Rebecca Joy Bingham's video: Me trvi Gallery

Ivan Meštrović, 1883-1962, was a renowned Croatian sculptor and architect of the 20th century. After the end of World War II, he left Yugoslavia and emigrated to the United States. Auguste Rodin described Meštrović as the greatest phenomenon among sculptors, even a greater sculptor than he himself. World War II plunged Meštrović’s life into tumult: After insulting Hitler by declining his invitation to exhibit in Berlin, Meštrović was arrested at the outbreak of the war and held in Savska Cesta prison for five months. He passed the time in his cell sketching plans for future religious sculptures, including his Pieta. After his release from prison (through a petition from the Vatican), Meštrović lived in Rome for a time before moving to Switzerland, where he suffered a severe, yearlong illness and worry over the fate of several family members: His daughter was gravely ill, his brother had been imprisoned, and his first wife died in the course of the war, along with thirty of her family members—who, owing to their Jewish descent, were murdered in the Holocaust. After the war, Meštrović returned to Rome for a while, unable to bring himself to accept an invitation to return to Yugoslavia from Marshall Tito, whom he detested. Eventually he accepted a position as professor at Syracuse University in 1947, moving his wife and his youngest son to America. Later that year, he had his own show in New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, the first one-man show ever to take place there. Seven years later, President Eisenhower made him an American citizen. In 1955, Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, C.S.C., then-president of the University of Notre Dame, asked Meštrović to teach and work at Notre Dame. Meštrović accepted the invitation, considering Notre Dame to be the perfect environment to continue his religious sculpture. Sadly, the end of his life was clouded by the deaths of his daughter Marta and his son Tvrtko; four of his last works were a reflection of his grief those deaths. He visited Yugoslavia one last time before his own death, donating 59 of his works to churches, convents, and communities in his homeland at the request of his people. He taught at Notre Dame until his death in 1962, though his works still dot the campus to this day. (From Ethics Center at Norte Dame) Music by 2CELLOS, Croatia's famous duo playing "Theme from Game of Thrones."