Collector as a curator and selector (IV) Large format

The collector as curator and selector (IV) is dedicated to a special case study of "large format" which represents a specific phenomenon for artistic and collecting practice. With works of large dimensions, regardless of the media in which the work was created, the question of display, storage, and maintenance arises. It represents a challenge, first for the author who creates it using all his skills and knowledge, then for the gallerist who wants to present the work to the public, and finally for the collector who wants to include the monumental work in his collection and find a suitable space for it that highlights the work in full form.

Throughout history, works of art of monumental proportions were reserved for public spaces, temples, and palaces, and their commissions were mainly rulers and high clergy. The state-of-the-art scene is changing drastically after accelerated social and economic changes caused by industrialization and technological progress in the 19th century. Artists are breaking out of their previous frameworks, even physically leaving the studios. The social class that is interested in art and invests in it financially has expanded, and now it is the bourgeois class that dictates the standards. The content of the artwork changed, as did its dimensions and materialization techniques. The biggest change in the world happened after the great world wars, when all previous conventions were called into question and when new possibilities and aspirations appeared in artistic creation.

In post-war Yugoslavia, due to the political and social structure, the state remained the largest customer of great works of art. Although in the first years it imposed style and content, artists very quickly became freer to create in their manner and at their own discretion, which made the art scene in our country complex. Large-format works of art were usually reserved for public institutions, and it used to be impossible to get to them. Collectors who manage to acquire a monumental work for their collection face the problems of its maintenance and disposal. Only a small number of collectors managed to rise, and with additional efforts, form special spaces for exhibiting works, enabling optimization of the experience and viewing of these works of art. In the fourth book, The Collector as Curator and Selector, "Large Format" is treated through a text that describes the history of large format in our region and beyond, with indications about private collections that inherit it and perform their activities publicly. From more than forty representative collections, we selected the works of fifty of the most important artists who were mostly created in the second half of the 20th century, and more than 200 works of art are reproduced in the book.