Đuro Tiljak (1895–1965) was a Croatian artist, writer and teacher. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, and studied for some time in Moscow with Wassily Kandinsky. During the 1930s, he was editor of the journal "Culture" (''Kultura'') and "Writer" (''Književnik'') magazine.
For many years he was a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb. He was a member of the
Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts.
Biography
Đuro Tiljak was born 21 March 1895 in Zagreb.
He began his art studies in Zagreb at the College of Arts and Crafts, later to become the Academy of Fine Arts. His teachers there included
Oton Iveković and
Ljubo Babić.
In 1919, he spent some months in Moscow, studying with
Wassily Kandinsky, returning to Zagreb to complete his degree in 1923.
In order to pay back his scholarship, he took up teaching posts in schools.
During the 1930s, Tiljak travelled down the Dalmatian coast in search of inspiration, and visited the island of
Vis.
In December 1942 Tiljak joined the partisans along with his friend
Marijan Detoni
Marijan is a male Croatian first name. The Macedonian version of this name is Marjan.
Marijan is also a last name found in Croatia.
People named Marijan
*Marijan Beneš – Croatian boxer
* Marijan Brkić Brk – Croatian musician
* Marijan B ...
. During the war period he found refuge in the painters' colony in
Cozzan, returning to Zagreb in 1945 to take up the post of professor at the Academy of Fine Art in Zagreb
where he continued to teach until his retirement.
Đuro Tiljak died in Zagreb on 11 December 1965.
Legacy
Initially influenced by
impressionist
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...
and
postimpressionist
Post-Impressionism (also spelled Postimpressionism) was a predominantly French art movement that developed roughly between 1886 and 1905, from the last Impressionist exhibition to the birth of Fauvism. Post-Impressionism emerged as a reaction a ...
painters such as
Cézanne,
Van Gogh
Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, inclu ...
and
Matisse
Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known prima ...
,
Tiljak's style later moved towards
magical realism
Magical is the adjective for magic. It may also refer to:
* Magical (horse) (foaled 2015), Irish Thoroughbred racehorse
* "Magical" (song), released in 1985 by John Parr
* '' Magical: Disney's New Nighttime Spectacular of Magical Celebrations'', ...
. His landscapes were poetic, tending towards abstraction.
In the early 1930s, Tiljak was active in the controversy over artistic expression. Their views were opposed to those of the establishment, and the more intellectual artists. He was particularly critical of the painter Ljubo Babic and the Group of Three, contributing to the polarisation of the Croatian art scene of the time.
In the 1950s, he returned to a more intimate style, close to abstract.
Tiljak's legacy is not simply his own work, but in teaching a new generation of Croatian artists.
His early training with Kandinsky gave him an appreciation for the abstract, which he imparted to his students.
In 1966, a memorial to the work of Đuro Tiljak was opened in
Komiža, on the island of Vis
In 2000, Croatian Post, Inc. issued a stamp of Đuro Tiljak's "Brusnik", 1930 as part of their Croatian Visual Arts series.
Works
* Park, 1925
* Brusnik, 1930
* Cipeliši (Shoes), 1931
* Djevojčica (Little Girl), 1944
* Kuča u prirodi (House in the Country)
Exhibitions
Solo exhibitions
Recent exhibitions of his work include:
* 1972 Đuro Tiljak retrospective – Art Pavilion, Zagreb
Group exhibitions
* 1979 Paintings from the War for National Freedom, Museum of Modern Art, Dubrovnik
Public collections
Đuro Tiljak's work can be found in the following public collections
Croatia
*
Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb
* Gallery of Fine Arts, Osijek
References
Bibliography
* Đuro Tiljak – Retrospektivna Izložba. Monograph published by the Art Pavilion, Zagreb, 1972.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tiljak, Duro
Croatian painters
Members of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts
1895 births
1965 deaths
Yugoslav painters