The 1st Upper Croatian Poetry Festival was held in the gallery
On Sunday 22.4. in the Ivan Večenaj Gallery was held the 1st Upper Croatian Poetry Festival “View of the Knowing the Day” on the occasion of the Croatian Book of Days...
Naive artist of Hlebine school, literate and collector of ethnographic and linguistic treasures of Prekodravlje.
Croatian naive artist Ivan Večenaj – Tišlarov was born on May 18th 1920 in the village Gola located between the river Drava and the Hungarian border in the so-called Prekodravlje , in a peasant family , the first child of six brothers . He completed four years of primary school with honors, but due to the poor condition of their parents could not continue their education . He worked with his father in the field and went to wages richer neighbors in the winter time; in his 15th year he learned to weave domestic fabric of hemp , and so, weaving others deserved for clothing and footwear . On Sunday or when it rained , he always took a pen and paper and drew or copied it someone else’s image , so that some drawings preserved even the 1934th.
With a group ZEMLJA (EARTH) him at that time no one connected, and he did not know about her until after World War II when he coneccted with Ivan Generalić and Krsto Hegedušić in Hlebine. So his first exhibition was in 1954th in Koprivnica with painters from Hlebine. Since then Ivan Večenaj exhibited independently and shared throughout the world as one of the most important representatives of Hlebine School and artists of Croatian naive art. Through 60 years of creativity most painted oil paintings on glass that are specific to the Croatian naïve inverse method of painting . Many of his paintings are in private collections , museums and galleries worldwide , including the Vatican Museum of Contemporary Art in Rome. He has exhibited throughout Croatia and the former Yugoslavia, Milan, Turin, Paris, San Francisco, Florida, Japan, Munich, Basel, Monte Carlo, New York, etc. He has received many awards and honors. Kokoschka and others.
From an early age, and at the same time writing and painting , and writing is intensely started working after WWII but especially writing and collecting old words, proverbs and riddles. Until his death ( February 13th 2013 . ) he wrote eight books.
Love for their region and the nature he was showing daily , and so with the help of his son Mladen collected ethnographic treasure so that his father’s house turned into an ethnographic collection of more than 700 items. Today Ethno house Večenaj is under the protection of Cultural Heritage of Croatia. He died on February 13th 2013 year 93 age leaving behind an important cultural treasure and legacy to his family and Prekodravlje
