Generalić Ivan

(Hlebine, 1914 – Koprivnica, 1992)

The painter in the naïve tradition and the most prominent representative of the Hlebine school. He was a farmer, but in 1930 his gift was noticed by Krsto Hegedušić, a founder of the group Zemlja (Earth Group). Hegedušić gave him instructions for further work, and he exhibited with the group Zemlja in Zagreb in as early as 1931 and then in subsequent years in Zagreb (1931, 1934, 1935), Sofia (1934) and Belgrade (1935). He had solo exhibitions at home and abroad (Novi Sad, Belgrade, Paris, Brussels, Munich, Zurich, Basel, Florence, Geneva, etc.). He made drawings, watercolors, and oil paintings on canvas, wood and even glass, which is a technique in which he became particularly accomplished. He influenced emergence of   a new generation of the Hlebine school.