Prominent Croatian vinyl record cover designer exhibits works

by croatiaweek
May 18, 2022
in Entertainment

First exhibition works of Croatian vinyl record cover designer Ivan Ivezić opens

Silent Craft – a Retrospective of the Graphic Works 1967 – 1997, the first exhibition of works of Ivan Ivezić, the most productive Croatian vinyl record cover designer, who designed some of the most memorable covers for Jugoton (today Croatia Records) from 1960s to 1990s opens today in Zagreb’s HDD Gallery. The exhibition will be opened until June 10.

From the time when the cover was just a protection of vinyl from damage, through the time when trained employees of other departments were engaged in design in record companies, to the time when canonized names of Croatian design were created, vinyl has always been a place where every professional but also the curious amateur wanted to try their skills.

Split 74 (XIV Internacionalni Festival Zabavne Muzike) 1974

Ivan Ivezić intuitively understood the essence of this visual communication very early on, and his works became a place of collective memory of space, time and culture.

Working for Jugoton, the largest record company in the area at the time, which printed numerous releases in circulations that are today unimaginable from its plant in Dubrava in Zagreb, Ivezić was always graphically present in all possible channels of music distribution.

Zagreb 76 Zagrebacki festival zabavne glazbe 1976 – photo S.Mosettig

The exhibition setup is divided in six segments: record envelopes (domestic program of Jugoton and licensed editions), accompanying promotional materials for music editions (leaflets, posters, stickers), photographs by Ivan Ivezić used for record covers, rejected graphic solutions by the editor of Jugoton, private family photographs that served as objects for covers, film posters of reduced screen printing techniques for Filmoteka 16, comics from GTS Mauri drawn by Ivezić, and his own drawings used for covers.

Sticker – Azra 1983

Split 72 (XII Internacionalni Festival Zabavne Muzike) 1972

Record covers, promotional leaflets, posters and photos feature some of the biggest stars of the time: Tereza Kesovija, Josipa Lisac, Gabi Novak, Ljupka Dimitrovska, Radojka Šverko, Elvira Voća, Neda Ukraden, Lola Novaković, grupa 777, Novi fosili, Silvana Armenulić, Ksenija Erker, Boško Petrovića, Ivo Pogorelić and others.

Sticker – Tereza Kesovija 1979 series for the album Poljubi me

Cover Zagreb 73 Festival zabavne glazbe Zagreb 1973

The curator of the exhibition is Željko Luketić with his assistant Leri Ahel. They are the authors of the successful exhibitions “Socialist Disco Culture” (HDD Gallery and Klovićevi dvori”, 2015), “Utilitarian Design of Singing Socialism” (HDD Gallery, 2020) and “51000 Baltazargrad” (MMSU, 2020), which was seen as part of EPK2020 Rijeka by over 10,000 visitors.

(Photo: Ivan Ivezic, 1976)

Split 73 (XIII Internacionalni Festival Zabavne Muzike) 1973

Željko and Leri are also editors at Fox & His Friends Records publishing house in Zagreb and heads of the non-profit popular culture archive Yesterday Today Tomorrow – Audiovisual Research Platform.

At the opening of the exhibition on Thursday, 19.05, at 7 pm in the HDD Gallery, Ivan Ivezić will be presented with a lifetime achievement award given by the Croatian Record Association and Croatia Records. The award will be presented by Želimir Babogredac.