So who is the greatest Croatian artist of all time? Most people would opt for Ivan Meštrović (1883-1962), the sculptor who blended twentieth-century modernism with classical models and Slavic folklore to produce a style that was distinctively personal, but also recognizably national.
Meštrović's epoch-defining legacy gets the headline-grabbing treatment in a major retrospective of the artist's work at Zagreb's Klovićevi Dvori gallery complex this winter.  Shedding light on all aspects of a long, fruitful and complex career, it looks set to be the main event on a busy cultural calendar.
Meštrović was more than just a gallery artist, creating public monuments and designing buildings that helped shape the environment around him. He left a considerable mark on Zagreb, designing the imposing rotunda that now serves as the HDLU Gallery and crafting monuments to icons of knowledge Nikola Tesla and Josip Juraj Strossmayer. All now serve as major urban landmarks.
The Klovićevi Dvori exhibition charts Meštrović's artistic development with a never-previously-assembled collection of his work, ranging from capital sculptures to intimate portrait busts and speculative sketches. Highlighting the huge range of influences he drew on in forming a unique visual style, the exhibition casts Meštrović as a quintessentially Mediterranean artist, an heir to traditions that date back to Ancient Egypt and Classical Greece. Ivan Meštrović: a Retrospective will be on show at the Klovićevi Dvori Gallery from November 22, 2023 until March 3, 2024.