• Publisher: *cf.
• 280 pages
• Author: Beti Žerovc
• Original title: Rihard Jakopič – umetnik in strateg

Jakopič, an artist, gallerist and the founder of the first art school in the Slovenian territory left such a strong mark on the cultural life of Ljubljana and Slovenia that he has become and remains an almost mythical figure. Slovenian experts and the general public unanimously regard him as someone with “special merit for the nation”, which, inevitably, opens a series of questions: Aren’t his works overrated in present-day Slovenia? How much is Jakopič “worth” outside Slovenia? And, above all, how did Jakopič manage to remain a prototype of a “real” artist in the memory of Slovenians, when his life was, in fact, more one of a successful manager? While Slovenian art history has never really studied this side of Rihard Jakopič, Žerovc focuses specifically on this extremely modern and pertinent aspect of the artist’s personality. Her research explores the strategies artists must use to position themselves and their work in particular circumstances. The extensive research Žerovc has undertaken to establish that about Jakopič covered a wide range of documents, ranging from Jakopič’s personal correspondence to newspaper clips.

About the author

Beti Žerovc

Beti Žerovc (1971) is a Slovenian art historian and art theorist. She teaches at the Faculty of Arts at the University of Ljubljana. Her areas of research are visual art and the art system since the mid-nineteenth century, with a focus on their role in society. Her last book When Attitudes Become the Norm: The Contemporary Curator and Institutional Art was published in 2015 and reprinted in 2018. Žerovc coedited On the Brink: The Visual Arts in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (1929–1941) in 2019 and Memorial Production in Socialist Yugoslavia 1945–1990 in 2022.