Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb

Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb
Av. Dubrovnik 17, Zagreb, Croatia

The Museum of Contemporary Art is a lively place of creation, representation, interpretation and preservation of all forms of contemporary art. Its purpose is to encourage and foster understanding of contemporary art through innovative and creative use of exhibitions and collections, thus allowing diverse groups of visitors to learn through entertainment. The emphasis is placed on the development of the working process with artists and the audience, rather than on displaying a final exhibition product.

The Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb was founded in 1954 under the name City Gallery of Contemporary Art. The goal of this institution was to promote and collect recently produced artworks of younger generations which, among others, encompassed the achievements of the Exat 51 group – Ivan Picelj, Vjenceslav Richter, Aleksandar Srnec, Božidar Rašica, Vlado Kristl and others – artists who advocated geometric abstraction, developing forth the heritage of historical avant-garde. In the fifties the Museum organized the first travelling exhibitions of abstract art (Didactic Exhibition: Abstract Art) and had an important role in drawing the attention of culturally interested public to international modern and contemporary art. By the end of the fifties, the artist group GORGONA (Josip Vaništa, Ivan Kožarić, Julije Knifer, Marijan Jevšovar, Đuro Seder…), “the last European avant-garde group” as it was later labeled by international critics, initiated their activities under the auspices of the Museum.

The Museum moved into the new building in December 2009. The specific MSU Collections, formed during a period of half a century at the cultural border between the East and the West, rich exhibition and educative programs, archives, library, audio-visual centre, multimedia hall and many other facilities are now accessible to Croatian and international public.

The permanent display, named “Collection in Motion”, accommodated within an area of three and a half thousand square meters, designed according to the concept by the curators Tihomir Milovac and Nada Beroš, allows an insight into the fifty years of compiling and creating a highly specific collection – the one which is unique not only in the works which it displays, but also as a whole in comparison with the museums in neighboring countries, and with European collections as well.

Tue–Sun: 11:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Saturday: 11:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Mondays and holidays: closed