Dragan Damjanović is the full professor at the Art History Department, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb.
He was born in Osijek in 1978. After finishing his high school education in Našice (1993-97) he enrolled in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Zagreb (1997-2002). He pursued his academic career at the same institution. In 2005 he obtained an MA degree with the thesis entitled Architect Fran Funtak and earned a PhD degree after defending the thesis entitled Đakovo Cathedral in 2007. After having held the position of research assistant (since March 1st 2003) at the Department of Art History, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb, he was elected assistant professor in 2009, associate professor in 2014 and full professor in 2019. Since November 2012 he has held the position of Chair of Modern Art and Visual Communication at the same Faculty.
The main course he has been teaching at the Faculty is 19th Century Art. He also taught several elective courses to art history students, as well as students of other study programmes at the Faculty.
His main research interests are related to the history of Croatian and Central European art and architecture of the 19th and 20th century. The focus of his research is primarily on intercultural connections in Central and South Eastern Europe – issues of national styles, Neo-Gothic, Neo-Byzantine, Neo-Renaissance, Art Nouveau and early Modern Art and Architecture. He similarly takes interest in Catholic, Orthodox and Jewish buildings and secular architecture. He has published 16 books, and more than 100 papers in journals and edited books. The majority of his texts were published in Croatian. However, he has published 13 papers in English: two in the New York-based journal Centropa, and one in journals: Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Zeitschrift fur Kunstgeschichte, Architectura, Umění/Art i Acta Historiae Artium.
Damjanović held 42 lectures and presentations at conferences (18 international and 24 Croatian conferences). With his colleagues from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Željka Miklošević and Lovorka Magaš Bilandžić, he organized international conference Art and Politics in Europe in the Modern Period at the same faculty (Zagreb, Croatia, 29 June – 1 September 2016) with 85 participants from various countries.
He writes articles for newspapers and professional magazines and journals and creates screenplays for documentaries and radio shows. For the purposes of the conservation departments in Croatia, he created reports on various monuments.
He independently curated several exhibitions: Viennese Academy of Fine Arts on Croatian 19th century architecture (Glyptotheque of the Croatian Academy of Arts and Sciences, Zagreb, 2011), Synagogues of Vukovar architect Fran Funtak (Jewish Community Gallery, Zagreb, 2014), Architect Herman Bollé (Arts and Crafts Museum, Zagreb, 2015), and Otto Wagner and Croatian Architecture (Croatian Embassy in Vienna, Modern Gallery, Zagreb, Vienna, October – December, 2018). Furthermore he participated in the organization of the exhibitions: Slavonija, Baranja and Srijem – Wellspring of European Civilization (Klovićevi dvori Gallery, Zagreb, 2009), Expressionism in Croatia (Klovićevi dvori Gallery, Zagreb, 2011), and Journey to Eternity (Klovićevi dvori Gallery, Zagreb, 2016).
Since 2010 he has been a member of the editorial board of the scholarly journal Peristil published by the Croatian Art Historian Association.
On two occasions he was awarded the Ernst Mach Scholarship offered by the Austrian Agency for International Mobility and Cooperation in Education, Science and Research (ÖAD). The scholarship comprised a two-month study visit to Vienna (in October and November 2005 and in March and April 2008). Within the academic exchange programme he was on a one week research stays in Krakow/Poland ( April 2012), Pécs/Hungary (April 2013) and Padua/Italy (April 2014).
He has a good command of the English and German languages.
He was a researcher on two Croatian scientific projects: Croatian Art of the 19th and 20th Centuries in the European Context (2002-2006) and Croatian Art from Classicism to Postmodernism (2007 – 2012), both headed by Professor Zvonko Maković. Furthermore, he conceptually conceived and successfully managed international project Croatian and Serbian Artistic Connections in 18th, 19th and 20th Centuries (financed in 2010 – 2011 by the Croatian and Serbian Ministry of Science and Education respectively, formally headed by professor Zvonko Maković). He was also a researcher on the project financed by the University of Zagreb, headed by professor Iskra Iveljić entitled Educational and Cultural Links between Zagreb, Vienna and Budapest from the End of the 18th to the mid-20th Century.
In spring 2002 he joined the European project Geschichte Südosteuropas als europäische Geschichte (History of Southeast Europe as European History) headed by Prof. Holm Sundhaussen from the Institute for East-European Studies of the Free University in Berlin, and organized by the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe. As part of the project, he spent two months (November and December 2004) at the Free University in Berlin.
From 2014 till 2017 he headed the project Croatia and Central Europe: Art and Politics in the Late Modern Period (1780-1945) funded by Croatian Science Foundation.
Currently, along with the Croatian Science Foundation project Art and the State in Croatia from the Enlightenment to the Present, he has been heading project Croatian Art Heritage from the Baroque to Postmodernism – Artistic Connections, Import of Art Works, Collections funded by the University of Zagreb.
List of awards
- Croatian National Scientific Award for the book Episcopal Church in Plaški, 2006
- Society of Croatian Art Historians commendation for the book Architect Herman Bollé, 2014
- Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Annual Award for the book Architect Herman Bollé, 2014
- Zagreb City Council Award for the books Architect Herman Bollé and Zagreb, Atlas of Architecture, 2015
- Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts Annual Award for the exhibition Herman Bollé. Builder of the Croatian Capital, 2016
For full bibliography go to: https://ffzg.academia.edu/DraganDamjanovic, http://bib.irb.hr/lista-radova?autor=264970&lang=EN
Contact: ddamjano@ffzg.unizg.hr