Robert Auer

Artist Robert Auer

Croatian, 1873 - 1952

Schooled at the academy in Vienna and Munich at the time when the Art Nouveau wave swept across Europe and greatly influenced the European cultural centres, Robert Auer is often tied to this particular artistic style. He gained popularity as a portraitist of the upper city class, having painted more than 150 portraits, and just as many nudes and symbolic compositions. He was the only croatian painter who presented his works at the 1896 Art Nouveau exhibition in Munich, and his works received special recognition at the presentation of Croatian art at the 1906 World Fair in Paris. Although his artistic expression was later characterized as bourgeois, after the second world war, and his work was largely neglected, the artistic value of this prolific painter is most often recognized by collectors. This is why the majority of his works that are on display at this exhibition have been borrowed from private collections. Apart from paintings, sketches, and drawings, which visitors will have an opportunity to view, a separate segment of this exhibition features the memorabilia from the family heritage. Furthermore, a reconstruction of the painter’s atelier, with his original painting implements as well as personal photographs of the models he painted, is also on display.

Svetlana Valueva

Artist Svetlana Valueva

Moscow, 1966

Svetlana Valueva was accepted into art school at the tender age of six - an astonishing child prodigy. By the age of 8, she was winning international exhibitions and at age 11, was featured in a documetary on outstanding artists that was shown in theaters across Russia. By then, her father, a gifted artist himself, had given her his own studio. Also, she had been secretly shown the fantastical works of artists like Klimt, Alfons Mucha, Sargent, and Alma-Tadema, whose styles were quite forbidden in Soviet era Russia. However, this discovery was the springboard for Valueva's exquisite Art Nouveau-inspired vision. She began to attract scores of collectors and dealers who smuggled her work out to avid admirers around the world, until the Art Academy finally allowed her a summer trip to study in Europe. From there, Valueva easily gained international acclaim, and remains one of Russia's most outstanding artists.