Krsto Hegedušić
(1901 – 1975)
Hlebine, 1931
oil / wood
73.5 x 100 cm
MG-2971

In his painting Hlebine from 1931, Krsto Hegedušić synthesises all the main guidelines of the Earth Association of Artists. For the purpose of creating a national artistic expression, but also an expression of social criticism from the left-wing political position, in a typical scene from his native region of Podravina, Hegedušić emphasises the need for the democratisation of culture. Finding inspiration in the native folk-art heritage, but also Brueghel and Grosz, Hegedušić presents the peasantry as our predominant, yet completely marginalised social group. He moves away from the conventional understanding of beauty and academic painting concepts and builds the scene flatly, with local colour of clear symbolism and expressive drawing in which the grotesque and the tragic, black humour and compassion merge. The figures are deprived of even a semblance of perspective and volume. In addition to the high horizon, what is also typical for Hegedušić’s Earth-style painting is the lowland landscape with muddy waters, next to which people are assembled in the foreground engaged in their daily work with domestic animals that they live with and from. Besides the typical vegetation, the region of Podravina is also characterised by low farmhouses that stretch along the road towards the depth of the scene, and are plastered in soil and often covered with straw.
Although his education at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, where he was mentored by Krizman, Becić, Kljaković, Kovačević and Babić, and the ongoing course of Croatia’s Modern art had little effect on Krsto Hegedušić, his originality and determination in the 1930s birthed a new paradigm of form and motif, facilitating the emergence of Croatian Naïve Art. In 1937, he started teaching at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb. In addition to painting, he also produced drawings, prints, frescoes, book illustrations, set and costume designs. He died in 1975.

Text: Lada Bošnjak Velagić, senior curator at NMMU © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb, 2022
Translation: Robertina Tomić
Photo:: Goran Vranić © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb, 2022