Slavko Kopač
Flower Seller II, 1973
mixed media, 146 × 114 cm
MG-3947

Slavko Kopač (1913–1995) one of the most significant Croatian modern artists with an international career, working at the intersection of Art Brut, Surrealist painting, and Art Informel. In his 1952 book Un Art Autre, Michel Tapié ranked Kopač among the greatest artists and pioneers of raw art. After graduating in 1937 under Vladimir Becić, Kopač initially worked in the spirit of Post-Impressionist realism, later drawing on the expressive legacy of Miroslav Kraljević and the colouristic facets of Ljubo Babić’s circle, including Ljubo Junek.
During his stay in Italy (1943–1948), he produced impressionistic views and watercolours close to Surrealism. Rejecting realism and academic conventions, he developed an elemental and primary mode of expression—one of the foundations of Art Brut. From 1948 onward, he lived in Paris, where the founder of Art Brut, Jean Dubuffet, appointed him secretary and curator of the Art Brut Collection. He held these positions until 1975, when the collection was transferred to Lausanne.
André Breton entrusted him with the visual design of the limited edition of his poem Un regard des divinités (1949). Kopač also contributed to the Almanach Surréaliste du Demi-Siècle (1950) and exhibited at Breton’s gallery À l’Étoile scellée in 1953. Employing new materials, he created paintings and sculptures using sand, rubber, and metals, as well as stone, wood, paper, glass, and charcoal.
He rendered human figures, imaginary beings, plants, and animals in a primitivist manner, marked by ludic qualities and primordial principles. Flower Seller II (1973) exemplifies this rudimentary and playful approach, closely related to children’s art. Executed in line and mixed media, the work presents a unique grotesque image of a woman, functioning as a paradigm of primitivist art.

Text: Željko Marciuš, senior curator at the National Museum of Modern Art © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb
Photo: Goran Vranić © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb