About HDLU
• HDL – Croatian Association of Fine Artists / Hrvatsko Društvo Likovnih mjetnika
• a nongovernmental, not-for-profit, and politically neutral union of professional fine artists from whole Croatia
• 1.900 visual artists of all generations, working in all forms of expression and disciplines: painting, sculpture, new media, photography, performance
• 150-year tradition: HDL was established in 1868
• basic aims of HDL : to support and encourage contemporary visual expression, to improve and protect the freedom of visual expression, to organize exhibitions, and to participate in the making of the laws and rules regulating visual arts production and the social rights of the artists.
• HDL annually organizes or collaborates in the organization of approximately 40 exhibitions in four diversely profiled gallery programs
HDLU’s seat building
• The seat of HDLU is the famous Meštrović Pavilion located on a beautiful square in central Zagreb
• Official name of the building is the Home of Croatian Fine Artists
• Building was built in 1938 based on design of a prominent and world-known Croatian sculptor, also at the time president of HDLU, Ivan Meštrović
History of Meštrović Pavilion
Construction conditions
• In the 1930s HDL intensively looked for a new exhibition area
• At the same time, larger financial support was provided for the Committee for Building a Monument for King Peter I the Liberator. he design of this royalist monument was commissioned to then leading Croatian artist and president of HDL , Ivan Meštrović.
• ecognising the offered location as an attractive area for the new home of the art, the sculptor suggested that a grandiose building should be built instead of a sole sculpture, and that the monument to the king should be raised inside of the building, which was finally accepted
History of Meštrović Pavilion
Home of Visual Arts, 1938 - 1941
• he programme of the Home of isual Arts, displaying numerous permanent and travelling exhibitions, began with the formal opening of the exhibition "A Half Century of Croatian Art" (December 1st, 1938).
• nfortunately, that programme lasted only three years. Due to its monumental character and prominent location, the round pavilion attracted political representatives and thus changed its (profane and sacral) functions.
History of Meštrović Pavilion
The first Zagreb Mosque, 1941-1944
• During II, under a political regime, the building was converted to an Islam Mosque
• hree minarets and a water fountain are built
• Although the building ran as a mosque only for 1 year, the building is still nowadays referred to as mosque among Croatian people
History of Meštrović Pavilion
Museum of National Revolution, 1945 - 1992
• he minarets were demolished, and the house became the national Museum of National evolution
• Adaptations were designed by architect . ichter
• In the central hall two galleries and a staircase were added, and the glass dome was covered
• By his radical concept he negated and deconstructed the original circular ground-plan, and introduced a console balcony and central staircase and instead of a circle he created variations of a trapezium theme
History of Meštrović Pavilion
Home of Croatian Fine Artists, 1993 - nowdays
• ith the independence of epublic of Croatia, HDL claimed and negotiated the return of the building to
the artists
• In the 2000s, a major intervention was done, returning the architecture of the building to the state most similar to the original one
• oday, the pavilion is one of the most known and active centres of contemporary arts in Zagreb and Croatia