THE GRAPHIC COLLECTIVE COLLECTION

1953–2026

One of the fundamental events in the early years of the Graphic Collective’s activity was the founding of its own Collection in 1953. This first graphic art cabinet in Serbia was initiated with the idea of creating a cultural legacy for future generations and for history itself. Thanks to voluntary contributions from artists, the Collection held 700 graphic works by 1955, around 1,000, by 60 authors, in 1960, and today that number stands at approximately 5,000 works. The care that members of the Graphic Collective dedicated to their Collection—into which the spirit of a contemporary creative expression was sublimated—is best reflected in exhibitions held in Zagreb (1955), Zurich (1956), Sofia and Budapest (1957), Krakow and Warsaw (1958), and in the exhibition 150 Prints from the GK Collection at the “Cvijeta Zuzorić” Art Pavilion in Kalemegdan, April 1960, marking the tenth anniversary of the Collective.

Spontaneously formed, our Collection of fine art prints and graphic design is heterogeneous in artistic scope and aesthetic concept, and diverse in terms of media technique. Among its most representative works today are certainly the prints by recipients of the Grand Seal—hallmarks of creative excellence in the field and paradigmatic signs of artistic achievement. Over the decades, selections from the GK Collection have been presented in various curatorial frameworks, shaped by thematic and/or chronological concepts:

1979: From the GK Collection – Senior/Junior Printmakers

1980: Josip Restek, a monographic view from the GK Collection

1999: Posters of the GK from the 1950s, marking 50 years of the Collective

2014: Imprint of Time – History in Progress, exhibition of Grand Seal-awarded works, 1963–2014 (on the occasion of GK’s 65th anniversary)

2019: Imprint of Time 70/∞ – Graphic Collective – 70 Years, monographic exhibition at the SANU, the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts Gallery

2024: Fragments from the History of GK – Works from the 1980s, exhibition at the new GK Gallery

Exhibitions dedicated to the Graphic Collective Collection offer critical insight into the most significant artists, dominant artistic trends, and creative movements of past decades, along with a rich visual and documentary archive on the origin and expansion of the Collection, including references to previous exhibitions focused on this exceptional body of work. Presenting the Collection affirms its artistic and cultural value; through further processing and accessibility, it becomes a source for ongoing engagement and the creation of new cultural content.