Vilim Svečnjak, 1957. Oil on canvas.

Description

Vilim Svečnjak was born on July 12, 1906 in Zagreb. From 1913-1917 attends primary school in Čabr. 1919-1925 continues his education at the Second Real High School in Zagreb. His teachers are Krušlin, Radovani, Šulentić, they notice his talent for drawing and watercolor, and advise him to enter the Academy of Fine Arts. In 1927, he entered the Academy of Arts, sculpture department, his professors were Valdec, Kršinić, Kerdić, occasionally Meštrović. In 1929 he moved to the painting department, his teachers were Babić, Vanka, Becić, Krizman, Tartaglia.

In 1939, he held his first solo exhibition at the Art Pavilion in Zagreb. 1944 resides in Assisi, Italy. In 1946, he taught art education at the gymnasium in Sušak. He founded the ULUH branch in Rijeka, which he chaired until 1951. In 1949, he founded and set up the Gallery of Fine Arts in Rijeka, of which he was the first director. In 1951, Miroslav Krleža brought him to Zagreb, where he assumed the position of chief editor for illustrations and equipment of encyclopedic editions of the Yugoslav Lexicographic Institute. In 1969, he bought an old stone house in Bol on Brač, where he stays during the summer and paints exclusively landscapes. In 1975, the cycle of acts and studies of acts began.

He continuously exhibited individually and collectively from 1934 until the end of his life. He participated in more than three hundred group exhibitions. In 1990, Marta and Vilim Svečnjak donated 842 works to the City of Zagreb with a gift contract.

Vilim Svečnjak died on June 3, 1993 in Zagreb.