Ivan generalich and naive painting of Croatia. The magical world of the Croatian naive

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Keywords

IVAN VECENAJ / IVAN VECENAJ / KHLEBINSKY SCHOOL/ HLEBIN SCHOOL / NAIVE ART/NAIVEART/ CROATIAN PRIMITIVE/CROATIANART/ ART HISTORY/ ART HISTORY

annotation scientific article on art criticism, author of scientific work - Lagranskaya Sofia Antonovna

The article is devoted to the work of the artist Ivan Vechenai, a representative of the Khlebinka school of the leading trend in Croatian naive painting. The author made an attempt to analyze the artist's work, the interpretation of archaic symbols in the works of glass painting on the example of the analysis of specific works that help to understand the concept Khlebinsky school in general, its inextricable connection with folklore traditions and folk customs. Unfortunately, in the domestic art history there are no materials devoted to the study of the creative path of Ivan Vechenai. The author hopes that this article will help everyone interested naive art and primitive to discover the multifaceted talent of this artist.

Croatian naive art: Ivan Vecenaj

Lying aside from professional art, painting of the Croatian primitivists and the individuality of their position proved to be not only close to the aesthetic thinking of the 20th century, but also an organic consequence of the influence of the culture of the urban lower classes and folklore . The peasants are with no doubts deeply religious, but in their paintings it wasn't practically reflected: the artists, with a reasonable share of selfishness, were rather focused on nature and people near themselves. The exception is Ivan Vecenaj (1920-2013) and his biblical cycle atypical for the peasant primitive which opened a new page in the Croatian naive art . artist paints in a reverse way layer by layer from details to the background. In his works, Vecenaj tends more to realism, but with elements of expression, grotesque and irony. Vecenaj moved The Scriptures in space and time, modernizing them and placing them in a familiar environment. His paintings are depiction of suffering and reverent aware of faith. The palette is bright and saturated, as if it reflected the hysteria of the stories. In the Vecenaj "s works the spectator encounters the cruelty of the image that is uncharacteristic for peasant naive art and it"s lies not so much in the subjects as in the repulsive depiction of landscapes: scorched deserts, charred trees, thorny bushes, and blood-red sky all this creates a feeling of discomfort and fear emotions that are completely uncharacteristic for the pastoral naive art of the Hlebine school. The prevailing majority of genre scenes in the peasant primitive is due to the fact that for peasants it "s just more simple and clear to represent the surrounding. Therefore, in an endless series of harvesting and feast scenes, individualism which Ivan Vecenaj has created is so valuable. The artist's contribution to the Hlebin school lies precisely in his religious works here he discovers a unique traditionalism in the context of sacred topic for the peasants relations with God.

The text of the scientific work on the theme "Naive painting of Croatia: Ivan Vecenai"

Bulletin of Tomsk State University Culturology and Art History. 2018. No. 30

UDC 7.031.2+75.023.15 B01: 10.17223/22220836/30/14

S.A. Lagranskaya NAIVE PAINTING OF CROATIA: IVAN VECHENAJ

The article is devoted to the work of the artist Ivan Vechenai, a representative of the Khlebinka school - the leading trend in Croatian naive painting. The author made an attempt to analyze the artist's work, interpreting archaic symbols in the under-glass paintings on the example of the analysis of specific works that help to understand the concept of the Khlebinsky school as a whole, its inseparable connection with folklore traditions and folk customs. Unfortunately, in the domestic art history there are no materials devoted to the study of the creative path of Ivan Vechenai. The author hopes that this article will help everyone interested in naive art and the primitive to discover the many-sided talent of this artist.

Key words: Ivan Vechenai; Khlebinsky school; naive art; Croatian primitive; art history.

The painting of the Croatian primitivists was not only close to the aesthetic thinking of the 20th century, but was also an organic consequence of the merging of urban culture with folklore: it flowed like a living stream into the international artistic process and rose high during the period of increased interest in the work of naive artists in Europe in the sixties.

The largest Yugoslav researcher of naive art, Oto Biha-li-Merin, reasonably assumed that to understand the artist, it is usually enough to study his work, “however, for peasant masters, the concepts of“ life ”and“ creativity ”are inseparable” . They were engaged in art in their free time from field work - creativity was a continuation of the linearity of their lives, without causing spontaneous bursts of inspiration and without relegating peasant worries to the background. “Their works are full of energy and reflect natural insight and naive poetic vision” - like all naive artists, the Croatian primitivists used a rich color palette, adhered to clear contours and did not always have a perspective. And although the peasants were deeply religious people, everyday worries and joys still prevailed in the plots of the paintings, and relations with religion faded into the background. The works of Ivan Vechenai (1920-2013) are rightfully considered an exception - his biblical cycle, not typical of a peasant primitive, opened a new page in Croatian naive art.

Vechenai was born into a poor peasant family in the village of Gola. The future artist was the eldest of six brothers, after graduating from four grades of school, he helped his father with the housework, worked part-time with more affluent peasants. The master showed love for creativity as a child, whiling away long winter evenings with pencil drawings, but he began to write large works with paints only in 1953, having met Krsto Hegedusic (1901-1975), a Zagreb artist, the ideological inspirer of the Khlebinsky school, and

Ivan Generalich (1914-1992), the most famous peasant artist. Two years later, Vechenai participated in a joint exhibition with other Khlebintsy at the Museum of the city of Koprivnica. At the end of the fifties, Vechenai mastered the technique of glass painting, demonstrated to him by Hegedusic: the picture is painted in reverse - not on the front, but on the reverse side of the glass. A pencil sketch is placed under the glass, often very sketchy, indicating the overall composition of the picture, then the foreground, all the small details are written, and so on in layers, right up to the background.

In the mid-sixties, the artist continued to paint, at the same time taking a great interest in linguistics and ethnography. In Croatia, Vecenai is also known as a poet and local historian - in his native house in Gol, there are about a thousand objects of the ethnographic collection dedicated to the life and history of the artist's native land. Vechenai is the author of seven books: volumes on local history and linguistics, a dictionary, as well as two fiction novels and a collection of poems. Since 1999 Vecenaj has been a member of the Croatian Writers' Union. His house in Gol was restored, and the former stables were given over to the gallery, which houses the largest collection of the artist's works. His son, Mladlen, also paints and is fond of ethnography. Together with their father, they made a small local history museum in the outbuildings of their estate.

Vechenaya's works are kept in the private collection of the Prince of Monaco, as well as in major museums and galleries around the world - Paris, Turin, New York, Munich, Tokyo. In 1987, the “Bible of Twentieth-Century Art” was published in London, in which, among the paintings of the classics of academic painting, there is the work of Ivan Vechenaya “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” (Fig. 1).

The artist considered this a great achievement not only for Croatian naive art, but also for his country as a whole. In 1996, the American Biographic Institute nominated Vechenai for the "Person of the Year" award and presented the artist with a gold medal with the inscription: "Awarded for his contribution to the development of mankind in the field of painting." Numerous essays and two major monographs by Croatian art critics G. Gamulin and T. Marojevic are devoted to Vechenaya's work. Vecenaj participated in the Zagreb Triennial (1970, 1973 and 1987) and the Naive Art Festival in Bratislava (1966, 1969, 1972, 1994), and participated in group exhibitions of Croatian naive artists around the world. The most notable and rave reviews were international exhibitions in London (Mercury Gallery, "Khlebinsky School", 1965), Tokyo (Setegai Museum of Art, "Eleven Artists from Yugoslavia", 1994) and St. Petersburg, Florida, USA ("Fantastic world of Croatian naive art”, 2000).

Vecenai, like other Croatian artists, gravitates toward descriptiveness and narrative: a painting must necessarily carry a story or a piece of memory. The epigraph to the biblical cycle of the artist can serve as a quote from the Revelation of John the Theologian: "Behold, I am coming quickly, and My retribution is with Me, to render to everyone according to his deeds." Vechenai was a deeply religious man: having grown up in a patriarchal poor village family, as a young man he did not have the means to buy books, so the Bible replaced them all for him. In 1962 he wrote the first works of the biblical cycle,

referring to the subjects of the Old and New Testaments. In these first works, Veche-nai uses a technique characteristic of naive masters: he transfers the plots of Scripture in space and time, modernizing them and placing them in the environment of the Podravinsky peasantry familiar to him. And although the heroes can be depicted in loincloths or completely naked, like models of Renaissance painting, the viewer has no doubt that everything that happens is inextricably linked with the reality surrounding the artist. The master manifests the same property in genre works, demonstrating the harmony of relations between man and nature: the characters are the “flesh of the flesh” of the artist - the same rough facial features, knotty fingers, sun-burned face, mottled with wrinkles and hardened by the winds; and their occupations are quite typical for representatives of their class - harvesting, walking cattle, mowing, baptisms, weddings, funerals. The master adds a particle of fantasy to his characters - whether it is trees dressed in multi-colored leaves in the middle of winter or a purple hue of a cow's fur. In his landscapes and genre scenes, Vechenai gravitates towards realism, but with elements of expression, grotesque and irony.

Rice. 1. Horsemen of the Apocalypse. 1978. Glass, oil. Ivan Vechenaya Gallery, Gola

Vecenai often refers to the image of a rooster: this character is present in almost every painting, acting as a guide to the artist's fantasy world. The Croatian art critic and publicist Bozica Jelusic considers the image of a rooster a symbol of the metaphorical and metaphysical in the artist’s work: against the backdrop of rickety houses and peasants, a number of bright roosters move at work, full of mysticism inherent in religious and magical cults, as if “the rooster plays a symbolic role, pointing to one of his virtues are pride, the determination of a fighter, courage, kindness and fidelity.

In his works, Vechenai often conveys the mood in the picture with the help of various shades of the sky and a variety of vegetation: the nature of pastoral landscapes, sparkling with bright blue sky and emerald water meadows, acts as a full participant in the picture along with the brutal figures of peasants, and in the works of the biblical cycle, prickly black bushes and dark clouds are rather a chord, complementing the plot, reflecting its symbolism. The sky at Vechenaya is an archaic symbol of antiquity, contemplating which, a person was filled with horror and delight, reverence and fear. The sky attracted him and at the same time repulsed him - it seemed supernatural by its very nature, and, as a result, it became a sacred symbol: » .

The same technique can be traced in the work "Horsemen of the Apocalypse". The semantic center of the picture is four armed horsemen, ugly skeletal creatures that send whirlwinds of freezing rain to Earth, sowing destruction and death. In the lower left corner, the artist has placed a schematic representation of people who have fled. The background is a stormy sky covered with dark blue clouds. A hawk is located in the lower right corner: the bird is a harbinger of the future, an allegory of rebirth. In this work, Vechenai reflects the God-fearing morals that existed in the society around him, the fear of the inevitability of heavenly punishment. But at the same time, the artist is trying to awaken the consciousness of the peasants from a lethargic sleep, to shake them up, warning that although the Apocalypse is inevitable, you should not despair in the struggle for your soul, because everyone "will be rewarded for your deeds." In another work of the biblical cycle "Golgotha" (Fig. 2), the same drama expressed through the background - the scorched desert in the background as a symbol of the barren land conveys a sense of hopelessness. The characters are disproportionately elongated, as if in the paintings of Salvador Dali, but Vechenay gives birth to them from his own imagination, not trying to imitate the brilliant surrealist. Jesus is nailed to the trunk of a bare tree - his wreath of thorns is already stained with blood, but the guard continues to stab him with a spear, and blood spurts from the chest of Christ as a fountain. Two robbers - pinkish-gray figures in distorted poses - are tied to coal tree trunks - rather hanged than crucified (Vechenai uses the same version of the image in other works illustrating the scene of the Crucifixion). The rooster, acting as a guide between the worlds of the living and the dead, froze with raised wings at the feet of Christ as another mourner. All work is imbued with tos-

coy and pain, as if the artist wants to convey the suffering with which the Savior atoned for the sins of people.

Rice. 2. Calvary. 1977. Glass, oil. Ivan Vechenaya Gallery, Gola

In the work “The Evangelists on Calvary” (Fig. 3), black clouds in the crimson sky reflect the tragedy of what is happening, as if the sacrifice made by Christ brings suffering to nature equally with people. The crucified Jesus is depicted in the center of the picture, his eyes are rolled up, which indicates death agony, and the color of the body is gray-green, as if he had been dead for a long time. Spotted with bleeding wounds, Christ is chained with six nails - symbols of suffering and passions - his whole body is sinewy, stretched, with muscles and veins translucent through thin skin. His image is executed in a gothic manner with the expression inherent in the artist. Around the main character are impenetrable thickets and four figures in accordance with the canonical symbols, symbolizing the apostles: an eagle, a lion, a bull and

angel - the eyes of all four are fixed on Christ. Two thieves are also represented: the one who gained faith is depicted humbly accepting his fate on the right hand of the Savior, while on his left is an atheist dying in torment.

Rice. 3. Evangelists at Calvary. 1966. Glass, oil. Croatian Museum of Naive Art, Zagreb

At the bottom of the cross is the symbol of original sin. The serpent and the ladder, the symbol of the Ascension. In the upper right corner, a group of eight people is schematically registered, as if the artist invites the viewer to guess for himself who is depicted here - idle onlookers or characters from the New Testament. According to the red robes characteristic of the female characters and the descriptions of the Gospel, four of them can be identified as "His Mother, and the sister of His Mother, Mary Cleopova, and Mary Magdalene" . The other three are most likely Saint Peter, John the Baptist and James; the fourth character, sitting on the ground almost without clothes, is unidentified - possibly a self-portrait. In the depths of the thickets, the artist placed the figure of the hanged Judas as a symbol of betrayal, and candles, symbols of divinity, are located next to the apostles, each of whom holds a manuscript with quotations from the Gospel. These fragments of phrases form the complete image that the artist wanted to convey: the picture is a manifesto of the suffering of Christ, an act of great self-sacrifice, at the same time associated with incredible suffering and amazing miracles.

Except for Mijo Kovacic (b. 1935), in the early seventies, no artist of the Khlebinsky school was so convincing in his interpretations of Scripture. But, despite the similarity of the works of Vechenai and Kovacic, one can see distinctive features in the biblical cycles of artists: extrapolation". Vechenaya's religious works are filled with fabulousness and phantasmagoria, like old legends, and reflect the artist's vision, his personal attitude to the parables of the Old and New Testaments.

The prevailing majority of genre scenes in the peasant primitive comes from the fact that the peasants simply and clearly depict the surroundings. Therefore, in an endless series of scenes of harvesting and festive feasts, individualism is so valuable, which, within the framework of established canons, a naive artist shows, forming his own idiosyncratic style. A modest amount of biblical motifs is explained by a purely personal experience of faith, which the peasants are not used to sharing publicly, and Vechenaya's contribution to the direction lies precisely in his religious works - here a unique traditionalism is revealed within the sacred theme of relations with God for the peasants.

Literature

1. Bihaljia-Merin O. Modern primitives: Masters of Naive Painting. New York: Abrams, Cop. 1959. 304 rubles.

2. Jelusic B. Vecenajevih pet prstiju. Zagreb: Galerija Mirko Virius, 2010. 130 p.

3. Armstrong K. Brief history of myth. M. : Open world, 2005. 160 p.

4. Bible, Gospel of John [Electronic resource] URL: http://allbible.info/bible/sino-dal/joh/19#25 (date of access: 06/19/2017).

5. Jacob M.J. Naive and Outsider Painting from Germany: An Introduction // Naive and Outsider Painting from Germany and Paintings by Gabriele Munter. Chicago: Museum of Contemporary Art, 1983. 118 p.

Lagranskaya Sofia A., State Institute of Art Studies (Moscow, Russian Federation).

Email: [email protected]

Tomsk State University Journal of Cultural Studies and Art History, 2018, 30, pp. 139-146.

DOI: 10.17223/2220836/30/14

CROATIAN NAIVE ART: IVAN VECENAJ

Keywords: Ivan Vecenaj; Hlebin school; naive art; Croatian art; art history.

The peasants are with no doubts deeply religious, but in their paintings it wasn't practically reflected: the artists, with a reasonable share of selfishness, were rather focused on nature and people near themselves. The exception is Ivan Vecenaj (1920-2013) and his biblical cycle - atypical for the peasant primitive - which opened a new page in the Croatian naive art.

Like most representatives of the Hlebin school - the largest trend in Croatian naive art - Vecenaj worked by oil on glass. This is an old technique, based on which artist paints in a reverse way - layer by layer from details to the background.

Vecenaj added a little bit of fantasy to his characters - whether it was multicolored foliage in the middle of winter or a purple hue of a cow's wool. In his works, Vecenaj tends more to realism, but with elements of expression, grotesque and irony.

S.A. HaspancKan

Vecenaj moved The Scriptures in space and time, modernizing them and placing them in a familiar environment. His paintings are depiction of suffering and reverent aware of faith. The palette is bright and saturated, as if it reflected the hysteria of the stories. In the Vecenaj "s works the spectator encounters the cruelty of the image that is uncharacteristic for peasant naive art - and it"s lies not so much in the subjects as in the repulsive depiction of landscapes: scorched deserts, charred trees, thorny bushes, and blood-red sky - all this creates a feeling of discomfort and fear - emotions that are completely uncharacteristic for the pastoral naive art of the Hlebine school.

The prevailing majority of genre scenes in the peasant primitive is due to the fact that for peasants it "s just more simple and clear to represent the surrounding. Therefore, in an endless series of harvesting and feast scenes, individualism which Ivan Vecenaj has created is so valuable. The artist's contribution to the Hlebin school lies precisely in his religious works - here he discovers a unique traditionalism in the context of sacred topic for the peasants - relations with God.

1. Bihaljia-Merin, O. (1959) Modern primitives: Masters of Naive Painting. New York: Abrams,

2. Jelusic, B. (2010) Vecenajevih pet prstiju. Zagreb: Galerija Mirko Virius.

3. Armstrong, K. (2005) Kratkaya istoria mifa. Translated from English by A. Blaze. Moscow: Otkritiy mir.

4. Bible, Evangelie ot John. Available from: http://allbible.info/bible/sinodal/joh/19#25. (Assessed: 19th June 2017).

5. Jacob, M.J. (1983) Naive and Outsider Painting from Germany: An Introduction. In: Munter, G. Naive and Outsider Painting from Germany and Paintings. Chicago: Museum of Contemporary Art.

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.

The Khlebinsky school in Croatia has never looked like a classical 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 the hallmark of the 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 time-consuming technique, because the author applies oil paint to the picture in reverse order - first he draws highlights and small details, and then he applies the drawing layer by layer. 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. “Everyone we are talking about, despite the fact that they are world-renowned 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 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.

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?

The exhibition "The Magical World of the 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 of Western Europe.

This summer, Yaroslavl residents do not need to travel to Moscow, Zagreb, Nice to get acquainted with one of the best schools of folk painting - Croatian. Come to the Museum of 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 of folk artists in one of the monographs. A trip to Croatia led to an acquaintance with modern masters of painting and a desire to build my own 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 the back of the glass. A pencil sketch is placed under the glass, often very sketchy, indicating the overall composition of the picture, then the foreground, all the small details are written, and so on 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 big pictures are 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 received a higher 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 various painting techniques, including oil painting on glass. And, most importantly, he taught not to imitate, but to find his own view of the world around him, 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 paintings. 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 fame of the Khlebinsky school into 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 the 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.A small world, no doubt, but of a gentle and virtuous quality, a refined and serious spirit, where naivety and refinement are closely connected. the moment is the melody of one person, one nation 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 are equally the same participants like those hills, peasants and trees... Yes, a man 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 he created his own history, 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 the 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 graphics in the world of 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 contains 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 painting was the forerunner of his famous work "White deer" .

He created a magical fantasy and at the same time real world 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 "Creation of the World" within the framework of the V Moscow International Festival "Festnaiv" in MMOMA, in 2017.

The key point is the bright, magnificent work of the representative of the last wave of the 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 a philosophical view of the worldview 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.

Naive painting. Ivan Generalic - Naive Patriarch of Croatia

The famous representative of the Khlebin school of naive painting IVAN GENERALIC (Generalic) is a Croatian self-taught artist (December 21, 1914, the village of Khlebine, Croatia - November 27, 1992, ibid.). Having created a school of peasant painters in his native village of Khlebin in 1930, he became one of the most famous masters of "naive art" in the world. His painting (on canvas or on glass) is generally colorful and major, full of folklore optimism, but also includes many mournful motifs of the memory of the terror of the Second World War.

The biography of the artist, who was born in a peasant family, is not replete with events - he lived all his life in his native Khlebin. Interest in art appeared early, but he did not receive a professional education. Zagreb painter Krsto Hegedusic, a representative of left-wing intellectuals, prompted him to take up painting seriously: in 1931 he attracted Generalic and his fellow villagers, Franjo Mraz and Mirko Virius, to participate in the exhibition of his group "Earth" in Zagreb.

In the interwar twenty years, the discovery by professionals of the work of “naive” artists, free from the dogmas of tradition, met the task of democratizing society, opening up new expressive possibilities for art. Croatia.

Features of creativity. The themes of social inequality, characteristic of the early period, were replaced by stories about the peasant life of Khlebin. These are genre, less often allegorical scenes with many details of a tightly knit peasant life, landscapes, animated figures of people. The prose of the daily lives side by side with a fairy tale: ferocious bulls and birds of paradise, estranged deer and mysterious unicorns. Capacious symbols in the paintings "Sunflowers" (1970), "The Cat at the Candle" (1971), "Deer in the Forest" (1956) represent the folk fantasy and high poetry of the artist's personality.

Generalic's works are chamber-sized and painted in oil on glass. Icons in the Alpine regions of Croatia and Slovenia were written in a similar way in the old days - the light passing through the glass creates a particularly rich color. The artist is faithful to the folk craft and in the manner of depicting the world: a flattened image, the clarity of the contour, the rhythm of the carpet composition, in which all the details are equal and equivalent. The people's vision of the world, naive and wise, is combined with the artist's experience of getting acquainted with mass visual production - kitsch, which gave rise to a unique fusion of childish immediacy of perception with the courage of artistic decisions.

The work of Generalic, which broke away from the folk craft and did not join the educated art, formed a special niche, having joined the international artistic process. The artist is free from the framework of tradition and norms of style, however, latently the history of art is still reflected in his work. Thus, his famous painting “Under the Pear Tree” (1943), with its high horizon of composition and restrained coloring, resembles the canvases of Brueghel the Elder, the painting “Deer Matchmakers” (1961) is full of the charm of ancient Eastern reliefs, and “Khlebinskaya Mona Lisa” (1972) in the form of a chicken ridicules common stereotypes.

The patriarch of Croatian naive painting, Generalic, created a whole galaxy of masters of the Hlein school. Together with him, his son Josip also painted pictures. The works of Generalic and his colleagues are kept in the Gallery of Naive Art in Zagreb, as well as in museums in many countries of the world.

And thanks to the exchange, I became the owner of 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, an outstanding artist of the 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, on 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 a 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 the starting point for the emergence of the Croatian naive phenomenon, 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 Vechenaj the best colorist among Podravina's 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 completing four grades of basic school, Miyo, along with his brothers (he was the fifth and youngest child in the family), helped his parents in agriculture and household chores.
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. The winner of many awards and a recognized classic of the world naive, Millau still lives in his village, he also continues to paint, and spends all his free time 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.

Ivan generalich and naive painting of Croatia. The magical world of the Croatian naive

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