Maribor - An exhibition of the work by Zoran Mušič, the most internationally recognised artist of Slovenian origin, opens at the Maribor Art Gallery (UGM) on Saturday. At the same time, the gallery will organise a guided tour of the works of other Slovenian artists who have made their mark internationally.

The UGM says the focus will be on Slovenian artists who have studied, worked and/or lived abroad and have established themselves in one way or another in a new environment, which includes Zoran Mušič.

Painter and graphic artist Zoran Mušič is the subject of a new exhibition in the UGM, curated by Breda Kolar Sluga, which will be on display until the end of November.

"Mušič already achieved fame in the 1950s, but he truly established himself as a prominent European painter with his shocking interpretation of the crimes in the Nazi camps, entitled We Are Not the Last," the UGM said.

Despite more than a hundred monographic publications, numerous awards and attracting international interest, the UGM says it is still almost unknown that Zoran Mušič was closely connected with Maribor, where he spent his youth and took his first professional steps.

Zoran Mušič was born in the village of Bukovica in Vipava Valley. His family was forced to leave their home because of the First World War, and later again because of fascism and violent measures against the Slovenian population.

After moving several times, the Mušič family settled in Hoče near Maribor, where Zoran spent his youth and made his first contact with painting. After completing his studies in Zagreb, he returned to Maribor in 1935, where he continued painting and exhibited regularly.

He was an important contributor to Maribor's artistic life until the Second World War, when he first moved to Ljubljana, then retreated to Trieste, Gorizia and Venice, from where he was taken to the Dachau camp in 1944. After surviving the war, he lived in Venice and Paris and achieved worldwide fame.

Through a series of events and exhibitions, the UGM aims to pay tribute to this remarkable artist and will present the artist's more than 20-year-long connection with Maribor.

The exhibition will include Mušič's oldest self-portrait, studies and paintings made during his travels in Spain and Dalmatia, as well as his first commissions, which include portraits and still lifes.

"It will also be an opportunity to talk about Maribor's artistic life in the 1930s, which was stimulated by the city's visionary leadership and nationally conscious supporters of art," the gallery points out.