Zvonimir Mihanovic, born in 1946 near Split, achieved worldwide fame for his poetic paintings of peace and tranquility along Croatian coast, drawn with breathtaking precision. In 1978 he was awarded the grand prize of the prestigious Salon d’Automne in Paris. In 1996 his work was exhibited in the Croatian Pavillion at the Atlanta Summer Olympics.
Dimitrije Popovic held three exhibitions in Rome as a part of Vatican’s celebration of Grand Jubilee to mark 2000 years of Christianity. These exhibitions are also part of the project “The Way and the Holy Land (Rome – Jerusalem)”. Paintings within Popovic’s cycle Corpus Mysticum are devoted to Jesus Christ and his crucifixion. Born in Montenegro (1951), he graduated at the Academy in Zagreb. In 1982 he exhibited in Pforzheim with Salvador Dali.
Ante Dabro, born in Croatia in 1938, began carving as a shepherd. His talent was first noticed during his childhood, when he carved a dove so precisely, that his cat jumped on it. He studied under Antun Augustincic in Zagreb. Not agreeing with communist Yugoslavia, since 1967 he lives in Australia, where he became one of the most outstanding sculptors. He exhibited in many european cities, and his work is especially esteemed in London. Some of his most important works…
Naive art is quite widespread and highly esteemed. The first steps were undertaken by the painter Krsto Hegedusic (1901-1971) in the Croatian village of Hlebine. It was the famous Hlebine school. Hegedusic also founded a group of artists called “Zemlja” (Earth) in Zagreb in 1929, which has been forbidden by the Yugoslav (Serbian) police in 1935. From a large number of naive painters, whose creations decorate private and state collections from Paris to Tokyo, let us mention only a few:…
Jacques Le Goff: …the flowering of one of the finest European artistic traditions of the Early Middle Ages… From his foreword to “Croatia in the Middle Ages: A Cultural Survey” On the territory of Croatia there exist many remains of the Ancient Greek and Roman civilizations. Let us mention only the beautiful palace of the Roman Emperor Diocletian (4th century) in Split (the city and the palace have been bombed in 1991 during the Greater Serbian aggression), the ancient city…
One of the most beautiful buildings in Croatia is the fortress of Veliki Tabor from 15th century, in the north of Croatia (in the region of Hrvatsko Zagorje). An interesting Croatian Jesuit and missionary to India, Nikola Ratkaj (Rattkay) (1601 – 1662), was born there. Another Jesuit and missionary to Mexico born in Veliki Tabor was Ivan Ratkaj (1647 – 1683). For more information see [Croatian “Indias”] and [Zoric]. Veliki Tabor contains a part of collection of Antun Bauer, famous…
The first film was shot in Zagreb in 1912. Many interesting animated movies were created by the Zagreb School of Animated Film. Dusan Vukotic with his 1962 OSCAR for animated film Surogat, created in Zagreb From Vukotic’s 1962 OSCAR winning Surrogate, a film which opened new directions in the history of world animation. Surogat by Dusan Vukotic, 1961Uploaded by mochuelin “Surogat” (Substitute, The Ersatz) by Dusan Vukotic (1927-1998) was the first animated film created outside the USA which won the…
One of the distinguishing traits of Croatian national art can be seen in the famous PAG LACE. Meticulous and painstaking work of sunburn women from the island of Pag has been highly praised by European aristocracy. Maria Theresia (1717-1780), Austrian Empress, visited the island of Pag solely to get acquainted with lace-makers and their art. Afterwards, she invited three of them to be permanently on her court in Vienna. Some of the oldest Croatian laces, dating from 16th century, can…
Henryk Sienkiewicz (1846-1916), Polish Nobel-Prize winner, wrote parts of his renowned novels during five of his visits to Croatia. Though Janko Polic Kamov (1886-1910) died very young, at the age of 24, he was a distinguished representative of Croatian and European avant-garde literature. This little known and very original writer was discovered more than 70 years after his premature death. His short story Sorrow was published in the Boston literary journal “Partisan Review.” Some distinguished American literary theorists consider him…
John Malkovich, a famous American actor, has Croatian roots. It is interesting that he recited verses of Croatian national anthem Lijepa Nasa (Our Beautiful) in Nenad Bach’s song “Can We Go Higher?” in 1990s, see the video via www.lijepanasadomovina.com. Many thanks to Nenad Bach for this information. John Malkovich reciting verses of Lijepa nasa (Our Beautiful), Croatian national anthem, in Croatian, in Los Angeles studio Village Recorder, November 1990 (information by Nenad Bach, New York, July 2005) Freedom From Dispair,…