Works by early Modernist sculptor Ivan Zajec on show at National Gallery

Zajec was part of the first generation of early Modernist Slovenian sculptors who put their homeland on the European art map at the end of the 19th century.

He is the author of the statue of Romantic poet France Prešeren in Prešeren Square in Ljubljana, which proved a major milestone in his life and career.

Working in mostly realistic style with elements of Art Nouveau, Zajec made a number of public monuments, tomb sculptures, busts and other small-scale pieces.

Although his oeuvre is fairly extensive, it has not yet been thoroughly studied, the gallery said before the exhibition.

Zajec was born in 1869 in Ljubljana to father Franc Ksaver Zajec, the first Slovenian sculpture with university training, who inspired his son to sculpt.

After young Zajec received some training at his father's studio, a rich relative enabled him to study at the Vienna academy, and he later also lived in Munich, and went to a private art academy in Paris.

The skills he acquired during his studies abroad can be seen in how he approached details and enabled him to easily work with various materials.

After a severe earthquake hit Ljubljana in 1895, he was commissioned to do numerous works. However, the milestone came with the Prešeren Monument.

Zajec was selected in an open call in 1899, but it took six years from conceiving to completing the monument, and the artist had to change it several times.

But as soon as it was erected in 1905, the monument became the focus of political controversy, largely because of a sculpture of a naked Muse sitting above the poet on a rock.

The negative criticism had a profound impact on Zajec, proving to be the most difficult time in his life, which he refused to discuss even in his old age.

Zajec also lived in New York, Trieste, Dubrovnik, London and Rome, from where he was interned to Sardinia as an Austrian citizen during WWI.

After his return to his homeland in 1919, he finally settled in Ljubljana, where he continued to work until he died.

He exhibited at a number of group and retrospective exhibitions, and his sculptures have been included in all permanent exhibitions at the National Gallery so far.

Zajec was very appreciated by the middle class, who eagerly commissioned busts, tombstones and architecture sculpture from him.

He gained recognition after WWII and in 1950 became the first Slovenian sculptor to receive the prestigious Prešeren Prize for Lifetime Achievement.

A year earlier, to mark his 80th birthday, the National Gallery honoured him with a solo exhibition, the last major exhibition of his work in Slovenia until now.

The latest exhibition will be on until 11 February, accompanied by Mateja Breščak's catalogue, guided tours, a course in sculpture, a talk by a historian about the Prešeren Monument etc.