Krsto Hegedušić (26 November 1901 – 7 April 1975) was a

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

n painter, illustrator and theater designer. His most famous paintings depict the harsh life of the Croatian peasantry in the manner of

naive art Naivety (also spelled naïvety), naiveness, or naïveté is the state of being naive. It refers to an apparent or actual lack of experience and sophistication, often describing a neglect of pragmatism in favor of Deontology, moral idealism. A ''na ...

. He was one of the founders of the Earth Group.

Biography

He was born in

Petrinja Petrinja () is a town in central Croatia near Sisak in the historic region of Banija, Banovina. It is administratively located in Sisak-Moslavina County. On December 29, 2020, the town was 2020 Petrinja earthquake, hit by a strong earthquake wit ...

, but when his father died in 1909, the family came back to

Hlebine Hlebine is a municipality in Koprivnica-Križevci County in Croatia. It consists of two villages, Hlebine and Gabajeva Greda. History Hlebine is first mentioned 1671 as a village in the Drnje parish. It became an independent parish in the 18th ...

, the village in the region of Podravina from which they originated. In 1920 Hegedušić enrolled in the

Arts and Crafts The Arts and Crafts movement was an international trend in the Decorative arts, decorative and fine arts that developed earliest and most fully in the British Isles and subsequently spread across the British Empire and to the rest of Europe and ...

College in

Zagreb Zagreb ( ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, north of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the ...

, where he made his first idyllic paintings of Podravina. The painting courses of Vladimir Becić and

Tomislav Krizman Tomislav Krizman (1882–1955), was a Croatian Painting, painter, graphic artist, costume and set designer, teacher, author and organizer of cultural events. He painted in oil painting, oils and tempera, although he is principally remembered for ...

widened his horizons, but did not influence his style. In 1926 he was awarded a French government scholarship and spent two years in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. 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 Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflict, ...

. 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 Hlebine School, a

movement that involved young peasant painters. One of them, Ivan Generalić, reached world fame. ''Podravina Motifs'', published in 1933, was a book combining his drawings with a poetic

essay An essay ( ) is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a Letter (message), letter, a term paper, paper, an article (publishing), article, a pamphlet, and a s ...

by Miroslav Krleža, today considered a masterpiece of

Croatian literature Croatian literature refers to literary works attributed to the medieval and modern culture of the Croats, Croatia, and Croatian language, Croatian. Besides the modern language whose shape and orthography were standardized in the late 19th centu ...

. Krleža would later write a script for a documentary feature about Hegedušić (1962). Hegedušić started teaching at the Academy of Fine Arts Zagreb in 1936. During the

anti-communist Anti-communism is political and ideological opposition to communist beliefs, groups, and individuals. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, when th ...

oppression in the 1930s, he was arrested several times. When the

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

-sponsored Ustaša came to power in 1941, Hegedušić came under the protection of the Archbishop Stepinac. He spent the war quietly working on various themes, including religion (numerous sketches for the Calvary fresco in Marija Bistrica in 1941). When the communist government overtook power in

Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...

in 1945, Hegedušić was appointed as a regular professor at the Zagreb Academy. In 1950, he founded a "master's studio" there. The "master's studio" eventually gathered an impressive list of notable painters such as Miroslav Šutej, Zlatko Sirotić, and others. After the World War II, he started painting some surrealistic paintings. For example, ''Dead Waters'' is somewhat remindful of themes of the Theatre of the Absurd. 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 Tjentište ( sr-Cyrl, Тјентиште) is a village and a valley in the municipality of Foča, Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It lies entirely within Sutjeska National Park The Sutjeska National Park ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, Nacionalni pa ...

. He illustrated books and designed ballet and theater sets. He died in Zagreb in 1975.

Sources

HEGEDUŠIĆ, Krsto
at lzmk.hr * Comment to ''Dead Waters'', in ''Muzeji Jugoslavije'' by Dragoslav Srejović; Oto Bihalji-Merin; Ivan Brajdić; Dragoljub Kažic, Ljubljana : Mladinska knjiga (1973) {{DEFAULTSORT:Hegedusic, Krsto 1901 births 1975 deaths People from Petrinja Croatian naïve painters Vladimir Nazor Award winners Members of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts Burials at Mirogoj Cemetery