On display at the studio of Split sculptor Andrija Krstulović, are works created trough out his rich art career. A collection of sculptures including numerous portraits, figures, animalistic sculptures, and sketches for public monuments Justice,
Salute to the Sun, or Monument to the Fallen Sailor, which have become a integral part of the Split vistas. Krstulović's sculpture displays exquisite attention to detail, skilled mason-ship and modelling, inspired by classical antiquity and the Dalmatian province of Zagora which proved to be a non exhaustible source of Krstulović's motives and themes.
" I have always been interested by the region in which I was born, my land and my people. The motives which have dominated during the recent years are those of the Dalmatian Zagora. Trough these motives I attempt to create a sculpture which would contain the character of "Our man". When I attempt this with sculpture, to question comes firstly the material, the form, which unite to become expression. Out of all the primordial materials : stone, granite, wood and bronze- granite to me looks like the most adequate material to express the life of our man, who lives in Zagora, that is to say the life of man who carries within, the archaic beauty of strength and fascination. "(A. Krstulović,1964.)
Andrija Krstulović was born on 5th of November, of the year 1912 in Split. In 1930 before his 18th birthday, he enrolled into the Zagreb National Academy of Arts, and the classes of professors Frane Kršinić and Robert Frangeš. He graduated in 1934. The same year the rector of the Academy Ivan Meštrović, chose him for his specialisation. During the five years of specialisation, working alone or with the sculptor Ivan Lozic, he produced a series of sculptures for Meštorvić in granite or stone. After the war, in the year 1948, to the recommendation and invitation of Frane Kršinić, he becomes first of all an assistant, than professor at the Academy of visual arts in Zagreb. Having left for America after the war, Mestrović left his studio "under the road" in the prestigious part of Split, Meje, to Krstulović, for his life long use and work. Krstulović retuned to that studio for good, in 1954 to realise Meštoviče's request, and produce in garbo-granite from Jablanice- Mestrovič's monuments Njegoša and the megalithic Kore sculptures, for the mausoleum of Njegoša in Lovćen. That long lasting and exhausting project was fhinished by Andrija and his stone massons 1958. He became co-founder of the visual arts department at the Split's higher education school, which later developed into the University of Philosophy. There he worked as a regular professor from 1959 until retirement in 1983. In the year 1982 he received an award for his Lifes' Achivement, for artistic and pedagogical contribution to the city's cultural life. Andrija Krstulović during his lifetime exhibited little. Galerija Umjetnina curated his retrospective exhibition in the Milesi Palace in 1992. Andrija Krstulović passed away in Split in 1997. In September 2002 the first and only posthumous exhibition of his terracotta works was displayed in Dugopolje.
