A painter who introduced naive art to the public

Krsto Hegedušić was born in Petrinja, but his life was marked by Hlebine, a small town in Podravina where he spent his childhood. He drew from a young age. First of all, the battles he fantasized about while listening to the stories of old people, and then his rural surroundings - peasants, architecture and the beautiful and green Podravina landscape.

Krsto Hegedušić's name has become one of the most significant in Croatian fine art. He took his first steps towards institutional art when he arrived in Zagreb, where he finished high school. In 1926, he successfully graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts, after which he trained in Paris.

Returning to Zagreb, he became absorbed in the social ideas of an independent artistic group called "Zemlja". Its president was the famous architect Drago Ibler, and Krsto was its secretary, from its establishment in 1929 until the police ban in 1935. The group of painters, sculptors and architects believed that art should be accessible to all layers of society, especially workers and peasants. They wanted to create a national artistic expression that would be different from the European art of the time.

So, in addition to his creativity, Krsto also entrusted local art with his educational work. He occasionally lived in Hlebine, where in 1930 he began teaching painting to the peasants. Thanks to Krsta's efforts to spread the love of art among the common people, today we also know the excellent naive painters Ivan Generalić and Franja Mraz, who both came from his Hlebin school of painting. By exhibiting their works at the "Zemlje" exhibition in Zagreb, Hegedušić promoted Croatian naive art and pointed to as yet undiscovered artistic talents.

- He loved fairs, begging, flea markets, and holy churches. There are people together. Darling faces from Podravina, yet so peculiar and simple. We used to get to Čazma with the calf drivers. That's when those graphic drawings were created. Krsto was a virtuoso draftsman. In two minutes, a character emerges with all his physical and mental characteristics. - his wife Branka Frangeš Hegedušić, whom he married in 1932, told Dragutin Feletar.

In the same article, she also told an interesting anecdote about how she met the famous artist. It was still at the academy. She was in her first year, and Krsto was about to graduate.

– Piston with a big head! And I'm Frangeš's daughter. A city fritter, very nice, from the house of a great sculptor! Once he sat next to me and I said that if such a great draftsman is being made, he should draw something for me live, like that from memory. What father?! he said. Draw me a cow! He is from the draft. Virtuoso. My comment was short: What kind of cow has horns?! The town brat thought only an ox had horns. He wouldn't talk to me for two weeks. - she said.

From 1937, Krsto was a teacher, and from 1945 to 1969, a full professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb. He was also engaged in scenography as part of the Croatian National Theater, and he founded and led the Master's workshop for the postgraduate study of painting and the artistic group "Mart".

Since 1948, he has been a regular member of JAZU, where he was the secretary of the Department of Fine Arts and started the magazine "Bulletin" of the Institute of Fine Arts of JAZU in 1953. Among his creations, the illustrations of "The Ballad of Petrica Kerempuh" by Miroslav Krleža stand out.

In 1971, he received the "Vladimir Nazor" lifetime achievement award for his exceptional contribution. The great painter died on April 7, 1975 in Zagreb. The "Krsto Hegedušić" Gallery was founded in Petrinja in 1987 in his memory.

Source: Feletar, D. (1975). Podravec Krsto Hegedušić. Podravski zbornik, (1), 89-94.