National Museum of Modern Art
The definitive collection
If you want a one-stop introduction to Croatian art - with all the top names represented and more or less in chronological order - then the National Museum of Modern Art (Nacionalni muzej moderne umjetnosti) should be your first stop. It covers the nation’s art from 1850 until - roughly - the present day.
Housed in a nineteenth-century palace with high stuccoed ceilings, it’s an atmospheric venue in which to peruse Croatia’s cultural history.
There’s a lot to enjoy here, from the patriotic nineteenth-century painters who were inspired by Croatian history, to the socially-engaged artists of the Thirties (including the “Zemlja” or “Earth” collective, who wanted to show Croatian life as it really was). The avant-garde experimentalism of the post-World War II generation shows that culture under Yugoslav communism emerged rather quickly from Stalinist shackles and was allowed relative freedom of manoevre.
Once you’ve absorbed the collection here, the story of Croatian art continues with the Museum of Contemporary Art south of the river.