Art history. The Magical World of Croatian Naive

And thanks to the exchange, I became the owner wonderful postcards from the exhibition "The Miracle of the Croatian Naive" in Kostroma. Of course, the first thing that catches your eye is the brightness of colors and simple good stories, reminiscent of the work of Brueghel. Well, let's get to know each other.

Ivan Generalich(Khlebine 12/21/1914 - Koprivnica 11/27/1992), a classic of Croatian and world naive art, outstanding artist 20th century.

Discovered by K. Hegedusic, as a talented fifteen-year-old rural teenager, already in 1931 he began to exhibit, and in the 1950s his art made a big breakthrough and entered the European and world art scenes.
Ivan Generalich was born on December 21, 1914 in the Podravina village of Khlebine, not far from the town of Koprivnica. Croatia at that time was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (now Khlebine is located almost on the border with Hungary).
Mato's younger brother, a well-known peasant sculptor in the future, was born on October 7, 1920. Ivan had another younger brother, but he died in infancy. Father Mate and mother Teresa owned a small plot of land and ran a modest household.
Ivan completed five classes. Then he helped his parents in agricultural and domestic work.
Drawing attracted him from childhood, at school he loved this subject most of all. Parents, due to low income, could not buy Ivan drawing supplies, so he invented brushes and paints as best he could.
As he himself said, the main materials and tools were a twig and sand, or coals and neighboring fences... :)
In those days, long winter evenings women made roses from colored paper for the Christmas tree. And, as Ivan recalled, "... I will mix those remnants and scraps of paper with water in several cups, and I will get several colors. With these" paints "I painted my drawings, or I will find an old book with illustrations, preferably with people, and I also paint to make it beautiful. Hard paper served me as a brush. "

Then there was fateful meeting with Krsto Hegedusic.
And the first result of this was the participation of Ivan Generalic (3 drawings and 9 watercolors) and F. Mraz (3 watercolors) in the 3rd exhibition of the Earth art association in Zagreb.
The main results of the exhibition were not only the opportunity for peasant artists to show their creativity, but also the emergence and further formation of a separate artistic phenomenon - folk, original art. The exhibition, considered Starting point of the emergence of the phenomenon of Croatian naive, opened September 13, 1931.

Ivan Vechenai was born on May 18, 1920 in the Podravina village of Gola. He was the first of six children in a very poor peasant family. As a child, he worked as a day laborer at ancillary work, and for most of his life he was engaged in agriculture. He mastered the loom, was engaged in weaving, which, probably, helped him in the future when painting.

His work grew out of the parables he heard in childhood, old rural legends, accidentally acquired books, church singing, and deep religiosity. The world of his paintings is made up of scenes from everyday rural life, biblical motifs and folk customs.
Art critics consider Ivan Vechenaya the best colorist among Podravina naive artists. Famous for its fiery clouds, cloudy winters, purple grass, green cows and dove-gray roosters.
The first personal exhibition Vechenaya was organized in 1954, and then his paintings traveled all over the world. We also had it, back in the Soviet Union. Together with Ivan Generalich and Mijo Kovacic, he exhibited at the Hermitage, the Russian Museum, and the Pushkin Museum.

Mijo Kovacic, a classic of the Khlebinsky school and Croatian naive, was born on August 5, 1935 in a poor peasant family, in the small village of Gornja Shuma (Upper Forest) not far from Molva, in Podravina. After graduating from four classes of basic school, Miyo, along with his brothers (he was the fifth in the family, the most youngest child) helped parents in agriculture and homework.
Kovacic is an extraordinary phenomenon in Croatian naive art. Starting to draw on his own, without anyone's help, and learning that another self-taught artist, Ivan Generalich, lives eight kilometers away from him, in the village of Khlebin, Milho began to walk to him to get advice and learn a little.
And then, like an avalanche, absolutely inexplicably, huge, up to two meters, paintings on glass poured from his workshop into our world. With many faces, a motley and motley crowd of people living in this phantasmagoric atmosphere of a poor Molvar region, next to the mistress of the river, which floods their lands with enviable constancy and destroys all their labors. Mystical forest landscapes, an ancient forest overgrown with fabulous plants with many small lakes filled with warm water, with frogs, turtles, snakes, and some unusual birds living there. With the people who live in this fantasy world of the Big River, who wash river gold, steal bird eggs, fish in the pools, and love women. Like in the pictures of the old Dutch.

Kovacic is also known for his portraits; art criticism calls him the best portrait painter of the Croatian naive.
Kovacic had a huge impact on subsequent generations of Croatian naive painters, many aspiring artists, and not only beginners, to one degree or another copied his style of painting. Winner of many awards and a recognized classic of the world naive, Millau still lives in his village, he also continues to draw, and all free time spends in his favorite vineyard.

And one more name from this series - naive slicar Drazen Tetec!

This is just a representative of that same, small "fourth" generation. Today, 5 sculptors and 12 artists - representatives of naive art - live in Khlebin. Drazen is the "youngest". Born on January 24, 1972, completed an eight-year school, in 1991 he began to paint the first paintings on glass, in 1992 he took part in the exhibition for the first time.
Lives in his village house with his father and red dog Miki. He does housework, drives a tractor, harvests firewood (there is little natural gas in Croatia, and in the villages they mainly use wood heating), keeps livestock, and fishes. And he draws. He likes to draw in the early morning, when nothing interferes, the light is somehow special, and there is maximum hardness in his hand. As a real "professional" artist, he tries to do this every day.

An exhibition with this name, which opened in Moscow at the Museum of Naive Art, became the occasion for an interview with collector Vladimir Temkin. He brought to the capital the works of 16 Croatian artists, representatives of four generations of followers of the famous Khlebinsky school.

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“Naive Podravina painting is characterized by motifs from everyday village life, calm landscapes, as well as lively local color, especially characteristic of the unique technique of painting on glass. The motifs, colors and technique are so typical that the picture of the Khlebinsky school is equally recognized by world experts, critics, and ordinary amateurs, ”Vladimir reads his own quote in one of the catalogs. He has been friends with Croatian artists for quite a long time, and he is friends - with 13 out of 16 authors of works at an exhibition in Moscow, Vladimir Temkin was personally acquainted. The collector admits that for him this is not just a purchase of works of art, but an opportunity to make friends, communicate, and create.

Chlebinsky school in Croatia never looked like a classic educational institution with programs, desks and students. This term is used to refer to the process of transferring knowledge and traditions from generation to generation of self-taught Croatian artists. At the origins of this process in the 30s of the last century was an academic artist, a native of the village of Hlebine in Croatia, Krsto Hegedusic. After studying in Paris, the young artist returned to his homeland and intuitively searched for an opportunity for self-expression for himself and his people. “During its formative period, the Khlebinsky school was simultaneously influenced by the sociocultural context, and ideas inspired by professional painting, and the people’s feeling-mood of that time,” writes Alexandra Volodina, deputy director of the Museum of Naive Art, in the catalog for the exhibition, “The means chosen by Hegedusic expressiveness - painting on glass and bright colors - are now calling card Khlebinsky school.

In about 90% of cases, Croatian naive artists paint on glass in the so-called reverse way. According to Vladimir Temkin, this is a very laborious technique, because the author imposes oil paint on the picture in reverse order - first draws highlights and small parts, and then layer by layer draws a picture. Using this technique, nothing can be corrected, because the very first layer that the audience sees through the glass remains for the author, as it were, at the “bottom” of the work, to which it is no longer possible to return. To create paintings in this technique, you need to have excellent spatial thinking and sharp attention. Looking at the scrupulously traced paintings of the followers of the Khlebinsky school, viewers often notice that "it is not so naive, this naive Croatian painting."

Plots from peasant life, made by a complex technique of painting on glass, have received recognition all over the world. According to Vladimir Temkin, the artists of the Khlebinsk school visited all continents with exhibitions, took part in receptions of presidents and members of royal families.

However, when for the first time the founder of the Khlebinsky school, Krsto Hegedusic, showed the work of his students, young peasants, to the general public, a scandal erupted in Zagreb. Paintings by Ivan Generalic, Franjo Mraz and other students of Hegedusic, who did not have a classical art education, initially did not want to be recognized as art. As Tiomkin emphasizes, Hegedusic actively promoted the creativity of the peasants and sought to prove that talent is not connected with origin and is not a privilege of a high class, as it was in academic art. Hegedusic urged his students not to invent or fantasize anything, to draw only what surrounds them, the life of a simple peasant.

It so happened that the naive Croatian painters not only represented the everyday life of the village of Hlebine in their works, but also remained peasants themselves. “Everything we are talking about, despite the fact that they are worldwide established artists They still remain peasants. For example, Mijo Kovacic still lives on his farm. Every day he disappears in the vineyards, sowing corn, planting potatoes, chasing honey, taking care of bees. All this continues despite the fact that the person is recognized all over the world as an artist,” says Vladimir Temkin.

Our interlocutor gave an example from the life of the naive painter Ivan Vechenai. Once in the 70s, the artist met Hollywood actor Yul Brynner, who was in Yugoslavia at the time filming the film. Yul literally fell in love with the work of Croatian naive artists, looked at the paintings with pleasure, discussed them. And in the end, he invited Ivan Vechenai and his wife to his place in America for a vacation. When the two-week vacation came to an end, married couple offered to continue the journey and go to the ocean in Florida. To which Vechenaya's wife replied that it was time for them to return, because the corn was ripe and it was necessary to harvest.

The exhibition presents the works of painters for about 80 years of the existence of the Khlebinsky school phenomenon. Author's lithography by Ivan Generalic (first generation), paintings by Mijo Kovacic, Ivan Lackovich, Josip Generalic, Martin Mehkek and painters who stand on the threshold of history, their works are also recognized. Among them are Nikola Vechenai Leportinov, Martin Koprichanets (second generation).

The third generation of naive Croatian artists is the most numerous. Stepan Ivanets, Nada Shvegovic Buday are the authors whose works are in the permanent exhibition of the Museum of Naive Art in Zagreb. In the wake of their work, a large number of articles and monographs have been written. In addition, the third generation includes Vladimir Ivanchan, Mirko Horvat, Ivan Andrasic, Biserka Zlatar.

According to Vladimir Temkin, literally five artists can be counted among the fourth generation of followers of the Khlebinsky school. The most talented of them, according to many critics and art historians, is Drazen Tetec, by the way, a participant in the Festnaiv 2013 Triennial in Moscow.

The Khlebinsky school of naive painters during the period of its existence experienced both complete denial and persecution, as well as universal recognition and love. According to art historians, the period of development of the phenomenon of the Khlebinsky school has come to an end. But to our question about what the world's naive art will have in the future, Vladimir Tyomkin answers with optimism: “I think that naive art has a very great future. Perception is changing. More and more people are painting themselves, trying to express themselves and thereby recognize and better understand the people around them. There is an exchange. A person who is able to understand and accept, whether academic or non-academic art, can tomorrow buy and hang at home the work of a naive artist. What's the difference naive / not naive artist? He is a creator and if this is a real work of art, then it touches the soul, right?

Exhibition " Magic world Croatian Naive" will last until July 6 at the Museum of Naive Art at the address: Moscow, Izmailovsky Boulevard, 30. More details on the museum website http://naive-museum.ru/

There is hardly a person in our country familiar with painting who would not know the names of the most famous primitive artists of the art of the 20th century: Niko Pirosmani (Georgia) and Henri Rousseau (France). And only a few were familiar with such as Generalich Ivan, Kovacic Mijo, Lackovich Ivan, Shvegovich Nada. These primitivist artists from Croatia received recognition half a century later than Pirosmani, Rousseau, Matisse, Goncharova and other primitivists and neo-primitivists of the beginning of the last century. Fame in Russia, unlike in other countries, came to them in the last five years, when exhibitions of primitivist artists from the famous Khlebinsky school from Croatia were held in several cities of the country.

I confess that I myself saw Croatian naive painting only a year ago. At the exhibition of the collection of the famous violinist and conductor Vladimir Spivakov, which took place in Moscow in 2017, she drew attention to unusual icons painted in oil not on wood, but on glass. These were icons from Croatia, created by non-professional craftsmen. I was attracted in the works by the simplicity of the image with the imagination of the artists. I learned from the catalog that icons on glass were considered more accessible than a prepared board or canvas, and were very common in Slovenia, Croatia, Romania and the Alpine regions Western Europe.

This summer, Yaroslavl residents do not need to travel to Moscow, Zagreb, Nice to get acquainted with one of best schools folk art - Croatian. Come to the Museum foreign art on Sovetskaya Square, 2. It was there, on July 7, that the exhibition “The Miracle of Naive Art” was opened from the collection of the famous collector Vladimir Tyomkin.

Vladimir Tyomkin became interested in naive Croatian art more than ten years ago after seeing the work folk artists in one of the monographs. A trip to Croatia led to acquaintance with by modern masters painting and the desire to build your collection. The first personal exhibition was held in 2014 in Kostroma (the collector lives in Nerekhta, Kostroma region). Then there were Moscow (in several museums), Brussels, St. Petersburg, Tokyo, Mytishchi (Moscow region). After Yaroslavl the exhibition will go to Yekaterinburg.

V. Temkin about the technique of painting on glass:

“Many Croatian artists work with canvas and cardboard, in gouache and watercolor, a lot of wood carvers, etc. But the main trend in technology, the well-known brand of Croatian naive art, of course, is painting on glass. The picture is written in a reverse way. That is, not on the front, but on reverse side glass. A pencil sketch is placed under the glass, often very sketchy, indicating the general composition of the picture, then it is written foreground, all the small details, and so in layers. Each layer of paint must dry, so the work takes at least a few days. The background is written last. An artist working with a canvas paints small details, glare with the last strokes. Here, everything is exactly the opposite. Then you can't fix it, you can't rewrite it. Naturally, you need a certain spatial thinking, well, experience. Good and large paintings written for months. This technique, which largely determined the originality of the Croatian naive, goes back to folk icons on glass, common in many central regions of Europe. In Croatia, they were called “strokes”, or “glazhmas”, “malerai” - a derivative of the German “hinterglasmalerei” (painting on glass). In the last century, such icons were the subject of exchange or sale at village and city fairs.

The exhibition in Yaroslavl presents several such icons by unknown masters.

Trinity. Glass, oil. Unknown artist.

Elijah the Prophet. Glass, oil. Unknown artist.

The man who played one of the main roles in the emergence and development of Croatian naive art, which subsequently received worldwide fame, was academic artist Krsto Hegedusic.

He spent part of his childhood in the village of Khlebin, in his father's country. Then there was Zagreb, where he graduated art education at the Higher School and the Academy of Painting, in which, upon graduation, he became a teacher and then a professor. K. Hegedusic was an extraordinary and talented person. He was looking for his own, national and original flavor in the depiction of social topics. To search for new topics, the artist, from time to time, comes to the places of his childhood. One day, when he went to a village shop, he saw drawings on wrapping paper. He liked them, and Hegedusic asked about their author. The seller replied that his 15-year-old nephew painted Ivan Generalich. So in 1930, an acquaintance of a teacher-academician and a student-peasant took place. Soon they were joined by young Franjo Mraz, and then Mirko Virius. They are the first generation of artists of the famous Khlebinsky school.

Fascinated by the search for new ideas in art, Hegedusic I decided to set up an experiment confirming that talent does not depend on origin. He began to study with the self-taught, teach them the techniques of painting, showed and helped to master different techniques letters, including oil on glass. And, most importantly, he taught not to imitate, but to find his own view of the world, first of all, depicting village life, which was close and understandable to young men. A year later, the students took part in one of the exhibitions in Zagreb, organized by K. Hegedusic. The creativity of the peasants caused an ambiguous reaction from viewers and critics, but at the same time generated interest in unusual pictures. I. Generalic became for his fellow villagers what Hegedusic was for the first three artists. Many peasants began to engage in creativity. Unfortunately the second World War and the subsequent unstable situation delayed the entry and prominence of the Khlebinsky school in world culture for two decades. It was only in the early fifties that the artists of naive art from Khlebinsk and other surrounding villages gained worldwide fame.

It happened in Paris in 1953 , where in the Gallery of Yugoslavia were shown 36 works by Ivan Generalich.

The preface for the exhibition catalog was written by the famous French writer Marcel Arlan who appreciated the work of the artist:

"There is nothing intrusive, nothing outrageous in these thirty works that Ivan Generalich shows in the Yugoslav Gallery, and no one can say that Croatian artist came to conquer Paris. But he surprises and disarms us. Because Ivan Generalich remained true to his origins, and because this little world that he brought to us is really his. Small world, no doubt, but of a gentle and virtuous nature, a refined and serious spirit, where naivety and sophistication are closely related. The restrained melody that sounds from his paintings, in currently- this is the melody of one person, one people and one region. This decoration, these landscapes, rural scenes. And there is always some kind of intimate dialogue between people, animals and nature: a yellow cow, a horse under a blue blanket in equally the same participants as these hills, peasants and trees. Yes, the man is there, this is Generalich, who from his childhood, from the land of those cows and horses, under these trees, between these peasants, from their common history created his own story, and dreams of showing it to others ... "

The exhibition was such a success that it was extended by almost a month. All the paintings were sold out before its completion, which was a rarity for Paris, and orders for the work of I. Generalich continued to arrive. Paris, and behind it the whole world, was conquered.

At the Yaroslavl exhibition, the viewer will see works of four generations of Croatian artists. Classics of the Khlebinsky school and naive art of the first two generations: Ivan Generalic, Ivan Vechenai, Mijo Kovacic, Martin Mehkek. One of the best charts in world naive art - Ivan Lackovich. In the third generation, critics especially single out such artists as Nada Shvegovich Budai, Stepan Ivanets, Nikola Vechenai Leportinov, Martin Koprichanets. Today's generation of artists is not numerous: creativity deserves the highest marks Drazena Teteza.

In front of the entrance to the hall, the organizers of the exhibition placed large stands with information about the history of Croatian naive, as well as a screen where you can see photos of artists and landscapes of the country that inspired their work.
Each painting has brief information about the artist and the work itself. This will greatly help those who visit the exhibition on their own, without a guide. I remind you that every Sunday at 15-00, you can visit a free tour conducted by the museum staff (if you have a ticket to the exhibition).

A little about the paintings:
The work of artists is often divided into different periods. For example, Vasily Vereshchagin had Turkestan, Palestinian, Indian, Russian, Japanese periods. Pablo Picasso has blue, pink. For Ivan Generalich, at some point in his creative work, a fantasy, fairy-tale, magical moment came. This period is represented in the exhibition by the painting "Forest of Dreams" .

Ivan Generalich. "Forest of Dreams" Glass, oil.

The picture was the forerunner of his famous work"White deer" .

Magical fantasy and at the same time real world created in his works Vladimir Ivanchan.

Vladimir Ivanchan. "Big blue night". 2008

Obvious mature skill shown Nada Shvegovich Buday in the series of paintings "The Mummers".

Nada Shvegovich Buday. "The Mummers" II. Glass, oil. 1983

Nada Shvegovich Buday. "The mummers" V . Glass, oil. 1989.

In them, she showed a marked departure from the traditional "Khlebino" school. By this time, the artist had significantly improved the technique of writing on glass, including the so-called "ala prima" ("raw on damp"). The picture is not painted in layers, with each layer drying, but immediately, like a sketch, without any preliminary preparation.

"Jesus propped up" glass, oil 2014 "Apocalypse" series.
Drazen Tetec.

The painting participated in several exhibitions in Croatia and Russia, including a large exhibition project "The Creation of the World" within the framework of the V Moscow international festival"Festnaive" at MMOMA, in 2017.

The key point is the bright, magnificent work of the representative last wave Khlebinsky school (Croatian naive) Drazen Tetets "Propped Jesus". This is naive, on the one hand, in the understanding of Europe, on the other hand, the work itself, its content is philosophical view on the ideological crisis of the widest coverage of the world of Christian civilization. Picture-warning and picture-anxiety. It also shows how non-naive naive can be, whatever we mean by that word."
Sergei Belov, curator of the "Creation of the World" project.
The name of the painting "Propped Jesus" is not accidental. Although more euphonious, probably, would have sounded "Propped Cross", "Crucified Jesus" or "Cross on props". Actually, these names sounded in the media reports.
Drazen deliberately moves away in the name from the emphasis on an inanimate object, albeit a very symbolic one like the Cross. Thus, transferring our attention to a completely different, metaphysical level. The name “scratches” the ear, immediately making one think about something human, more psychologically deep (we are always ready to use “props” in our lives, faith is no exception, rather the opposite).

Yaroslavl residents and guests of the city:
I remind you that every Sunday at 15-00 you can visit a free tour conducted by the museum staff.
The exhibition will run until September 9th.
Day off - Monday.

Ivan Lackovich. Podravskoe village. Glass, oil. 1978.

Miyo Kovacic. Portrait of a peasant. Glass, oil. 1985.

Croatian Museum of Naive Art in Zagreb - oldest museum naivart in the world. It was founded in 1952 as "Peasant art Gallery”, then it was renamed into the “Gallery of Primitive Art”, and only in the 90s received its current name. It features a predominantly Croatian wave of naïve artists, especially the "Chlebino school" (a shorthand for several generations of self-taught peasant artists from the village of Hlebine and the surrounding area near the town of Koprivnica, in northern Croatia).

There at all interesting story happened. The founder of the school is the academic Croatian artist Krsto Hegedusic, part of whose childhood was spent in Hlebine. Arriving in Paris in the second half of the 1920s, he met the latest trends contemporary European art. There he saw pictures on glass French artists, which reminded him of traditional Croatian rural painting on glass. Returning to Zagreb, Hegedušić lives from time to time in Hlebin, where he meets young self-taught peasant artists Ivan Generalich ( main artist of this trend) and Franjo Mraz. In fact, they further combined the Croatian tradition and modern experiment, finding their own pictorial language.

What should you know first of all about Croatian naive art? Naive artists of Croatia of the first wave of the 30s. (a total of 4 generations of the Croatian naivart are distinguished) were usually from large peasant families. Education was usually 5 classes, then - work in the fields. Some of them learned to read/write only in the army. Many of them still live on their farm, some in vineyards, some in the fields. Here is a typical example from the life of a classic naive painting great Ivan Vechenaya:

“Once in the 70s, the artist met the Hollywood actor Yul Brynner, who was at that time in Yugoslavia on the set of a film. Yul literally fell in love with the work of Croatian naive artists, looked at the paintings with pleasure, discussed them. And in the end, he invited Ivan Vechenai and his wife to his place in America for a vacation. When the two-week vacation came to an end, the couple was offered to continue their journey and go to the ocean in Florida. To which Vechenaya's wife replied that it was time for them to return, because the corn was ripe and it was necessary to harvest.

So the main plots are some scenes from peasant life, portraits of peasants, sketches of everyday life, calm landscapes. The main thesis of the school was expressed by its main ideological inspirer Hegedusic: "Draw what you see." Live color is very characteristic of this school (working with color due to the ignorance of some basics by the masters was recognized as very bold and dissonant) and unique technique painting on glass by the reverse method. This is how experts describe this technique: “This is a very time-consuming technique, because the author applies oil paint to the picture in the reverse order - first draws highlights and small details, and then applies the drawing layer by layer. Using this technique, nothing can be corrected, because the most the first layer that viewers see through the glass, for the author, remains, as it were, at the “bottom" of the work, to which it is no longer possible to return. To create paintings using this technique, you need to have excellent spatial thinking and keen attention. notice that “it’s not so naive, this naive Croatian painting.”

Ivan Generalich

A classic of Croatian and world naive art. Otherwise, as "outstanding", it has not been called for a long time. One of the first (and perhaps even the first) Croatian naïve to enter the European market. His first foreign solo exhibition was held with unprecedented success for this genre in Paris back in 1953.

There are several periods in the work of Generalic. The Belcanto period is lyrical, the theme is predominantly landscape. Later, in the 50s, Generalich shifted towards allegory, symbolism, fantasy. In the 60s, "the share of theatricality and fabulousness" intensified in his work.

Ivan Rabuzin

Another classic of the Croatian and world naive, who is called "one of the most lyrical artists of the 20th century and a true master of new images in the period of the formation of abstract movements."

Rabuzin, unlike many naivetes, nevertheless finished primary school, and began to study carpentry in Zagreb, subsequently making an enviable career in a carpentry company: from 1950 to 1963 he was first a master carpenter, then a business manager, then a technical director and, finally, a head of the company. Around the same time, in 1963, he became a professional artist.

Rabuzin's painting is distinguished by the specific lyrics of the place, original forms and color, own style. Rabuzin found himself in circles (balls, color dots) - the simplest, most complete and perfect pictorial solution.

Mijo Kovacic

Kovacic has a typical biography of a naive artist: born into a poor peasant family in 1935, education - 4th grade, the youngest of 5 children, from childhood he worked in agriculture and domestic work.

He lived in a village adjacent to Khlebina, in which Ivan Generalich worked at the same time. Upon learning of this, Milhaud began to regularly visit him on foot (8 km) to get advice and learn.

Kovacic's painting (oil/glass as usual) is characterized by huge (for this type of painting) paintings up to 2 meters, drawn with maniacal detail, with many faces and characters, with mystical landscapes, phantasmagoric atmosphere and general fairy tale.

Ivan Vechenai

It is believed that Vechenai's work grew out of parables, rural legends and other folklore heard in childhood. Also art critics he is recognized as one of the best colorists among naive artists. In his works, you can easily meet fiery clouds, purple grass, green cows and blue-gray roosters. Together with Ivan Generalic and Mijo Kovacic, he participated in the "tour" of Croatian naive art, which in the 70s. conquered the whole world.

Martin Mehkek

He made a significant contribution to Croatian naïve, primarily through a series of portraits. At the insistence of the journalist and collector G. Ledich, he began to systematically engage in painting. Improving the technique of painting on glass, he creates portraits of the people around him: neighbors, gypsies, peasants, day laborers. So he became an outstanding portrait painter.

Emeric Feyesh

Perhaps one of the finest examples of Croatian naive art. He painted his first paintings in 1949 at the age of 45. Then he was already bedridden by disability. Feies is best known for its cityscapes. At the same time, he never visited all these cities - all his works were copied from postcards. Moreover, black-and-white postcards, which made it possible for him to handle color quite freely. What he did not without pleasure.

Here is what the researchers wrote about him: “Feyes enjoys significant simplification, freedom in composition, uninhibited, one might say, illogical perspective, which leads to changes in the tectonics of architectural forms, real proportions, lack of volume and arbitrariness of color solutions.”

His works make a powerful impression: a complete disregard for real colors, all the rules of perspective, proportions and volume, with a flat architecture (no three-dimensionality!), Close and distant objects have equally clear and intense colors. And of course, the horizon is littered almost everywhere. In general - a classic!

Feyes died in 1969 in honor and respect: he took part in all the prestigious exhibitions of the naive, his work is paid attention to "all serious monographs dedicated to this specific artistic phenomenon of the 20th century."

(materials of studies of Croatian naive art by Vladimir Temkin were used)