital (Golnik). A month later he was subjected to the pressures by the newly established communist regime and moved to Gorizia at the end of July 1945. In the following months he travelled in the area of Trieste and Istria, spending some time in Pinguente (Buzet). In October 1945 he settled in Venice with the help of family Cadorin and returned to the painting. In September 1949 he married the Venetian painter Ida Cadorin Barbarigo there. He also painted a room in Vila Dornacher near Zuerich at the same period.

In 1950 he prepared huge tapestry: Marco Polo and his way to China for the passenger ship Augustus. At the same time he won the Gualino prize and in 1956 the Grand Prize for his printmaking at the Venice Biennale. In 1951 he was awarded the Prix de Paris, (jointly with Antonio Corpora) for his colorful paintings of Dalmatia. After 1952 he lived mainly in Paris, where the 'lyrical abstraction' of the French Informel determined the art world. Throughout this period he kept his studio in Venice and exhibited again at the Biennale in 1960, when he was awarded the UNESCO Prize. The much acclaimed series We Are Not the Last, in which the artist transformed the terror of his experiences in the concentration camp into documents of universal tragedy, was made in the 1970s. His last achievement were series of Selfportratis and Double portraits. He had problems with his eyesight in his old age. Partly blind, he signed his last drawings in 2000.

In 1981 Mušič was appointed Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres in Paris. Mušič's work has been honoured in numerous international exhibitions, such as the large retrospective exhibition at the Grand Palais in Paris in 1995, opened by the French and Slovenian presidents François Mitterrand and Milan Kučan. At the same time Austrians promised him a permanent exhibition in Klagenfurt. It was never established. A huge part of his works was taken from his studio and never returned to the painter or his wife.

In 1991, a permanent collection of 134 graphic works donated by Zoran Mušič opened at Dobrovo Castle in Brda. The first installation was curated by Nelida Silič Nemec, director of the Gorizia Museum (Goriški muzej) in Nova Gorica. A catalog was published with a list of all the donated works, an extensive biography with quotations from Zoran Mušič, and three introductory studies by Nelida Silič Nemec (The Permanent Collection of Graphic Works by Zoran Mušič), Nace Šumi (Zoran Mušič in Slovenian Painting), and Zoran Kržišnik (The Graphic Creativity of Zoran Mušič). In 1991, Mušič received the Prešeren Award for lifetime achievement, the highest recognition in the arts in Slovenia. Some of Mušič's works have been featured at Piran Coastal Galleries. Gallery Zala from Ljubljana prepared seven exhibitions (four in Ljubljana, and one each in Belgrade, Vienna, and London). A large retrospective was presented at the Modern Gallery in Ljubljana in November 2009. The Slovene Academy of Sciences and Arts published a volume written by 20 authors from Slovenia, Croatia, Austria, Italy, and France (Vizije Zorana Mušiča) in November 2012. The only permanent exhibition of his various works (paintings, prints, and drawings) was held at the National Gallery in Ljubljana in 2016. A large temporary exhibition of selected works was prepared at Lugano's Collezione Braglia in October 2016. Another exhibition took place in Venice at the Fortuny Museum in spring 2018: A Tribute to Zoran Mušič, The Zurich Room. The Leopold Museum in Vienna opened a large retrospective exhibition in April 2018 with 167 selected works.

The first doctoral thesis related to Mušič was prepared by Aurora Fonda at the University of Padua: L'opera giovanile di Zoran Music, Padova, 2011, which dealt with the painter's early oeuvre, with a detailed inventory of his works. Mušič's painting and Merleau-Ponty's philosophy of painting were brought together in a new PhD in 2016 by Dr Nelida Nemec. She juxtaposed philosophical views on painting and the perception of the philosopher with the artistic practice and views of the painter Mušič. From Merleau-Ponty's thesis that the painter and the philosopher share the same problem, the research mirrors the connection between Mušič's painting and the philosopher's conception of painting, and a new appreciation and broader vision and interpretation of their work. The work is a contribution to the understanding and reactualisation, to a broader vision of Mušič's painting. This was followed by a French, extensive and detailed doctorate by Etienne David. It deals with the key works of the Slovenian painter and compares his oeuvre with that of Jean Fautrier.

Mušič died in Venice in 2005 at the age of 96. He is buried in the local St. Michele cemetery.

Exhibitions (selection of personal presentations)

 * 1942: Zoran Mušič. Galerija Obersnel, Ljubljana, (February)
 * 1944: Zoran Music. 25 oeuvres exposées. Piccola Galleria, Venice (June 17 – July 8)
 * 1960: Music. Peintures et gouaches. Galerie_de_France, Paris (February 26 – March 20)
 * 1964: Music. Zeichnungen und Graphik. Kunstmuseum Basel (May 9 – June 14)
 * 1967: Zoran Anton Music. Retrospektivna razstava. Moderna Galerija, Ljubljana (April 14 – May 7)
 * 1978: Music, le temps d'une mémoire. Rétrospective: Toiles – Aquarelles – Gouaches – Dessins de 1951 à 1977. Galerie de France, Paris (April 4 – May 20)
 * 1991: Collection of graphic works by Zoran. Gallery of Zoran Music. Dobrovo Castle. Slovenia.
 * 1992–93: Music, Arbeiten auf Papier von 1945 bis 1992. Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna (November 25 – January 31)
 * 1995: Zoran Music. Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris (April 4 – July 3)
 * 1995: Zoran Music. Nous ne sommes pas les derniers, Peintures, Dessins, Gravures. Musée des Beaux-Arts de Caen, Caen (May 18 – August 16)
 * 1995–96: Zoran Music: Die späten Jahre. Bayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste, Munich (November 24 – January 14)
 * 1997: Zoran Music. Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, Frankfurt Main (April 24 – June 29)
 * 1997: Zoran Music. MMG Gallery, Tokyo (August)
 * 1998: Zoran Music: gli acquerelli veneziani 1947–1949. Museo Morandi – Instituzione Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Bologna (January 22 – April 13)
 * 2006: Music in Slovene private Collections (1935–1997). Galerija Zala, Ljubljana (November 24 – December 22)
 * 2009: A Spanish vision, February. National Gallery of Slovenia, Ljubljana (12. February – March)
 * 2009: Zoran Mušič in private and public collections, November 2009 – February 2010. Modern Gallery of Slovenia, Ljubljana
 * 2009: Zoran Mušič v slovenskih zasebnih zbirkah III. Galerija Zala, Ljubljana (February)
 * 2016: Zoran Mušič, Permanent collection. National Gallery of Slovenia, Ljubljana
 * 2018: Omaggio a Zoran Music. La Stanza di Zurigo. Museo Fortuny, Venezia (Febbraio)
 * 2018: Zoran Music. Poesie der Stille. Leopold Museum, Vienna (April 13 – August 6)
 * 2019: Zoran Music. Gallery W&K – Wienerroihter & Kohlbacher, Vienna (May 22 – September 13)
 * 2019: Music in Slovene private Collections VII. Galerija Zala, Ljubljana (June 6 – June 25)
 * 2019: Zoran Mušič.  Galerija in antikvitete Novak, Ljubljana (October 24 – November 9)
 * 2020: Zoran Mušič. "The fascination of painting". Klagenfurt, (January 23 – March 1)
 * 2020: Zoran Mušič.111 catalogues for the 111 Anniversary.'' National Gallery, Ljubljana. (February 11 – May 30)
 * 2020: Zoran Mušič. "Drawings from Dachau," Modern Gallery, Ljubljana. (February 27 – July 1)
 * 2022: Zoran Mušič. Il viaggio della vita, Galleria Comunale, Monfalcone. (8 Ottobre – 27 Novembre)

Museums and galleries
Austria
 * Albertina, Vienna
 * Essl Museum – Contemporary Art, Klosterneuburg/Vienna
 * StadtGalerie, Klagenfurt, Klagenfurt
 * Gallery Magnet, Völkermarkt/Carinthia

Chile
 * Museo de la Solidaridad Salvador Allende, Santiago de Chile

Croatia
 * Galerija Moderne umjetnosti, Zagreb
 * Muzej moderne i sodobne umjetnosti, Rijeka

France
 * Musée des Beaux-Arts, Caen
 * Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris
 * Musée National du Louvre, Paris, prints
 * Centre National Georges Pompidou, Paris, 10 drawings from Dachau
 * Musée Malraux, Le Havre
 * Musée de Valence, Valence

Germany
 * Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach
 * Museum Folkwang, Essen
 * Neue Pinakothek, München

Italy
 * Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Bologna
 * Galleria internazionale d'Arte Moderna Ca' Pesaro, Venice
 * Museo Fortuny, Venice
 * Galleria Nazionale, Rome, tapestry
 * GaMeC galleria, Bergamo, painting
 * Musei Provinciali di Gorizia, Gorizia, paintings
 * Museo Morandi, Bologna
 * Musei Civici, Treviso
 * Museo Revoltella, Trieste, 24 drawings from Dachau
 * MAGI '900- Museum of Artistic and Historical Excellence, Pieve di Cento (BO)

Israel
 * Yad Vashem museum, Jerusalem

Netherlands
 * Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam

Slovenia
 * Nova Gorica Regional Museum / Castle Kromberk, Zoran Mušič Gallery, Dobrovo, permanent exhibition: prints
 * Veno Pilon Gallery, Ajdovščina: drawings
 * City Museum of Ljubljana, Ljubljana
 * Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana, drawings, prints, paintings
 * Museum of Contemporary History, Ljubljana, print
 * National Gallery of Slovenia, Ljubljana, permanent exhibition: paintings, sketches, prints
 * Maribor Art Gallery, Maribor, paintings, prints
 * Museum of White Carniola (Bela krajina), Kambič Collection, Metlika, part of the permanent exhibition in the Kambič Gallery; paintings, prints, drawings
 * Carinthia Art History Gallery, Slovenj Gradec

Spain
 * Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
 * Collecio IVAM, Valencia

Sweden
 * Museum, Stockholm

Switzerland
 * Kunstmuseum, Basel
 * Fondazione Braglia, Lugano
 * Musée Jenisch, Vevey

United Kingdom
 * Estorick Collection, London
 * Tate Modern, London

United States
 * Art Institute of Chicago
 * Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh
 * Cleveland Museum of Art
 * Dallas Museum of Art
 * Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
 * List Visual Arts Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.
 * Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
 * Museum of Modern Art, New York
 * Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia

Vatican
 * Vatican Museums, Collection of Contemporary Art