Antun Augustincic

He was born in Klanjac in 1900. He finished Higher school for art. He continued studies in 1924 in
Paris at the school of Applied art and Fine art academy. He exibited for the first time in 1926. He had
solo exibitions in Split and Belgrade, and he also exibited at numerous exibitions in the country and
abroad, with the group Earth, at the Spring salon, at the exibitions of Yugoslav artists union,
Venice Biennale, Antwerpen outdoor sculpture biennale, Belgrade triennal, and also at almost all
representative exibitions of our art. He won many prizes in domestic and international competitions
for public monuments in London, Kragujevac, Banja Luka, Katowice, Tirana, Buenos Aires, Sofia, et
cetera. He also received awards for his work from the city of Zagreb.
Not any of the sculptors of that generation was connected to the term monumental as it was the case
with Antun Augustincic. His work had grown on rich tradition experiences, the monumental sculpture
expression was imbued with the that epoche characteristics. Clearly defined idea, purity and simple
visual language, as well as deep experience of form and motives content - the components that
made his work strong, understandable and exciting. He also confirmed his artistic attitude of fighting
for a man and his dignity when he joined a group of painters, architects and sculptors who established
the art society Earth.

Out of other Augustincics sculptures with the motive of work, one named Spinner is remarkable,
although the problem of engagement is brought down more to the activity description then to the
sharpness of impression. At that time he also made a number of psychologically impressive portraits
of personalities from the Yugoslav communist movement.

Augustincic had many sculptures for which the main motive was Work. Among them there is one that
is called Spinner, that is very famous. In this sculpture the main accent is on the description of
activity, while the sharpness of impression is in the back plan.

In 1945 he was appointed as aprofessor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb. In 1947 he got a ttle
of master sculptor and takes charge of the master sculpting workshop in Zagreb. The same year he
became a memeber of Yugoslav academy of science and art in Zagreb and was chosen for the
president of Yugoslav artists union. In 1965 he became corresponding member of Serbian academy of
science and art, in 1973 corresponding member of Bosnia and Herzegovina academy of science and
art, and also honorable memeber of SSSR art academy in Moscow. Three monographs about him were
published: in 1954, 1968 and 1976. In 1976 a galery Antun Augustincic was opened in Klanjac.
Beside great number of public monuments installed in the country and abroad, he also made
numerous compositions, figures, nudes, portraits, reliefs and sketches.

Krlea: The third variant of Titos portrait, direct impression in bronze, made in old fortress of Jajce,
in late autumn of 1943, which was innstalled ten years later in fron of Titos house in Kumroves, was
not composed with any pathetic intention pro futuro. Tito, dressed in a military coat, in almost
melancholic silhouette, was not modeled victoriously; the war had then been going on for three years
under risky circumstances, in dangerous uncertainty daily brought by guerilla, therefore the portrait
was made in the proximity to the German army, when German armored divisions were barely couple
of kilometers away. This Augustincics Tito, dressed in the partisans coat, who raised the flag of
resistance in a historical moment when all politicans in the country surrendered themselves to the
mercy of the enemy, he was not shown in the pose of a commander; it is a portrait of a man with the
head bowed down, from a heavy burden, who walk around the yard of the Jajce fortress troubled, as
he had also been wandering in prisons yards in a cloth of a convict for years.