Mladen Stilinović, Croatian artist, Died at 69

Mladen Stilinović was born on April 10, 1947, and died on July 18, 2016.

He was a Croatian conceptual artist and one of the leading figures of the so-called “New Art Practice” in Croatia

He resided and worked in Zagreb, Croatia.

His works are based on the idea of social and art critique.

His many works are often witty, and come with a dose of irony and cynicism illustrated for example in his work, Money is Money, Art is Art.

He was one of the founding members of the informal neo-avantgarde, Group of Six Artists (Grupa šestorice autora), together with Vladimir Martek, Boris Demur, Željko Jerman, Sven Stilinović and Fedomir Vučemilović.

His group was active in Zagreb from 1975 to 1979.

Apart from his artistic creative output, he also managed the Extended Media Gallery (1981–1991), and was one of the co-founders of the Podroom Gallery (1978–1980).

Mladen was dedicated to experimental film, between 1969 and 1976.

Mladen was a part of the group IRWIN on the project Retroavangarde (1994).

Stilinović was mostly famous for his Exploitation of the Dead series (1984–1990) which has been exhibited at many shows, such as documenta in Kassel (2007).

Mladen Stilinović has had many exhibitions in Croatia and abroad, among the more recent being: The Cynicism of the Poor, Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb, (2001–2002), In Search of Balkania, Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum Joanneum in Graz, 2002), Blood & Honey – Art in the Balkans (Vienna, 2003) and In the Gorges of the Balkans which was shown in the Kunsthalle Fridericianeum (Kassel, 2003), Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center (Istanbul, 2007) and Van Abbemuseum (Eindhoven, 2008).

Mladen Stilinović works belong to many museum and gallery collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York and Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, museums of modern art collections in Stockholm, Vienna, Ljubljana, Zagreb and Banja Luka and in private collections such as the Filip Trade Collection, Zagreb.

Mladen Stilinović passed away at 69 years old.