The Collection of Photography was developed at the Centre for Photography, Film, and Television (CEFFT), founded in the early 1970s at the Museum of Contemporary Art. The collection mainly contains photographs produced after the 1950s.
However, in the process of acknowledging the sources and continuities of contemporary developments, the collection has expanded to take in photographs made in the 1920s and 1930s, including the work of the Croatian photographer Ivana (Koka) Tomljenović Meller, student of the Bauhaus in Dessau.
The 1950s and 1960s are represented in the documentary photography of Mladen Grčević, a large collection of documentary and art photographs by Milan Pavić, Ante and Zvonimir Brkan, and the early experiments of Zvonimir Malus.
The investigative and conceptual tendencies of the 1970s are represented by the work of Ivan Ladislav Galeta, the documented events of Tomislav Gotovac, and the photography of Petar Dabac, Goran Trbuljak, Marina Abramović, Christian Boltanski, and John Baldessari. In addition, the collection includes the particularly interesting experiments done by Željko Jerman with the help of chemical reactions on photographic paper, as well as the so-called New Artistic Practice, from which one may single out the work of Mladen Stilinović and Braco Dimitrijević. A new photographic sensibility was born in the 1980s with the photography of Prague student Josip Klarica, which is marked by a specific surrealist atmosphere, while Vlasta Delimar uses the medium of photography to investigate the borders of identity. The documentary photography of Polet resulted in specific artistic expressions such as those of Mio Vesović and Ivan Posavec, who were linked by the non-existing studio named MO (meko okidanje or "soft clicking") and indirectly through Boris Cvjetanović. These authors imparted a specific touch to the art scene of the 1980s and 1990s with their approach to the medium of photography, developing tendencies towards politicization, eroticism, or everyday life. A different, but equally unique approach to the medium is that of Ana Opalić with her cycle of Self-Portraits and the project entitled Weekend Art: Hallelujah the Hill by Aleksandar Battista Ilić in cooperation with Ivana Keser and Tomislav Gotovac. The collection also includes work by artists such as Andres Serrano, Ulrika Rosenbach, and Igor Eškinja.
Contact:
Collection manager: Leila Topić, senior curator leila.topic@msu.hr
