Zlatko Šulentić
Worker, 1934
oil on plywood
45.5 x 38.4 cm
MG-1117

Zlatko Šulentić (Glina, 1893 – Zagreb, 1971) received his artistic training at the Provisional Advanced School of Arts and Crafts in Zagreb and at the Munich Academy, which he attended from 1911 to 1914. He was a prominent educator, notably at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb. His oeuvre is primarily marked by a striking use of colour, ranging stylistically from expressionist tendencies to intimism, and occasionally approaching lyrical abstraction. He first showed his work at the landmark inaugural exhibition of the Croatian Spring Salon in Zagreb.
Šulentić’s Worker (1934) presents the torso of an anonymous man against an almost entirely darkened background. Departing from the rich colouration of his earlier work, this painting marks an early move away from chromatic intensity and ushers in a new phase of colouristic intimism. In the absence of an expressive palette, the muted tones convey the sitter’s personality, revealing character more through feeling than through visual detail.

Text: Lovre Mrduljaš © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb
Photo: Goran Vranić © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb