The life and work of Zvonimir Wyroubal

Sunara, Sagita Mirjam. (2017). The life and work of Zvonimir Wyroubal. PhD Thesis. Filozofski fakultet u Zagrebu, Department of Art History.
(Poslijediplomski doktorski studij povijesti umjetnosti) [mentor Špikić, Marko and Bralić, Višnja].

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Abstract

This doctoral dissertation gives a comprehensive and systematic representation of the life and work of Croatian restorer Zvonimir Wyroubal (Karlovac, 1900 – Zagreb, 1990). It also presents the development of restoration in the period from 1920 to 1965. After earning a diploma in painting from the Provisional College of Art and Fine Craft in Zagreb (nowadays the Academy of Fine Arts), Zvonimir Wyroubal continued his professional education abroad. He returned to Croatia in 1925 and, after unsuccessful search for employment as a restorer, started working as a secondary school art teacher. Wyroubal’s chief claim to fame lies in his having in 1942, with the help of Vladimir Tkalčić, director of the Museum of Arts and Crafts in Zagreb, founded the Museum's restoration studio – the first public restoration studio in Croatia. Wyroubal was the head of that studio until 1947. During that time he saved numerous artworks from physical destruction. He also set up the first restoration exhibition in Croatia (1946). In January 1948, the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts took over the restoration studio of the Museum of Arts and Crafts. Wyroubal was appointed director of the newly established Restoration Institute of the Yugoslav Academy, which he headed until 1964. Under his management, the restoration staff increased. The Institute’s activity covered the entire Croatian territory, and the institution collaborated with all conservation departments. Wyroubal and his colleagues did a lot of fieldwork; systematically cataloguing damaged objects and performing restoration treatments on site. In the studios of the Restoration Institute in Zagreb some of Croatia's most significant artworks were treated. The most demanding restoration treatments were entrusted to Zvonimir Wyroubal, who regularly published the results of his work and shared his discoveries with the wider community of experts. With Wyroubal as its director, the Restoration Institute carried out training programs for restorers from Croatia and other Yugoslav republics. The Institute played an important role in the establishment of new restoration studios. Wyroubal enabled his colleagues to undertake study tours abroad. He retired in February 1965 and devoted himself to numismatics, performing restoration treatments only occasionally. Although Wyroubal painted his whole life, his artistic oeuvre is not well known, as he rarely exhibited. He also produced a number of illustrations.

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