ZAGREB-EDO MURTIC EXHIBITION CLOSES

ZAGREB, April 10 (Hina) - A retrospective exhibition of paintings by Edo Murtic in the Gallery of Modern Art in Zagreb closed on Wednesday. The exhibition of about three hundred pieces is one of the most complete insights into Murtic's painting who has been present on Croatia's art scene for more than six decades.#L# The exhibition opened on March 31st in both the Croatian Academy of Arts and Sciences' Museum of Glyptography and the Gallery of Modern Art. In honour of the closing of the exhibition in the Modern Gallery, an half-hour documentary was screened Tuesday night about Murtic's creativity. The film was created by Milan Beslic. The evening was attended by Murtic himself, Croatia's President Stjepan Mesic and numerous city and state officials, politicians, and reputable cultural and public personalities. Croatia's leading art critics and renown artists commented in the film about "the powerful work of art that presents Murtic as an artist with great creative energy, a painter who is constantly occupied with the landscape and who in his works questions the fundamental issues of the existential". After viewing the exhibition and documentary film, President Mesic spoke to journalists saying that he saw a great deal of Murtic's opus, who is a great painter who belongs to that category of artists who in the best possible way have marked modern Croatian art. (hina) sp sb