Matko Meštrović

Art and culture historian and was a professor in the architectural department of the University of Zagreb. In 1961 he initiated, with Bozo Bek and Almir Mavignier, the network »nove tendencije« (New Tendencies) and was one of its leading forces. In 1968 he was a member of the organizational committee of »Tendencije 4 – Computers and Visual Research« and copublisher of the magazine Bit International, which appeared from 1968 – 1972 and concentrated on questions of the interlocking of technology/science, art, design and media.

Born 1933 on the island of Korcula, Croatia. High school completed in Split. Graduated in History of Art and Culture from the Faculty of Philosophy, Zagreb University. As a French government grantee spent six months in Paris in 1961. From August 1969 to July 1970 as an IREX grantee was at the following universities in the United States: Columbia University, New York, UCLA, Los Angeles (Art Department and Journalism Department), MIT, Cambridge (Center for Advanced Visual Studies), Pennsylvania University, Philadelphia (The Annenberg School of Communication). Ph.D. thesis defended at alma mater in 1978.

Former professor at the Faculty of Architecture, University of Zagreb, interdisciplinary oriented, he is today senior research fellow at the Zagreb Institute of Economics where he initiated the research project Cultural capital and development strategy of Croatia.

He was director of the Institute for Culture of Croatia for five years (1987-1992). His interest in technology and information science goes back to activities in the Croatian Sociological Society and the International Association of Mass Communication Researchers (IAMCR) in the 70s. Being the consultant to general manager of Zagreb Radio and Television, he tried to introduce the most advanced professional and theoretical know-how concerning public information. The 60s were the period of his life completely devoted to the newly established Center for Industrial Design. Then, he was also very closed to ICSID (the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design). He already had gained the reputation among avangard artists and scientists as the organizer of the international New Tendencies movement (Donald D. Egbert, Social Radicalism and the Arts - West Europe, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1970).

He has published several books, among them Design Theory and Environmental Problems (1980) and The World, Consciousness and Dependance (1983).

The new collection of articles is recently published under the title Commodity and Freedom - Essays in unquestioned contemporaneity.

Articles

• Matko Mestrovic, "Art and Technology - Yesterday and Today", 1998 [1]
• Matko Meštrović, Obrisi bez obrasca (Contours without patterns), Mladost, Zagreb, 1970
• Matko Mestrovic, "Ideology of New Tendencies", 1963