Tradition and Continuity. Fine Arts within the Community

Organized by the Italian Community of Rijeka / Comunità degli Italiani di Fiume and the City Museum of Rijeka, the exhibition Tradition and Continuity. Fine Arts within the Community – Tradizione e Continuità. Arte figurativa in Comunità was opened at the Museum and with this event, the Rijeka Week of Fiumano Culture / Settimana della cultura fiumana began.

The exhibition presents a selection of works by two important artists of the Italian scene in Rijeka, art historian Erna Toncinich (1934-2015) and her student, painter and graphic artist Darija Vlahov Horvat (1966-2013). Their works in the same space, as a kind of exhibition within the exhibition, were joined by the exhibition Lateramen, presenting the ceramists of the Art Section Romolo Venucci: Bruna Biasol, Bruno Paladin, Claudia Kostadina, Dorina Kopajtić, Bruna Vidotto, Dorian Mataija, Maja Oreški, Edda Traven, Irene Merene, Tatjana Matković, Gordana Grdinić, Katia Starčević and Laura Keber. These are newly created works, which saw the light of day under the mentorship of Ivna Safundžić.

The connection between these two events lies in the fact that the Section was led by prof. Toncinich who had also founded it exactly 30 years ago, so it is also a celebration of the anniversary of the Section. Erna Toncinich was a Rijeka painter and art historian, a student of Romolo Venucci who was declared the leading Rijeka artist of the 20th century by art critics. Toncinich exhibited her artwork in about three hundred exhibitions, and was awarded numerous recognitions. Owing to her work and appearance, she was ubiquitous in Rijeka, yet very modest, reluctant to stand out in the public space of the city, devoting her entire life primarily to pedagogical work, with an emphasis on activities within the Italian Community.

The exhibition was opened by Ervin Dubrović, director of the City Museum, and Orietta Marot, president of the Italian Community in Rijeka, while the author of the exhibition, Daina Glavočić, spoke about the work of two artists and ceramists of the Art Section.
As announced on the occasion, the cooperation between the Italian Community and the City Museum will continue in October, when the Museum will host the exhibition Greetings from Rijeka / Un saluto da Fiume. The intention of the project is to present the former Rijeka through the motifs stored in the Museum’s Postcard Collection. The exhibition would present unexposed material for the first time, which means postcards that have recently been processed according to museological standards and digitized. The author of the exhibition Greetings from Rijeka / Un saluto da Fiume is Marija Lazanja Dušević.