Antun Motika. 1947. Shower.

Description

Motika, Antun, Croatian painter (Pula, December 30, 1902 – Zagreb, February 13, 1992). In 1921, he began studying sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb with R. Valdec, then decided to study painting, which he completed in 1926 with M. Vanka, V. Becić, T. Krizman and Lj. Babić, with whom he trained. He was a professor of art education in Mostar (1929–40). He drew caricatures for a satirical magazine Nettles (under the pseudonym Lopata). A study stay in Paris (1930–31) was decisive for his artistic development, when he decided on a peculiar version of post-impressionist impressionism, especially the lyricism of P. Bonnard and the coloristic vibrations of R. Dufy. He created paintings with sweeping brushstrokes and subtly harmonized tonal values, whereby the drawing could only be perceived as an arabesque, which was expressed in numerous interiors, portraits, erotic scenes, city views and landscapes. In Mostar, he created works with a specific lyrical atmosphere, full of light and saturated tonal atmosphere (open window, 1936). Although he occasionally painted with oil on canvas, he mostly created with watercolor or gouache techniques, along with a series of preparatory pencil or charcoal drawings. From 1941 until his retirement in 1961, he worked at the School of Applied Arts in Zagreb, where he taught various courses (textiles, photography, ceramics), which encouraged him to many experiments (Light reflections, 1968). His exhibition is of special cultural significance Archaic surrealism (1952), which caused stormy reactions among Croatian critics, and is generally considered the most daring rejection of the dogmatic framework of socialist realism. From 1953, in Rogaška Slatina and glass workshops in Murano, he created a large number of glass sculptures enriched with color interventions (Lion, 1953; Boca – Singer, 1961; Bull, 1962). In the latter works, he transferred motifs from numerous studies and drawings into bronze medals. He made collages, shaped ceramics and small plastic in iron. He received the "Vladimir Nazor" Award for Lifetime Achievement (1969).