Museum of Fine Arts in Split holds twenty-five works by Cata Dujšin-Ribar, a painter and a poet who left her unique mark in Croatian modern art. The paintings were created in the period between 1918 and 1958, representing an intersection of the artist’s career from her earliest works to her mature expression.
The exhibition’s goal is to warn about the specialty in a creative career which has not been thoroughly explored within Croatian art history. Some of the works have not been displayed for decades, while some have not even been dated yet, or are merely approximately dated. Cata underwent many creative phases in her eight decade-long career. Throughout her career the artist did not deviate from her specific themes, staying true to the forms of portrait and landscape, i.e. the concept of figurative painting. This is reflected in the works from the Museum’s collection, which include seventeen portraits – six of which are self-portraits – and eight landscapes.
The artist held just one solo exhibition in the Museum in 1962. This is the first comprehensive presentation of her works from the Museum’s collection, as well as her second solo exhibition in the Museum in the last 55 years
This exhibition also opens up the question of representation of women artist within institutionalized framework; namely, there are just 12,6% women artists in the overall number present in the Museum of Fine Arts’ collection.
Some of the distinctly remarkable works worth noting are Self-portrait with Red Scarf (1930), The Blonde (1930), Kornati islands (1958)…
Cata Dujšin-Ribar was born in Trogir in 1897. She spent her childhood in the Bay of Kotor and after three years in Business academy and a painting class with Emanuel Vidović, studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb where she had Ferdo Kovačević, Oton Iveković and Menci Klement Crnčić as professors. She cut her education at the Academy short due to health issues and continued to take private classes with Vladimir Becić, as well as in Paris and London. She worked as a restorer in the Museum of Fine Arts in Split. She wrote and published poetry. Catat Dujšin-Ribar died in Zagreb in 1994.
