prof. art. Jagor Bučan

Jagor Bučan was born in 1968 in Zagreb. He graduated in 1992 from the Department of Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, in the class of Prof. Josip Vasilije Jordan. He taught the course Theory of Space (1996–1999 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb; 1999–2003 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Široki Brijeg). Since 1999 he has been teaching painting at the Department of Conservation and Restoration of Works of Art. He is a full professor in permanent selection. He has organized 34 solo and 52 group exhibitions in the country and abroad. He is the author of the books: Albert Kinert: Monograph (Art Studio Azinović, Academy of Fine Arts, Zagreb, 2002), Mladen Pejaković: Monograph (several authors, Litteris, 2009), It's About the Image: An Essay on the Relationship between Image and Language (Sandorf & Misanthrope, 2019), In the Sign of One: Essays and Representations on the Novel, Perennial Thought and Spiritual Itinerary (ArTresor, 2020), Inner Form: On the Hidden Aspect of Visual Art (Sandorf & Misanthrope, 2022), There Is One World: Studies and Essays on Art and Spirituality (Sandorf, 2025), Praise to the Hole (Fraktura, 2026). He has published professional and scientific texts in several journals and anthologies (Ars Adriatica, Europejskie glasnik, Kontura, Grafika, 15 DANA, Zarez, Hrvatsko slovo, Kaj, Dubrovnik, ZaJedno, Zbornik Umetnoste akademije u Novi Sadu). He publishes essays in the electronic journal for culture and society Nemo. He has written 50 prefaces to art exhibition catalogues and 3 prefaces to graphic folders. He has edited 10 scientific books (M. Pejaković, F. Paro, I. Župan, V. Rismondo, M. Richter). He has curated 6 art exhibitions, including a retrospective of Albert Kinert's graphic opus (Slavko Kopač Gallery of Fine Arts, Vinkovci, 2013) and a retrospective of Nada Žiljak (co-author of the exhibition, Klovićevi dvori, Zagreb, 2026). He has participated in 3 scientific symposia, among which the Interdisciplinary Scientific Symposium: Painting and Hyperrealism: Painting, Photography and Film (Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb, November 15 and 16, 2018) stands out. He has won 5 awards, including the 1st prize of the 6. Zagorje Art Salon (2012) and the HAZU Award for 2005 in the field of fine arts, for the book Inner Shape. He was included in the monographic publications Croatian Graphics: Contributions to the History of Croatian Multi-Originals (M. Maštrović, Naklada Ljevak, Zagreb, 2019) and Croatian Drawing (M. Maštrović, Naklada Ljevak, Zagreb, 2025). The journal 15 DANA dedicated an issue (3–4, 2024) to his overall work.

My creative and research interests include various activities: visual arts (painting, drawing, graphics), scientific and professional (art theory, art criticism, interdisciplinary comparative studies) and literary (essays). From a content point of view, this interest is diverse, encompassing various thematic, problematic and conceptual components: considering the relationship between image and language, perceiving and using different poetic or formal modalities, considering the ontological assumptions of a painting work, geometrically decomposing a painting work, studying interpretative possibilities in the approach to works of art, studying various aspects of the humanities and culture in general (philosophy, literature, music, religion, spirituality), especially with regard to their interrelation and mutual permeation, and finally – considering the basic aspects that run like a red thread through all these areas – meaning, meaning, cognition, truth, quality. All the aforementioned components of interest can be subsumed under the umbrella conceptual pair: expressive / non-expressive. My overall creative and research interest is focused on the interdependence of the expressive and the ineffable, i.e. on the consideration of the particular place of their encounter. The results of this encounter can be shaped into a concrete artistic expression or linguistic expression. But at the same time, they can be reduced to an interplay of suggestions and hints, pointing to contents that are on the other side of the representational or comprehensible, and which in a peculiar way affect human existence.

The subjects of drawing and painting at OKIR include instruction in mastering basic painting and drawing techniques and skills in working according to the observed template (including historical ones, such as egg tempera), taking into account proportional and compositional criteria, different ways of depicting shapes (tonal, coloristic), as well as complex procedures of technical and technological copying of the original.

2025 – There Is One World: Studies and Essays on Art and Spirituality, Sandorf, Zagreb

2022 – Inner Form: On the Hidden Aspect of Fine Arts, Sandorf & Misanthrope, Zagreb

2021 – "Creative Derivations: Poetics of Derivation and Its Formative Assumptions" (original scientific paper), Proceedings of the Academy of Arts, no. 9, (ed. Nataša Crnjanski), Academy of Arts, University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad

2019 – It's About the Painting: An Essay on the Relationship between Image and Language, Sandorf & The Misanthrope, Zabreb

2019 – "The Matrix", Kaj Gallery, Zagreb

2013 – "The Festival of Birds", Josip Račić Gallery, National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb

2013 – "Heads", Gallery of Fine Arts Slavko Kopač, Vinkovci

2011 – "Combed, Sewn, Woven", Krapina City Museum

2009 – All About Eve, Karas Gallery, Zagreb

2006 – "My Africa", Forum Gallery, Zagreb