20.10.1933–13.03.2023
Marija Ujević-Galetović
The Croatian sculptor Marija Ujević-Galetović graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb under Frano Kršinić, then studied in London. She made monuments to Miroslav Krleža, August Šenoa, Jakov Gotovac and Sterija Popović, as well as the statue “Runner” on the Sava embankment. She taught at the Zagreb Academy from 1987 and from 1998 was a full member of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts.
Biography
The “Runner” in Zagreb stands on the embankment above the Sava, and it is easy to walk past: an ordinary figure of a running man on the city waterfront, with no pedestal to speak of. Of Marija Ujević-Galetović’s works, it is probably the best known among the people of Zagreb.
She was born on 20 October 1933 in Zagreb, then in the Sava Banovina of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Her father, Mate Ujević, was a teacher and later the initiator of the Croatian Encyclopaedia; her mother was also a teacher. She finished primary and secondary school in Zagreb.
In 1953 she entered the sculpture department of the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb and graduated in 1958 in the class of Professor Frano Kršinić. After her studies she continued her training at the Central School of Art and Design in London. Besides sculpture she also painted, but her reputation rests mainly on portraits and figures made for public spaces. From 1987 she worked at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, and in 1995 she was appointed full professor. In 1998 she was elected a full member of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts. Her public sculptures are scattered across many towns, in Croatia and beyond: Virovitica, Vrsar, Zagreb, Marija Bistrica, Sinj, Cres, Rijeka, Osijek, Labin, Visoko, Bihać, Novi Sad. In Zagreb these include the monument to the writer August Šenoa and a monument to Miroslav Krleža, and in Osijek there is another monument to Krleža. There are also monuments to Krleža in Opatija, to the philosopher Frane Petrić in Cres, to the composer Jakov Gotovac in Osor, to the playwright Jovan Sterija Popović in Novi Sad, to Vlaho Paljetak in Zagreb and to the priest Saint John Bosco in Žepče. In the crypt chapel of the cathedral in Požega stands her monument to Pope John Paul II. The monument to Juraj Križanić is set in the courtyard of the house at Kaptol 7 in Zagreb, where Križanić lived in 1644–1645.
Competition entries appear early in her career. In 1970 she received an award for a design for a monument to the Peasant Uprising in Zagreb, in 1971 one for a monument on Kozara (Sarajevo), and in 1973 first prize for a design for a monument to August Cesarec. Later the awards followed finished works: the Zagreb Salon Award (1982 and 1990), the Croatian Sculpture Triennial Award (1986), an award for the Šenoa monument (1987) and the City of Zagreb Award (1989). In 1995 she received the Order of the Croatian Morning Star with the image of Marko Marulić, and in 2012 the Vladimir Nazor Award. An award for the Krleža monument is also recorded.
Her solo exhibitions took place in Croatia and abroad: at Gallery Forum in Zagreb (1980 and 1992), at Gallery Sebastian in Dubrovnik (1981) and Belgrade (1984), in Venice (1991), at the Académie de France in Rome in the Villa Medici (1991), at the Croatian Association of Artists in Zagreb (2005), at the Croatian Embassy in Rome (2009) and at Gallery Močibob in Zagreb (2010). A monograph on her was written by Ivo Šimat Banov (Kontura, 2007).
Marija Ujević-Galetović died in Zagreb on 13 March 2023.
Profile notes