History of the Šira Gallery

The gallery and framing of paintings "Schira" was founded by Matija Schira's father, also Matija. Born at the crossroads of Hungary, Romania and Vojvodina, he came to Zagreb, founding a gallery first on the Bloody Bridge, and then in Preradovićeva Street.

The Schira Gallery was a cult place of Zagreb's intelligentsia where artists and Croatian Springers came to visit, and exhibitions were talked about for days. With the death of gallerist Matija Schira (1925-2008) Zagreb lost the man who created one of the most famous Zagreb galleries in Preradovićeva Street No. 13.

With the departure of Matija Schira, a grandmaster of his craft, an aesthete with the sensibility of an artist who permanently marked the presentation of fine art in our country in the second half of the last century, one of the cult gathering places of the Croatian artistic and cultural elite, which was located under the name "Studio G" in the space of a private workshop framed by Salon Shira, disappeared.

"Studio G" was known for the fact that members of the art group "Gorgona" rented this space so that they could operate independently of exhibition institutions. Members and founders of the group "Gorgona", which was active in the period from 1959 to 1965 and was at the very top of the art scene in those years, were established Croatian artists: painters Julije Knifer, Josip Vaništa, Đuro Seder and Marijan Jevšovar; sculptor Ivan Kožarić; architect Miljenko Horvat, and art historians and critics Dimitrije Bašičević Mangelos, Matko Meštrović and Radoslav Putar. In addition to the members of Gorgona, other artists also exhibited in Salon Šira: Eugen Feller, Ivan Rabuzin, Piero Dorazio, Victor Vassarely, Francois Morellet, and many others. After only a few years, in 1963, the exhibition activity of "Studio G" ceased, primarily for financial reasons.

However, exhibitions in the Schira Salon began to be organized again in the early 70s. "Everyday gatherings in the back room of the legendary Schira Salon began sometime after 1971 and lasted with undiminished intensity until the end of the 80s. We didn't need invitations for that. It was somehow self-evident to go to Miki in Preradovićeva around noon. In those gloomy and anxious times of all kinds of bans, the curtain on the back room of the salon opened up to us, literally and metaphorically, a space of freedom in which bans did not apply. For those who do not share these traumatic experiences, it may be difficult to understand what it was that drew us to this space with an almost magnetic attraction - first of all, the exceptional personality of our friend Schira, the unobtrusive support of his wife Olgica, the atmosphere charged with strong intellectual challenges, the space of spontaneous creativity... Artists and writers also regularly visited Miki, but also everyone else eager for free and uninhibited intellectual exchange..." (Božo Biškupić)

Intellectuals, Croatian Springers, painters, sculptors, poets and writers stopped by not only for exhibitions organized by art historian Igor Zidić, but also for coffee talks where art projects were agreed.

“… For all of us, the small space of Schira's room would take on metaphorical dimensions. Igor would organize top exhibitions worthy of any better gallery space and for them he would write a poem dedicated to the artist in each catalogue, and read it at the opening ceremony, and the artist (Pulitika, Šutej, Šiško, Kožarić, Koydl, Murtić, Ž. Hegedušić...) would reciprocate with an original drawing in this unique publication. Well, such a stimulating atmosphere was created and permanently maintained by Matija Schira and his wife Olgica." (Božo Biškupić)

It was the last Zagreb gallery with the charm of Parisian ones, and just like them, it had a façade decorated with gold letters on a black background in the manner of old crafts. Just like in the Parisian galleries, "Schira" hosted exhibitions that have entered the anthologies of Croatian art. The gallery had that Central European "estate", when coffee was drunk as a ritual with a good conversation.

When Matija Schira retired in 2002 due to illness, the gallery shut down, but remained inscribed in golden letters in the memory of his city. Thus, the cult space remained closed until 2014, when it was assigned by the then DAUDI Academy of Fine Arts of the University of Zagreb for exhibition purposes. After a complete adaptation, the Šira Gallery began its exhibition activities on 16.06.2016 and from then until December 2020, about 80 exhibitions were set up.