Antun Augustinčić was born on May 4th, 1900, in Klanjec. In 1918 he began to study sculpting at the High School of Arts and Crafts in Zagreb under Rudolf Valdec and Robert Frangeš. In 1922 the school was transformed into a Royal Academy of Arts and Crafts and he continued his studies under Ivan Meštrović. After graduation in 1924 he received a scholarship from the French government and went to Paris to study at École des Arts Décoratifs and at Académie des Beaux-Arts in the class of J. A. Injalbert. In 1925 he exhibited his work in the Salon des artistes français and in the Salon des Indépendents in 1926.

Upon his return to Zagreb he took part in group exhibitions of graphic works: in 1926 in Zagreb and in 1927 in Lvov and Zagreb. Also in 1927 Augustinčić mounted a solo exhibition of sculptures at the Galić Salon in Split and in 1928 he exhibited at the last Salon de Printemps. In 1929 he was among the founders of the »Earth« art group and was elected its vice-chairman. Group exhibitions with »Earth« followed in Zagreb in 1929, 1931 and 1932, and in Paris in 1931. He left the group in 1933. In those years he also exhibited in Barcelona in 1929 and a year later in London and Belgrade. In the 1930s he intensified his work on public monuments, which he had begun already in1928.

Participation and frequent wins in numerous public monument competitions worldwide earned him a reputation of a master of monuments, especially of equestrian statues that finally made him the sculptor laureate. In 1940 he became a corresponding member of the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts (YASA), in 1946 a professor and later dean of the Academy of Visual Arts, in 1947 he was named master sculptor, and in 1949 he became a full member of the YASA and started his own Master’s Workshop.

Augustinčić died on May 10, 1979 and was buried in the park of the Gallery in his native Klanjec.