Croatian naive art: Ivan Vecenaj

Lying aside from professional art, painting of the Croatian primitivists and the individuality of their position proved to be not only close to the aesthetic thinking of the 20th century, but also an organic consequence of the influence of the culture of the urban lower classes and folklore. The peasants are with no doubts deeply religious, but in their paintings it wasn't practically reflected: the artists, with a reasonable share of selfishness, were rather focused on nature and people near themselves. The exception is Ivan Vecenaj (1920-2013) and his biblical cycle - atypical for the peasant primitive - which opened a new page in the Croatian naive art. Like most representatives of the Hlebin school - the largest trend in Croatian naive art - Vecenaj worked by oil on glass. This is an old technique, based on which artist paints in a reverse way - layer by layer from details to the background. Vecenaj added a little bit of fantasy to his characters - whether it was multicolored foliage in the middle of winter or a purple hue of a cow's wool. In his works, Vecenaj tends more to realism, but with elements of expression, grotesque and irony. Vecenaj moved The Scriptures in space and time, modernizing them and placing them in a familiar environment. His paintings are depiction of suffering and reverent aware of faith. The palette is bright and saturated, as if it reflected the hysteria of the stories. In the Vecenaj's works the spectator encounters the cruelty of the image that is uncharacteristic for peasant naive art - and it's lies not so much in the subjects as in the repulsive depiction of landscapes: scorched deserts, charred trees, thorny bushes, and blood-red sky - all this creates a feeling of discomfort and fear - emotions that are completely uncharacteristic for the pastoral naive art of the Hlebine school. The prevailing majority of genre scenes in the peasant primitive is due to the fact that for peasants it's just more simple and clear to represent the surrounding. Therefore, in an endless series of harvesting and feast scenes, individualism which Ivan Vecenaj has created is so valuable. The artist's contribution to the Hlebin school lies precisely in his religious works - here he discovers a unique traditionalism in the context of sacred topic for the peasants - relations with God.

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