Zuzana Chalupová (; 5 February 1925 – 1 August 2001) was a Serbian

naïve 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 moral idealism. A ''naïve'' may ...

painter of Slovak ethnicity, who was born and lived her whole life in the town of Kovačica, Serbia. Her colourful naive-style paintings recall children's works and fairy-tale illustrations. She typically painted children, so she was called "Mama Zuzana with a thousand children".

Biography

Chalupová finished only five grades of elementary school.Gallery of Naive Art, Kovačica

In the 1950s she began making scarves, shirts, and tapestries with traditional motifs. After earning some money from selling tapestries, she bought

oil paint Oil paint is a type of slow-drying paint that consists of particles of pigment suspended in a drying oil, commonly linseed oil. Oil paint also has practical advantages over other paints, mainly because it is waterproof. The earliest surviving ...

and started painting on canvas. She painted her first oil on canvas painting named ''Mlaćenje konoplja'' (''Hemp Beating'') in 1964. She enjoyed imminent success. She exhibited her paintings in the Museum of Naive Arts in Svetozarevo and in Kovačica during the "Kovačički oktobar" festival. Her first solo exhibition was in 1968 in

Dubrovnik Dubrovnik, historically known as Ragusa, is a city in southern Dalmatia, Croatia, by the Adriatic Sea. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations in the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean, a Port, seaport and the centre of the Dubrovni ...

where all of the paintings were bought by foreign collectors. Over the following three decades, Chalupová exhibited her works worldwide (France, Germany, Switzerland, USA, England, Japan, and elsewhere).

Work and legacy

Though she never had children of her own, the most frequent motif in Chalupová's paintings were children. Even adults (some with moustaches) look like children in her paintings. Her other frequent motifs are winter, Kovačica church, and

biblical The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) biblical languages ...

themes. Chalupová made many paintings for charity purposes. She painted a monumental painting for the

International Committee of the Red Cross The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is a humanitarian organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, and is a three-time Nobel Prize laureate. The organization has played an instrumental role in the development of rules of war and ...

depicting children with the members of the Red Cross. In 1978, she made a painting named ''Zaštitimo spomenike kulture'' (''Let's Protect the Cultural Heritage!'') for the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of Serbia. The painting depicts

Gračanica monastery Gračanica () may refer to: Places Bosnia and Herzegovina * Gračanica, Bosnia and Herzegovina, a town and municipality in Tuzla * Gračanica (Bugojno), a village in Central Bosnia * Gračanica, Gacko, a village in Republika Srpska * Gračanica, ...

, statue of Pobednik,

Serbian Orthodox The Serbian Orthodox Church ( sr-Cyrl-Latn, Српска православна црква, Srpska pravoslavna crkva) is one of the autocephalous (ecclesiastically independent) Eastern Orthodox Christian churches. The majority of the populat ...

priests with children in Slovak traditional costumes and God watching all this from the skies. In 1974, Chalupová made a painting for the

UNICEF UNICEF ( ), originally the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, officially United Nations Children's Fund since 1953, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Development a ...

headquarters named ''Children of the UN'', full of symbols: It depicts the Earth, UNICEF headquarters, and the

Statue of Liberty The Statue of Liberty (''Liberty Enlightening the World''; ) is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, within New York City. The copper-clad statue, a gift to the United States from the people of French Thir ...

surrounded by children and angels with olive branches. The same year, her painting ''Zima'' (''Winter'') was printed by UNICEF Christmas card program in two million copies. Her creative legacy consists of more than 1,000 paintings. Many of her paintings are on permanent display in Kovačica's Gallery of Naive Art. For her achievements, Matica slovenská decorated Chalupová with the order of Cyril and Methodius. Zuzana Halupova 04.jpg, Awards given to Zuzana Chalupová Zuzana Halupova 03.jpg,

Easel An easel is an upright support used for displaying and/or fixing something resting upon it, at an angle of about 20° to the vertical. In particular, painters traditionally use an easel to support a painting while they work on it, normally stan ...

of Zuzana Chalupová Zuzana Halupova 05.jpg, Painting by Zuzana Chalupová on Postage Stamp

References

External links

*Slovak Art of Vojvodina
Zuzana Chalupova (1925-2001)
*Babka Gallery

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chalupova, Zuzana 1925 births 2001 deaths 20th-century Serbian people Serbian people of Slovak descent 20th-century Serbian painters Serbian women artists Serbian women painters People from Kovačica 20th-century women painters Naïve painters