Mangelos
Mangelos, né Dimitrije Bašičević (born in Šid, Serbia in 1921, died in Zagreb in 1987) was a Croatian artist, curator, and art critic whose work had a significant impact on post-war Yugoslav art. Bašičević studied art history and philosophy in Vienna (1942–44) and Zagreb (1945–49). In 1957 he completed a PhD on the topic of the work of artist Sava Šumanović. He worked for a time as a curator and assistant in the Yugoslavian academy of art and science. In 1952, he founded the Peasant Art Gallery, which he would develop into the Gallery of Primitive Art and act as curator until 1964. This institution endures today as the Croatian Museum of Naive Art. In 1971, Bašičević became the chairman of the Center for Film Photography and Television, part of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb. He organized numerous exhibitions both within and outside Croatia which contributed to the growth of abstract art in eastern Europe. His writings on photography and art were frequently published. Solo Shows: Zagreb, Galerija PM, "Mangelos no.1-9 – Retrospektiva" (1981), Berlin, Galerie Rainer Bürgermeister, "a b c" (1997), New York, A/D Gallery (1998), London, Anthony d‘Offay Gallery (1998), Berlin, The Drawing Room, "Les paysages des mots" (2001), Kassel, Kunsthalle Fridericianum, "nos. 1 – 91⁄2" (2003), etc.
Paysage de la Mort
(1971–1977),
Tempera on chipboard
Dimitrije Bašičević Mangelos came from a wartime generation that grew up in a period shaped by occupation, violence, poverty, concentration camps, and moral collapse, a generation whose schooling was interrupted and only continued after the Second World War. It is difficult to determine exactly when and how Mangelos started working, because his activities were kept strictly private until the mid-1960s. He wrote about his beginnings in Introduction to No-art (1980), claiming that his «no-art» evolved from the landscapes of death he inscribed in his notebooks during the Second World War: «there was a time when people were dying but there were no ideas … deaths. whenever I heard the news about neighbors, friends, cousins, acquaintances going away never to return, I would mark it in black ink, a black ink stain between the lines, without thinking, without purpose, without explanation …later I put the same inscription on all those anonymous graves. paysage de la mort.» Mangelos repeated some of his works later in his career; these renditions are mostly in smaller formats. His work Paysage de la Mort [Landscape of Death] is among the very few exceptions. (Branka Stipančić)
Augarten Contemporary, hoast, IG Architektur, Laurenz, Neuer Kunstverein Wien, Never At Home, Waffen Franz Kapfer, New Jörg, Ve.Sch
October 17–December 17
Main Exhibition
Curators: Serge Klymko, Hedwig Saxenhuber and Georg Schöllhammer