Tag: Oton Postružnik

Oton Postružnik, Open Seashell, 1977

Oton Postružnik
Open Seashell, 1977
oil on canvas
65.3 x 81 cm
MG-6977

Oton Postružnik (Maribor, 1900 – Zagreb, 1978) was a leading figure in Croatian modern art. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb and continued his education in Prague and Paris. He began his artistic career as a member of the “Earth” Association of Artists, known for its socially engaged art, and later became a key proponent of lyrical abstraction in post-war Croatia. After 1960, Postružnik produced his first non-figurative works, characterised by a colour-focused approach. His art from this period reveals a strong connection to nature, evident in the organic forms and his sensitivity to colour. This later phase, which includes the painting Open Seashell, presents a more subtle and introspective abstraction inspired by the natural world.
The work is shaped to evoke the organic world, with forms resembling bubbles or seashell fragments. It falls within the style of organic abstraction, featuring fluid, amorphous shapes and smooth colour transitions. Pastel greens, blues, and reds dominate the composition. The abstract, lyrical atmosphere is further enhanced by an intuitive interpretation of natural forms.
Postružnik left an indelible mark in Croatian art through his innovative use of form and colour. As a long-standing professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, he guided and influenced numerous generations of young artists.

Luciana Fuks, trainee curator at 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

Oton Postružnik, Composition I, 1961

Oton Postružnik
Composition I, 1961
oil on canvas
130.5 x 162.5 cm
MG-6971

Oton Postružnik (1900 – 1978) was a socially and critically engaged painter (printmaker and sculptor) in the pre-WWII period and one of the most prominent representatives of Lyrical Abstraction in the post-war period. In 1915 he enrolled in painter Ljubo Babić’s private art school. In 1917 he took part in anti-Hungary protests, when he gave a fiery speech, which resulted in being cautioned by the authorities. In 1920 he left the Advanced School of Arts and Crafts in Zagreb and moved to Prague to study (under painter V. Bukovac). After he returned from Prague, he continued his studies at the newly founded Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, where he graduated under Lj. Babić (1924). Postružnik was one of the first students to work in ceramics under H. Juhn. In the same year, he opened a private painting school together with painter I. Tabaković, with whom he exhibited The Grotesques series of drawings akin to the Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) art movement at the Ullrich Salon. This series of drawings heralded the critical and social agenda of the Earth Association of Artists (1929-1935), which he was a founding member of. He studied in Paris in 1925 and 1926 (under A. Lhote and M. Kisling), which may have influenced his monumental painting (Klek Mountain, 1929). He often spent time in Dalmatia, where he developed a distinctive colourism based on bright and open colours, and a powerful and free style. In the 1950s he started reducing his figural templates to flat signs, pure colours and compositional glows of light. The painting Composition I (1961) is a paradigmatic visualisation for understanding Postružnik’s reduction and abstraction of the landscape and the motif to floating natural forms at the intersections and correlations between Organic and Lyrical Abstraction and softened Art Informel. It is material lyricism of moderate colouring and organic forms based on counterpoints between the biomorphically reduced floating anti-gravitational saturated and peculiar relief matrix and a foundation of thinned flat surface interspersed with spots, dots and variable building traces that improvise and repeat the central motif in reduced form. Postružnik taught at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb between 1958 and 1970, and received the Vladimir Nazor Lifetime Achievement Award in 1964.

Text: Željko Marciuš, 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

Oton Postružnik, Leaf I, 1961

Oton Postružnik
Leaf I, 1961
oil on canvas, 130.5 x 97 cm
MG-6970

Oton Postružnik (1900 – 1978) was a socially and critically engaged painter (graphic artist and sculptor) in the pre-WWII period and one of the most prominent representatives of Lyrical Abstraction in the post-war period. In 1915 he enrolled in painter Ljubo Babić’s private art school. In 1917 he took part in anti-Hungary protests, when he gave a fiery speech, on account of which he was cautioned by the authorities. In 1920 he left the College of Arts and Crafts in Zagreb and moved to Prague to study (under painter Vlaho Bukovac). After he returned from Prague, he continued his studies at the newly founded Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, where he graduated under Prof. Ljubo Babić (1924). Postružnik was one of the first students to work in ceramics under Prof. Hinko Juhn. In the same year, he opened a private painting school together with painter I. Tabaković, with whom he exhibited The Grotesques series of drawings akin to the German New Objectivity art movement at the Ullrich Salon. This series of drawings heralded the critical and social agenda of the Earth Association of Artists (1929-1935), which he was a founding member of. He studied in Paris in 1925 and 1926 (under painters A. Lhote and M. Kisling), which may have influenced his monumental painting (Klek Mountain, 1929). He often stayed in Dalmatia, where he developed a distinctive Colourism based on bright and open colours, and a powerful and free style. In the 1950s he started reducing his figural templates to flat signs, pure colours and compositional glows of light. The painting Leaf I (1961) is an example of the way in which Postružnik would reduce the landscape, that is, the natural motif to its sign at the crossroads of Organic and Lyrical Abstraction on the one hand and softened Art Informel on the other. It is material lyricism of proportional colouring based on organic surfaces interspersed with linear surfaces, dots and spots. He taught at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb between 1958 and 1970, and won the Vladimir Nazor Lifetime Achievement Award in 1964.

Text: Željko Marciuš, National Museum of Modern Art © National Museum of Modern Art , Zagreb
Translated by: Robertina Tomić
Photo: Goran Vranić © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb