Krsto Hegedušić
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Krsto Hegedušić (26 November 1901 – 7 April 1975) was a
Biography
He was born in Petrinja, but when his father died in 1909, the family came back to Hlebine, the village in the region of Podravina from which they originated.
In 1920 Hegedušić enrolled in the Arts and Crafts College in Zagreb, where he made his first idyllic paintings of Podravina. The painting courses of Vladimir Becić and Tomislav Krizman widened his horizons, but did not influence his style.
In 1926 he was awarded a French government scholarship and spent two years in Paris. There he studied the paintings of Pieter Brueghel.
Hegedušić made his first one-man exhibition with Juraj Plančić at the Ulrich Gallery in Zagreb in 1926. He made paintings with social themes, showing the exploitation of the Croatian peasants. In 1929 he got together with the painters Ivan Tabaković and Oton Postružnik, as well as Leo Junek in Paris. They founded Zemlja ("soil" in Croatian), the first Croatian group of artists that promoted Marxism. Hegedušić was their ideologue and unofficial leader. Paintings like The Accordionist and The Flood are socially critical and reject purely artistic goals.
In 1930 he founded the
Hegedušić started teaching at the
After the World War II, he started painting some surrealistic paintings. For example, Dead Waters is somewhat remindful of themes of the
Paintings like The Bridegroom, the Ox and the Pump from 1969 are critical of urban life. In the period 1971–73, Hegedušić worked on a large cycle of macabre frescoes for the war memorial of Tjentište.
He illustrated books and designed ballet and theater sets. He died in Zagreb in 1975.
Sources
- HEGEDUŠIĆ, Krsto at lzmk.hr (in Croatian)
- Comment to Dead Waters, in Muzeji Jugoslavije by Dragoslav Srejović; Oto Bihalji-Merin; Ivan Brajdić; Dragoljub Kažic, Ljubljana : Mladinska knjiga (1973)