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A renowned Croatian artist, descended from the people. Together with Ivan Generalić and Mirko Virius, he was a pupil of Krsto Hegedušić, who founded the school of naive art in Hlebinj, and one of the first Croatian primitivists. Franjo Mraz participated in the exhibitions of the Earth group, as well as in many primitive art exhibitions all over Europe. During the Second World War, the artist was active as a partisan activist and advisor in the largest anti-fascist organizations. Having received a professional art education, Mraz eventually returned to the naive style, the openness and spontaneity of which was closest to him.
Key Ideas:
- Although Franjo Mraza's art is partly in the shadow of another native of Hlebine, Ivan Generalić, it has a great artistic value and strong individuality. Krsto Hegedusic, the artist's mentor, made sure that his pupils did not base themselves on the artistic experience of the past, but reproduced their own vision and perception of the world. Following the advice of his teacher, Franjo Mraz depicted real life in the countryside with its joys and hardships in his own recognizably original way.
- Having started with watercolours, under the influence of Hegedusic the artist moved to oil paints, and then worked in tempera on glass. This technique was characteristic of all representatives of the first generation of the Hlebin art school.
- A peculiarity of Mraz's creative manner is soft tonal solutions and less saturated colours than those of his comrades-in-arms. Most of the works are executed in a harmonious color scheme, without solid lines and well-defined contours. The artist works with local color patches that make the paintings decorative and colorful.
- The main theme of the artist's naive painting were traditional village motifs: sowing the fields and harvesting, folk festivities and holidays. Consequently, the main characters were mowers, workers, shepherds looking after the cattle in the fields and forests. The action mostly takes place against a backdrop of picturesque rural landscapes.
- After the 1931 exhibition of the group Earth in Zagreb, to which the young Mraz was invited as a guest, social themes emerge in his works. It is particularly present in the paintings of the post-war period, depicting the sad echoes of the past conflict. Works of the artist in this period become more realistic and emotionally saturated.
- By the 1950s, Franjo Mraz gradually returned to the ideology of the Hlebin school of art. The artist again concentrates on images of daily rural work in a peaceful landscape, which nevertheless partly retain a realistic and disturbing mood, as if the world had lost its former carefree spirit.
(Source: SKETCHLINE)
Key Ideas:
- Although Franjo Mraza's art is partly in the shadow of another native of Hlebine, Ivan Generalić, it has a great artistic value and strong individuality. Krsto Hegedusic, the artist's mentor, made sure that his pupils did not base themselves on the artistic experience of the past, but reproduced their own vision and perception of the world. Following the advice of his teacher, Franjo Mraz depicted real life in the countryside with its joys and hardships in his own recognizably original way.
- Having started with watercolours, under the influence of Hegedusic the artist moved to oil paints, and then worked in tempera on glass. This technique was characteristic of all representatives of the first generation of the Hlebin art school.
- A peculiarity of Mraz's creative manner is soft tonal solutions and less saturated colours than those of his comrades-in-arms. Most of the works are executed in a harmonious color scheme, without solid lines and well-defined contours. The artist works with local color patches that make the paintings decorative and colorful.
- The main theme of the artist's naive painting were traditional village motifs: sowing the fields and harvesting, folk festivities and holidays. Consequently, the main characters were mowers, workers, shepherds looking after the cattle in the fields and forests. The action mostly takes place against a backdrop of picturesque rural landscapes.
- After the 1931 exhibition of the group Earth in Zagreb, to which the young Mraz was invited as a guest, social themes emerge in his works. It is particularly present in the paintings of the post-war period, depicting the sad echoes of the past conflict. Works of the artist in this period become more realistic and emotionally saturated.
- By the 1950s, Franjo Mraz gradually returned to the ideology of the Hlebin school of art. The artist again concentrates on images of daily rural work in a peaceful landscape, which nevertheless partly retain a realistic and disturbing mood, as if the world had lost its former carefree spirit.
(Source: SKETCHLINE)
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