Antun Motika, Portrait of a girl. Watercolor.

Description

Antun Motika was born on December 30, 1902 in Pula. He started elementary school there in 1908, which he finished in 1912. After high school in Pazin and Sušak, a scholarship from Matica Hrvatska (for extraordinarily gifted and poor Croatian talents) enabled him to go to Zagreb and study at the sculpture department of the Royal Academy with prof. Rudolf Valdec in 1921.

Motika leaves sculpture and in 1923 moves to the painting class of prof. Maximilian Vanka. During his studies, he also studied under Ljuba Babić and graphic arts under Tomislav Krizman.

After graduating in 1929, he went to Mostar, where he taught at the State High School until 1940, when he returned to Zagreb, where he was transferred to the State Vocational School. In 1930, he spent ten months in Paris and for some time lived in the studio with Željko Hegedušić, Ed Kovačević, Vanja Radauš and Anton Šimek.

In 1954, the first sculptures made of glass were created under his supervision in Murano. In 1957, he organized an exhibition of paintings, metal and glass in the Museum of the City of Zagreb, for which he received the City of Zagreb Award in 1958, and in 1970 he received the Vladimir Nazor Lifetime Achievement Award.

In 2006, the painter's heirs left his legacy of 3000 works to his hometown, which will be displayed in a specially designed gallery.

Antun Motika died on December 13, 1992 in Zagreb.