Zlatko Bourek
Fresh Bread, 1966
oil on canvas and fibreboard
85 x 70 cm
MG-4429

Zlatko Bourek (1929–2018) was a quintessential homo ludens of Croatian figurative painting and sculpture. A multitalented artist, Bourek worked successfully across caricature, illustration, drawing, stage and costume design, as well as directing both animated and live-action films and theatre productions.
Since 1963, his paintings—crafted through a stream-of-consciousness approach—reveal an unconventional style of fantastic realism and surrealism, rich in grotesque imagery, irony, humor, folklore, and often erotic elements. His 1966 painting Fresh Bread is a vivid, color-saturated phantasmagoria—a kaleidoscope of figures, objects, and hybrid forms that reflect a sublimation of instincts, including a joyful ode to a simple loaf of fresh bread.
Bourek’s visual language was grounded in his deep knowledge of traditional folk art, Japanese puppet theatre, German Expressionism, and New Objectivity. He graduated in sculpture, painting, and metalwork at the Academy of Applied Arts in 1955 (under Kosta Angeli Radovani).
From 1954 onward, Bourek was continuously involved in animation. He was one of the founding members of the Zagreb School of Animated Film and a key representative of its painterly stream. Beginning in 1960, he created animated films based on his own scripts, such as The Blacksmith’s Apprentice (1961), And I Saw Distant Foggy Marshes (1964), Bećarac (1966), and The Cat (1971).
Since 1988, he was a permanent member of the Hans Wurst Nachfahren Theater in Berlin, where he directed four Chekhov one-acts, Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, and the farce Rigoletto. In 1977, he directed the puppet farce Orlando maleroso in Dubrovnik. His acclaimed production of Hamlet with Zagreb’s ITD Theatre toured major international theatre festivals to great success.
Bourek received numerous awards throughout his career and became a full member of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts (HAZU) in 2010.

Text: Željko Marciuš, Museum Advisor, National Museum of Modern Art © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb
Photo: Goran Vranić © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb