Few places in Croatia with just five hundred inhabitants, can boast as many as fifteen painters whose birth or life connects them to a place as Kuna on Peljesac. The tradition of famous Croatian painter Mato Celestin Medović (1857-1920), is very much still alive and well in Kuna, it’s almost as though his love for painting has been passed on to generations of locals.
To mark Medović’s birthday, on the 17th of November, the M.C Medović Gallery, opened a new, enriched and permanent exhibition. The screening of a documentary which was filmed earlier this year on the artist’s life also formed part of the celebrations. The documentary which deals with his entire life from his birth in Kuna to his study in Italy and Germany, explains the reasons for his leaving the Franciscan order , and described the last years he spent in his home village .
The permanent exhibition consists of donations from thirty painters and sculptors from Dubrovnik , Korcula and Peljesac, covering a remarkable cross-section of contemporary art of southern Croatia. From this year, the gallery will have permanent opening hours and officially become part of the tourist project ‘Peljesac wine roads’.
Artists who donated work to the gallery: Niko Ančić, Nataša Bašica, Ivica Bavčević, Vinko Bavčević, Željana Bilušica, Emil Bobanović Ćolić, Ivica Bobanović Ćolić, Žana Janjić Kulušić, Mato Celestin Medović, Ivo Ostojić, Tonko Smokvina, Alojz Testen, Darko Tršar, Duško Violić, (dubrovački slikari) Mišo Baričević, Tomislav Gusić, Josip Ivanović, Nada Zec Ivanović, Maja Jug Pecarić, Maja Kovačević, Loren Ligorio, Romana Milutin Fabris, Lukša Peko, Antonija Rusković, Josip Trostmann, Viktor Šerbu, Josip Škerlj, (korčulanski slikari) Stipe Nobilo i Izvor Oreb.
