Tag: Ivan Lesiak

Ivan Lesiak, Birth, 1975

Ivan Lesiak
Birth, 1975
oil on tent canvas, 174 x 166.5 cm
MG-3915

Ivan Lesiak (1929–2008) is a prominent Croatian sculptor, painter, and graphic artist known for his rebellious, engaged, figurative, surrealist, and pop-inspired approach. His work confirms the persistence of figuration (as noted by Z. Rus) even during the high modernist period, which was largely opposed to it. He was a key member of Biafra, an artistic group active in Zagreb from 1970 to 1978, which rejected abstraction for depriving humans of a central role in art. Starting in 1974, the group organized exhibitions and street actions.
Lesiak’s work is characterized by sharp, sometimes harsh expressiveness, focusing on pressing societal issues. He explored themes of humanism and freedom in modern society while referencing ancient Egyptian art (Self-Portrait with Nefertiti, 1974), classical antiquity, late surrealism, and pop art. His work also reflects contrasts between rudimentary humor and melancholic undertones. Across all mediums, his style is marked by expressive, powerful figuration and naturalistic techniques.
Inspired by the paintings of Luca Signorelli, Miljenko Stančić, and Marc Chagall, as well as the existential themes of Miroslav Krleža’s literature (whom he also portrayed in reliefs, Krleža, 1984; Krleža, 1986), Lesiak’s art conveys deep emotional and philosophical tension.
His painting Birth (1975), executed on tent canvas, portrays the raw brutality of childbirth (the expulsion of the newborn) with intense physical strain and profound pain, evoking the cry of birth with symbolic connotations.
Lesiak graduated in sculpture from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb in 1959 (under F. Kršinić). He pursued further studies in Greece (1963–1964) and Egypt (1973–1974). His reliefs reflect a poetic symbolism, while his drawings and prints critically engage with consumer society and contemporary civilization. One of his public aluminum reliefs, Love Journey (1987), is installed in Zagreb. His works are housed in numerous collections and museums both in Croatia and internationally.
Lesiak received multiple awards, including the Josip Račić Award (1983), the Vladimir Nazor Award (1996), and prizes from the Croatian Association of Fine Artists (1997) and the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts (2003).

Text: Željko Marciuš, museum advisor of the National Museum of Modern Art © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb
Photo: Goran Vranić © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb

Ivan Lesiak, Massacre of the Innocents, 1972

Ivan Lesiak
Massacre of the Innocents, 1972
iron (relief)
100 x 200 cm
MG-4240

Zagreb student Ivan Lesiak (1929 – 2008) is particularly known for his figurative reliefs in metal, made in the spirit of poetic Symbolism, Surrealism and fantasy and a direct and coarse expressive style. A significant moment in his artistic biography is his membership in the Biafra Group (1970 – 1978), which problematised the issues of contemporary humanism in its cultural and social context, but also the relationship with contemporary visual art trends, especially Abstract art, advocating engagement and expressive figuration marked by naturalism and distortions. The group’s usual strategy was to organise exhibitions and actions in the streets and public spaces in Croatia and abroad. Lesiak’s drawings and print sheets, critically intoned towards the consumer society and contemporary civilisation, are executed in keeping with this strategy.
Lesiak made the metal relief Massacre of the Innocents in 1976, which is also characterised by the synthesis of the artist’s earlier minimalist poetic Symbolism with a rougher texture and the particularly harsh engaged messages of his ‘Biafra’ years, which were becoming increasingly obvious and dominant in Lesiak’s work. The gruesomeness of the scene, appearing like some eerie satellite image, combines the typical visuality of modern technologies with deliberate connotations to archaic design, just as the horrific theme of the scene evokes associations to the suffering of the innocents in all (historical and contemporary) injustices and wars, but also the biblical account of Herod’s slaughter of innocent children. Accordingly, Lesiak’s universal message is balanced on a formal and substantive level.

Text: dr.sc. Ivana Rončević Elezović, museum consultant of the National Museum of Modern Art © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb
Translated by: Robertina Tomić

Ivan Lesiak, An Ascetic, 1963

Ivan Lesiak
An Ascetic, 1963
metal / embossing (relief)
80 x 164
MG-2628

Zagreb student Ivan Lesiak (1929 – 2008) is particularly known for his figurative reliefs in metal, made in the spirit of poetic Symbolism, Surrealism and fantasy and a direct and coarse expressive style. A significant moment in his artistic biography is his membership in the Biafra Group (1970 – 1978), which problematised the issues of contemporary humanism in its cultural and social context, but also the relationship with contemporary visual art trends, especially Abstract art, advocating engagement and expressive figuration marked by naturalism and distortions. The group’s usual strategy was to organise exhibitions and actions in the streets and public spaces in Croatia and abroad. Lesiak’s drawings and print sheets, critically intoned towards the consumer society and contemporary civilisation, are executed in keeping with this strategy.
Lesiak’s An Ascetic from 1963, created in the period preceding Biafra, is an example of the refined minimalism of the artist’s poetic Symbolism. With carefully selected artistic means and a refined and emphatically symmetrical, static composition, Lesiak conveys a powerful allegory of an upright ascetic male figure, a protagonist in a destitute, contemplative environment.

Text: Ivana Rončević Elezović, museum consultant of the National Museum of Modern Art © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb
Translated by: Robertina Tomić
Photo: Goran Vranić © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb