Ante Sardelic Kraljevic and the Vukovar Gong of World Peace donated by Indonesia in 2019

Ante SARDELIC-KRALJEVIC, sculptor – painter – printmaker

Ante Sardelic Kraljevic, sculptor, painter, and printmaker was born on February 3, 1947 in Blato, on the island of Korcula in Croatia. He graduated from the School of Applied Arts in Split in 1958 and from the Academy of Fine Arts, Department of Sculpture in Zagreb he studied under Krsto Hegedusic, Grga Antunac, Valerije Michieli in 1971. In 1972 he moved to Canada and settled in Toronto where he still lives and works’as a professional artist. Already as a student Sardelic mounted one-man exhibitions. He worked on reliefs and mosaics for public places. He travelled abroad to study. Initially he leaned towards sculpture in stone, wood and bronze, as well as large mosaics. Vitality of movements, in sculpture and dynamism of colour in painting were characteristic of this period.

On arrival in Canada Sardelic’s palette propelled in the direction of new surroundings, new inspirations, using acrylics in which the harmony of organic geometry and mythological symbolism first appeared. Similar development occurred in his sculpture. In 1976 Sardelic worked on murals. He experimented with new materials in graphics and painting, discovering individual technical means for his artistic expression. The presence of erotic forms in a vivid polyphony of colours marked the passionate experiences of the new environment and time, thus becoming the focal point of the cosmography of his perception. Since 1978, Sardelic has often spent time in the United States, Mexico, Columbia, and Venezuela, where he came into contact with the ancient cultures of North and South America. This experience reflected on his work’s search for new growth in the form of evolving expressiveness by capturing and arousing global co-existence in a happy union of man’s primordial intuitions and the flow of the universal energy of life.
Sardelic has been exhibiting continually since 1969 in museums and galleries throughout the world, including Canada, United States, Mexico, Columbia, Venezuela, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Spain, United Kingdom, Italy, Slovenia, Belgium, Japan, Korea, Germany, Croatia, and Australia, by participating in many international exhibitions a biennials where he received numerous awards and honours. To date he had 37 one-man exhibitions in New York, Chicago, Mexico City, Caracas, Bogota, Ottawa, Hamilton, (Canada), Toronto, Frankfurt, Windsor (Canada), Zagreb, Sarajevo, Dubrovnik and Hamburg, and he participated in over 150 exhibitions.
With the support of the Canada Council and the National Museums of Canada he mounted a large oneman exhibition in the Art Gallery of Hamilton. In 1987 he participated in 11 international exhibitions and biennials. With the sponsorship of the Government of Canada he put on a comprehensive one-man travelling exhibition in 1988 in the museums and galleries of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 1989 he was chosen Artist of the Year by the Canadian-Croatian Artists’ Society in Toronto. He also executed a large mosaic commissioned by a private collector. In 1994 he spent a short period of time in Australia. In 1995 the Government of the Republic of Croatia awarded him the order of the Croatian Danica for outstanding merits in the field of culture. Ante Sardelic is a member of various artist societies throughout the world. He is included in numerous international publications. He has been writing poetry since his student days.
The last years of his artistic endeavour have been dedicated to the project The Eternal Homeland (Vječna Domovina – Eternal Homeland) and to providing aid for Croatia. His work can be found in galleries, museums, and private collections the world over. The following are several reviews of Sardelic’s Eternal Homeland project: “Through its poems and graphics the Eternal Homeland – of Ante Sardelic is a continuation and at the same time a summation of his artistic endeavour to date. Sardelic’s “Mediterranean spirit” signifies a veritable awakening of colours and symbols, and in this artistic ‘ actualization there is obviously a growing emphasis on national themes: the coat of arms as the sum of Croatian fate, the triple braid as a sign of national constancy and homogeneity, and the three different scripts – the Glagolitic, the old Croatian Cyrillic and the Latin – are used as an external mark of Croatian polyphony. Through his expression and his form Sardelic reaches for the very depths of the Croatian being, for the true source of our existence. His invocations “de profundis” and his jubilations “in excelsis” come to fruition here. He expresses his expectation and his welcome to Croatia reborn…”
Source Adam Eterovich Bracanin