The collection
The largest Slovene collection of fine art prints and original publications produced after the Second World War, and the only public collection of modernist prints, contains more than 10,000 pieces.
The majority of the collection is represented by the works of artists that have exhibited at the International Biennials of Graphic Arts. Among these are the members of the École de Paris, (Jean Arp, Osip Zadkin, Pierre Soulages, Hans Hartung, Serge Poliakoff, Zao Wou-Ki, Victor Vasarely), representatives of the COBRA avant-garde movement (Corneille, Karel Appel, Asger Jorn), artists of Eastern Europe, as well as other internationally acclaimed artists: Nancy Spero, Damien Hirst, Bill Morris, Max Bill, Emilio Vedova, Günther Uecker, Robert Rauschenberg, Pablo Picasso, Dóra Maurer, Görgy Galántai, Mangelos, Ivan Kožarić and Ivan Picelj. The collection also contains the complete or partial oeuvres of some of the most prominent Slovene artists working in printmaking like Vladimir Makuc, Janez Bernik, Danilo Jejčič, Bogdan Borčić, Jože Ciuha, Lojze Spacal, Andrej Jemec, Tinca Stegovec, as well as others.
An important part of the collection is composed of art publications, which accounts for about 4,000 pieces – artists’ books, book works, art journals and magazines, newspaper projects, posters and invites, photographic publications, postcards, stamps, stickers, prints, photocopies, sound art CDs, as well as accompanying literature in the form of theoretical pieces and catalogues. The collection began to form in 2001. This is when the Institut Français loaned MGLC 378 works by the avant-garde artists of the 1960s and 1970s, which included works by Daniel Buren, Christian Boltanski, Marcel Broodthaers, Sophie Calle, Henri Chopin, Hanne Darboven, Robert Filliou, Jochen Gerz, Anette Messager, Roman Opalka, Roland Topor and Ben Vautier, as well as issues of the prominent art journals Agentzia, Chorus, Humidité, Opus International, VH 101. The donation set off a systematic collecting of all genres, and with the revitalization of the Biennial, MGLC became more excited by all types of art printing as well as purchases and donations, which grew significantly after the success of the 25th Graphic Arts Biennial, acquiring to date an impressive number of works by authors such as Vito Acconci, George Brecht, Daniel Buren, Christian Boltanski, Marcel Broodthaers, James Lee Byars, Sophie Calle, Hanne Darboven, Jan Dibbets, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Robert Filliou, the Fischli-Weiss duo, Jochen Gerz, Roni Horn, Sanja Iveković, Alfredo Jaar, Ilja Kabakov, Thomas Kapielski, Allan Kaprow, Sol LeWitt, Richard Long, Mangelos, Miha Maleš, Anette Messager, OHO, Roman Opalka, Iztok Osojnik, Raymond Pettibon, Dušan Pirih Hup, Sigmar Polke, Dieter Roth, Edward Ruscha, Jean Tinguely, Roland Topor, Ben Vautier, Petra Varl, Andy Warhol, Lawrence Weiner, Franz West, Emmett Williams and Franci Zagoričnik, as well as the collection of original newspaper projects which also included museum in progress from Vienna, published in Der Standard newspaper between 1990 and 2002.
Important museum and study materials are also represented by the FV archive donated to MGLC in 2006 by Neven Korda, the archive of The Scarecrow Statelet, a donation by Milena Kosec, the extensive archive of the events of the Zagreb art scene between 1970–1990 collected over the years by Darko Šimičić, the extensive archive of Bernard Villers’ self-published Éditions du Remorquer (1978–2008), and most of the issues of the Point d'Ironie hybrid periodical (1997–2010).
