Vjenceslav Richter (; 8 April 1917 – 2 December 2002) was a Croatian architect. He was also known for his work in the fields of urbanism, sculpture, graphic arts, painting and stage design. Vjenceslav Richter - Original project for Yugoslav Pavilion on EXPO 1958

Vjenceslav Richter - Original project for Yugoslav Pavilion on EXPO 1958

Career

In 1949, Richter graduated at the Department of Architecture of the Technical Faculty of the University of Zagreb under professor Zdenko Strižić. He was one of the founding members of the Exat 51 group whose active members between 1950 and 1956 were the architects Bernardo Bernardi, Zdravko Bregovac,

Božidar Rašica Božidar Rašica (28 December 1912 – 13 September 1992) was an architect, scenographer and painter. Career Rašica was born in Ljubljana, Slovenia, to Serbian parents. He studied in Rome, Belgrade, Warsaw and finally Zagreb, where he gradua ...

and Vladimir Zaharović, and the painters Vlado Kristl,

Ivan Picelj Ivan Picelj (28 July 1924 – 22 February 2011) was a contemporary Croatian painter, sculptor and graphic designer. Picelj developed a specific variation of geometric abstraction in Croatian painting by using primary colours and by reducing the sh ...

and

Aleksandar Srnec Aleksandar Srnec (30 July 1924 – 27 March 2010) was a Croatian artist. He is mainly known for his avant-garde designs and kinetic and lumino kinetic art. Srnec was one of the founding members of the Exat 51 group whose active members between ...

. He was also a member of the New Tendencies movement (from 1961). He designed exhibition pavilions ( Bruxelles 1958,

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

and

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city ...

), several museum buildings, and was involved in industrial and interior design. From 1962 he began to explore the medium of sculpture, which resulted in the ''Reliefmeter'' series among many other works of art. In 1955, Vjenceslav Richter organized the first Zagreb Triennial, an art and design festival that sought to bring together a wide range of design disciplines, including applied arts, industrial design, and fine arts. The second triennial was not held until four years later, and was equally unsuccessful in its aim of popularising

modernist Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

design. He exhibited at many shows in Croatia and abroad, including: the

Museum of Arts and Crafts, Zagreb The Museum of Arts and Crafts ( hr, Muzej za umjetnost i obrt) in Zagreb, Croatia, was established in 1880, by the initiative of the Arts Society and its former President Izidor Kršnjavi. Drawing on the theoretical precepts of England's Arts a ...

, (1964),

Albright-Knox Art Gallery The Buffalo AKG Art Museum, formerly known as the Albright–Knox Art Gallery, is an art museum at 1285 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, New York, in Delaware Park. the museum's Elmwood Avenue campus is temporarily closed for construction. It hosted e ...

, Buffalo, (1968), Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb, (1968), Staempfly Gallery, New York, (1968), Galerie Semiha Huber, Zurich, (1969), at the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

(1972), Gallery 58, Rapperswill, (1972), Galleria del Naviglio, Milan, (1973), Galleria all Centro, Napoli, (1973), Galleria Visconti, Milan, (1976) and Galleria La Loggia, Udine, (1977). He won many awards, including the City of Zagreb Award (1959), the Golden Medal at the 13th Triennial in Milan (1964), the 11th São Paulo Biennale Award for Sculpture (1971), and the

Herder Prize The Herder Prize (german: Gottfried-von-Herder-Preis), named after the German philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder (1744–1803), was a prestigious international prize awarded every year from 1964 to 2006 to scholars and artists from Central and So ...

(1981). He received two life achievement awards: the Viktor Kovačić Award (1988) and the

Vladimir Nazor Award The Vladimir Nazor Award ( hr, Nagrada Vladimir Nazor) is a Croatian prize for arts and culture established in 1959 and awarded every year by the Ministry of Culture. Named after the writer Vladimir Nazor (1876–1949), the prize is awarded to C ...

(1993). ''Geometry and Spontaneity'', a retrospective exhibition of his graphics, was organized at the HAZU (

Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts The Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts ( la, Academia Scientiarum et Artium Croatica, hr, Hrvatska akademija znanosti i umjetnosti, abbrev. HAZU) is the national academy of Croatia. HAZU was founded under patronage of the Croatian bishop J ...

) Cabinet of Graphics (Zagreb, 2002).

The Richter Collection

The Vjenceslav Richter and Nada Kareš-Richter Collection is housed in a villa in Vrhovec, Zagreb, and administrated by the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb.

Bibliography

*Ed. Susovski, Marijan, ''Richter Collection: The Conceptual Spaces of Vjenceslav Richter's Art Synthesis/Catalogue of the Richter Collection'', (Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb, 2003).

References

External links

Richter Collection
{{DEFAULTSORT:Richter, Vjenceslav Croatian architects Vladimir Nazor Award winners 1917 births 2002 deaths Faculty of Architecture, University of Zagreb alumni Burials at Mirogoj Cemetery Herder Prize recipients Yugoslav architects