Josip Biffel
Indian Summer, 1966
oil on canvas
65 x 60 cm
MG-2663

Josip Biffel (1933-2018, Zagreb) was a Croatian painter who worked as a professor in the University of Arts in Zagreb from 1979 and is known for painting the Franciscan monastery and the church in Šćit, the national monument of Bosnia in Hercegovina.
He mostly painted figurative compositions and objects in landscapes with elements of the unusual and fantastical, depicting poetic and melancholic scenes which connect him to Symbolism, Surrealism and Metaphysical painting.
Tonal chromatism with thick and lively brushstroke can be seen in the work „Indian Summer“ from 1966. The work depicts three semi-naked male figures in the foreground with another man standing in the background next to a building resembling a theatre backdrop. The figures are set in a space colored in deep red tones and the name of the work „Indian Summer“ suggests a very specific atmosphere - a deep, scorching heat that is hard to avoid.

Text: Stella Baki, curator / museum educator at the National Museum of Modern Art Zagreb
Photo: Goran Vranić © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb