Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Self-Guided Tour:
Buy your ticket and follow the one-way route through the six
numbered rooms, which you'll circle counter-clockwise.
Room 1:
Immediately to the right as you enter is the first of many paintings by
Ivan
Generali
ć
(1914-1992), the founder and star of Croatian naive art (his self-portrait, with a
blue background, dominates the room). Generali
ć
was discovered in the 1930s by a Paris-
trained Croatian artist. The first few paintings show his evolution as an artist (and the evol-
ution of Croatian naive art in general): While his early works come with a social or political
agenda (such as
The Requisition,
where two policemen repo a cow from an impoverished
couple), he eventually mellows his focus to show simple, typical village scenes that gradu-
ally become more and more fantastical
(Harvesters),
and eventually strips away people en-
tirely to focus on the land (on the opposite wall, see 1938's
Cows in the Forest
and 1959's
The Flood
).In1953,Generali
ć
—stillrelativelyunknownoutsidehishomeland—didashow
in Paris, sold everything, and came home rich. This put Croatian naive art on the interna-
tional map and kick-started a new vigor in the movement.
