Sculptor Ivan Kožarić was a leading figure of contemporary Croatian art for more than six decades, and who repeatedly defied convention through playful, sometimes challenging encounters in public space. His work was inspired by modernist style but eluded formalist descriptions. Kožarić’s pursuit of a range of different expressive approaches, and, more broadly, artistic freedom, led him to found the avant-garde Gorgona Group, active from 1959 to 1966. Kožarić’s work has been part of important exhibitions and is held in public and private collections in the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Museum of Modern Art, Paris; Haus der Kunst, Munich; Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Calvert 22, London; Centre for Art and Media (ZKM), Karlsruhe; Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo; National Museum of China, Beijing; Venice Biennale; São Paulo Biennale; and documenta, Kassel. Since 2007, Ivan Kožarić’s studio, which includes more than 6,000 artworks, is on permanent display at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb.

The work Temporary Sculpture relates to ideas that Ivan Kožarić had developed in the 1970’s.  Those years were also the most productive for him, as he experienced an explosion of creativity with materials from linen canvases to sculptures made of paper and aluminium foil. This very particular work reflects the formal ideas of minimalism and relates them to the artist's interests in negative space from the period of Gorgona (1959-1966). Kožarić moved his own conception of sculpture to the extreme limits of the discipline, reaching a point where sculpture became more than the understanding of equality between classical and anti-classical properties, but rather became a practice woven into his way of living and interacting with the world.