Capital masterpieces

[FOR SALE / NA PRODAJU]

Ivan Generalić

Ivan Generalic, The Unicorn (Rogati konj), oil on glass, 76x145cm, 1961 – Price on request / Cijena na upit

• Ivan Generalić’s painting “Ther Unicorn” is a movable cultural monument by the decision of the Regional Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments in Zagreb, no. 02-748/1-74. from November 18, 1974, and registered in the Register of Movable Cultural Monuments of the Regional Institute for the protection of Cultural Monuments in Zagreb under the number RZG-138. It has the attribute of cultural property.
  Painting “The Unicorn” by Ivan Generalic, oil on canvas, 76×145 cm, signed D.d. I.Gen. 1961, is one of the highest quality Generalić’s works from the 1960s, exceptional in terms of boldness in color due to the theme from folk tales. The work has all the characteristics of Generalić’s distinctive way of painting: the treatment of colors, landscapes, trees, and the very characters of the peasants, while the content itself is inspired by legends and dreams, characteristic of his preoccupations of that period.
  
  
• Djelo Ivana Generalića “Rogati konj”, zaštićeno je kao pokretni spomenik kulture Republike Hrvatske rješenjem Regionalnog zavoda za zaštitu spomenika kulture u Zagrebu, br: 02-748/1-74. od 18. studenog 1974. godine i upisano u Registar pokretnih spomenika kulture Regionalnog zavoda za zaštitu spomenika kulture u Zagrebu pod brojem RZG-138. 
  Djelo “Rogati konj” Ivana Generalića, ulje na sekuritu, 76×145 cm, sign. D.d. I.Gen. 1961, jedno je od najkvalitetnijih Generalićevih djela iz 60-ih godina, izuzetno po kolorističkoj smionosti uvjetovanoj temom iz narodne priče. Djelo posjeduje sve karakteristike Generalićeva osebujna načina slikanja – tretman boja, pejsaža, stabala i samih likova seljaka, dok je sam sadržaj nadahnut legendom i snoviđenjima, karakterističan za njegove preokupacije tog razdoblja.

The painting tells a story about a very old legend:
“Only once a year, in the midsummer night, and only at one place, the Holy Hill between Sigetec and Hlebine, the Unicorn appears, a fairy-tale white creature like a deer or a lean horse with an elegant horn on its forehead. The one who sees it can be rejuvenated, at least for one night.”
– Vid Balog, Hrvatska bajoslovlja, Uriho, Zagreb, 2011

Djelo prikazuje staru legendu:
“Samo jemput na leto, na Ivanjsku noč, i samo v jedno mesto, na Svetinjski breg zmed Sigeca i Hlebin, dojde Jednorog – bajoslovni beli stvor kak jelen ili viti konj z preštimanem rogom na čelu. On ki ga vidi more se pomladeti makar na jednu noč.”
– Vid Balog, Hrvatska bajoslovlja, Uriho, Zagreb, 2011

• Currently exhibited in The Museum of the City of Đurđevac
  Pick-up: According to agreement with the customer
• Trenutačno izloženo u Muzeju Grada Đurđevca
  Preuzimanje: Prema dogovoru s kupcem

Photo: The Museum of the City of Đurđevac, Ivan Brkić / Foto: Muzej Grada Đurđevca, Ivan Brkić

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De Lusthof der Naieven, Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam 1964; Le Monde des Naifs, Musee National d’Art Moderne, Paris 1964; Modra lasta, br. 11, Zagreb 1.2.1965; Boris Kelemen: Naivno slikarstvo Jugoslavije, Galerije grada Zagreba, Spektar, Stvarnost, Zagreb 1969, str. 37; 2. trienale insitneho umenia, Slovenska narodna galeria, Bratislava 1969; Nok Lapja, Budapest 26.12.1970; Glas Podravine, Koprivnica 4.6.1971, str. 11; Oto Bihalji Merin: lvan Generalić, katalog, Ilijanum, Šid 1972; Mića Bašičević, Anatole Jakovsky, Boris Kelemen: lvan Generalić, monografija, Zagreb 1973; Naivi “73 / Generalić, katalog retrospektivne izložbe, Galerija primitivne umjetnosti, Zagreb 1973; Grgo Gamulin: I Pittori Naifs della Scuola di Hlebine, Mondadori, Milano 1974; Večernji list, Zagreb 3.1.1976; Review, Beograd, lipanj 1976, str. 29; Nebojša Tomašević: Magični svet Ivana Generalića, Beograd 1976, str. 164-165; Boris Kelemen: Naive Art in Yugoslavia, Camden Arts Centre, London 1976, naslovnica; Boris Kelemen: Naive Art in Yugoslavia, katalog, Galerija primitivne umjetnosti, Zagreb i Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, Washington D.C. 1976, naslovnica; The Milwaukee Journal, Milwaukee 30.1.1977; Boris Kelemen: Naivno slikarstvo u Jugoslaviji, Grafički zavod Hrvatske, Zagreb 1977; Selezione dal Reader’s Digest, Milano, srpanj 1980, str. 40; Marijan Špoljar i Tomislav Šola: Hlebinski krug / Pedeset godina naivnog slikarstva, Galerija primitivne umjetnosti, Zagreb i Muzej grada Koprivnice, Koprivnica 1981, str. 24; Primitive Painting, The Alpine Fine Arts Collection Ltd., New York i Spektar, Zagreb 1981, str. 198; Večernji list, Zagreb 13.3.1984, str. 5; Victor Ernest Masek: Arta Naiva, Editura Meridiane, Bucuresti 1989; Večernji list, Zagreb 7.12.1992, str. 29; Euro-city, br. 1, Zagreb 1995; Ratko Vince, Josip Depolo, Ivan Rogić Nehajev: Čudo hrvatske naive, Amalteja i HMNU, Zagreb 1996, str. 67; Radost, br. 7, Zagreb, ožujak 1997, str. 16; Thema / Encyclopedie Larousse / Arts et Culture, Larousse, Paris 1997, str. 297; The Fantastical World of Croatian Naive Art, katalog, Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida 2000, str. 49; Da Rousseau a Ligabue / Naif?, Palazzo Bricherasio, Torino 2002, str. 130; Podravski zbornik, Muzej grada Koprivnice, Koprivnica 2005, str. 126; Vladimir Crnković: Umjetnost hlebinske škole, deplijan, HMNU, Zagreb 2005; Vladimir Crnković: Umjetnost Hlebinske škole, HMNU, Zagreb 2005, str. 69 (drugo izdanje 2006; treće izdanje 2012); Večernji list, Zagreb 31.5.2005, str. 48; Fokus, Zagreb 10.6.2005, str. 52; Croatia, Croatia Airlines, Zagreb, jesen 2005; Harada Talzi and Fellow Painters from Croatia, The Asahi Shimbun, Tokyo 2005, str. 72-73; Slobodna Dalmacija, Split 20.12.2009, str. 27; Hrvatska umjetnost / Povijest i spomenici, Institut za povijest umjetnosti i Školska knjiga, Zagreb 2010, str. 655

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Ivan Generalic, My grandson / Moj unuk, oil on glass / ulje na staklu, 1972, 120×160 cm – Price on request / Cijena na upit

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Ivan Generalic, Low landscape / Niski pejzaž, oil on glass / ulje na staklu, 97×73 cm, 1974 – Price on request / Cijena na upit

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Ivan Generalic, Divination / Gatara, oil on glass / ulje na staklu, 97×75 cm, 1975 – Price on request / Cijena na upit

• … During those years, Generalić painted a series of Gypsy portraits that, in Podravina, took on the function of fortune-telling. He explored this theme of looking into the future as early as 1957 in the painting At the Fortune Teller’s, where he depicted a rural interior with three figures at a table, engaged in fortune-telling with cards: the fortune teller, a woman, and a boy. The painting, rich in symbolism, is particularly intriguing for the detail of a skull used as a support for the table leg. It is a genre painting with elements of memento mori.

  He returned to the theme of fortune-telling in the 1975 painting Fortune-Telling, where the viewer is now personally confronted with the fortune teller—no longer merely an observer of a genre scene but a participant in the event. The most intriguing detail, however, is the fortune teller’s face. Comparing Generalić’s facial features from photographs of that time with the painted Gypsy woman, one could propose the thesis that Generalić painted himself as a Gypsy woman with exposed female breasts. The unbuttoned shirt and bare chest of the Gypsy woman had previously appeared in several of his depictions of Gypsy groups, such as Gypsies Under a Tree (1969). In those works, this detail might symbolize mourning, but now, with the Gypsy woman alone and facing the viewer, it opens the possibility of a symbolic interpretation of this motif.

  The Gypsy woman sits opposite the viewer, and the table draws us into the painting’s space, defining the relationship between the image and the observer. It is a crucial element of the composition because it pulls the viewer inside or, more precisely, erases the boundary between the painting’s space and the external world. Our gaze into the painting draws us in, and suddenly we find ourselves face to face with the Gypsy woman. Here, as in Cubism, the boundary between the painting’s space/time and that of the viewer is erased. However, the depicted event is not tied to the present moment, even though it is located here. The time within the painting is always—an infinity symbolized by the wheel of life.

  The Gypsy woman is further divided by the colors of her clothing—one half with a red female skirt, the other with a blue male shirt. From a psychoanalytic perspective, gender transgression is characteristic of disguise as an incorporative strategy of melancholy, as theorized by Judith Butler. In melancholy, a person adopts the gendered attributes of a lost object. In this case, it represents the loss of his wife, with Generalić assuming female characteristics because, in mourning, the lost object is completely gone, while in melancholy, it remains present within the subject, enclosed in the ego, where it continues to live and cause suffering. Freud defines this as “the shadow of the object falling upon the ego”—in this case, the feminine shadow of the deceased wife cast upon Generalić’s ego.

  This is the most mysterious of all Generalić’s paintings and probably one of his most intimate. Why does the Gypsy woman point to her wheel-shaped earring? It is a symbol of the Romani people—the Hindu chakra, the wheel of life. But is Generalić using it as a symbol of the Christian wheel of life? Does the table with the cards indicate that our fate, the fate of the observer, is being foretold? Or is this an intimate mirror that Generalić has set for himself?

  What is the symbolism of the cards? Are they two aces—the ace of life and the ace of death? On one card, a stork carries a child, symbolizing the new cycle of life, while on the other, a priest administers the last rites. And why is the Gypsy woman smiling? Is that enigmatic smile borrowed from another portrait? Is this Generalić’s Gypsy Mona Lisa?

  Not only has the boundary between the painting’s space and the surrounding world been erased, but also the boundary between the symbolic and the real. Generalić invites us into his inner world—we penetrate his intimate space just as he simultaneously penetrates ours. The symbolic mosaic of this metaphysical puzzle will never be fully completed. Albert Einstein once said, “The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science.”

  What might initially seem shocking—gender transgression—is only shocking at first glance, given the patriarchal world from which Generalić emerged. However, gender transgression was a common feature in the folk traditions of Podravina, particularly during carnival or wedding celebrations when men would disguise themselves as women and women as men. This play with gender identity was not unfamiliar to Generalić in his private life either—there are photographs of him wearing a woman’s headscarf. Additionally, Romani men traditionally wore long hair and earrings, which allows for a dual interpretation of gender identity through the detail of long hair.

  In many of his paintings, Generalić depicted Romani men with long, gray hair, such as in Gypsy Tent (1961) and Rock and Roll in Hlebine / Gypsy Dance (1960). That gray hair holds an additional metaphorical dimension—the depiction of the passage of time. Erwin Panofsky, writing about the figure of Old Father Time, a classical motif adopted by the Renaissance and later the Baroque, notes that the symbol of time’s passage often featured gray hair, especially in Baroque depictions by Bronzino and Poussin. In ancient Greek poetry, time was sometimes referred to as polios—“gray-haired.”

  The fortune teller’s wheel-shaped earring may further allude to the cyclical nature of time, a concept Nicolas Poussin humanized in his painting Il ballo della vita humana, depicting four women dancing in a circle while Old Father Time plays music for them.

  Generalić verbalized his cyclical perception of time:
  “Everything that a man creates, his entire life, is just one link in a chain of lives before and after us, of everything that has come and everything that has passed. I am fully aware of that. We are merely a connection in a continuum, in a duration, in something that is called eternity.”

  In its relationship to the viewer and the way it engages them, this might be Generalić’s most contemporary work, especially when compared to Nicolas Bourriaud’s definition of contemporary art:
  “The foundation of today’s artistic experience is the simultaneous presence of the viewer before the artwork, whether real or symbolic. The questions we must ask ourselves before a work of art are: Does this work allow me to exist before it, or does it negate me as a subject, refusing to accept the Other into its structure? Is the spatial-temporal relationship indicated or depicted in this work, according to all the laws that govern them, in harmony with my aspirations in real life?”

  Throughout this phase of Generalić’s work, as Vladimir Crnkovic noted in The Art of the Hlebine School, one of its defining characteristics was bipolarity—and this painting is a literal illustration of that duality. Melancholy and the process of mourning are also marked by this bipolarity.
  
  (Antonio Grgić, “Ivan Generalić: Work, Life, Time.” Hlebine, November 2014. Proceedings of the scientific-professional symposium on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of his birth.)
  
  

• … Tih godina Generalić slika niz ciganskih portreta koji u Podravini preuzimaju funkciju proricanja budućnosti. Tu temu gledanja u budućnost Generalić koristi još 1957. u slici Kod gatare, gdje prikazuje seoski interijer s tri lika za stolom, s kartama u trenutku gatanja: gataru, ženu i dječaka. Slika, puna simbola, najzanimljivija je po detalju mrtvačke lubanje koja služi kao oslonac nozi stola. To je žanrovska slika s elementima memento mori.

  Gatanju se vraća u slici Gatanje iz 1975., gdje je gledatelj osobno suočen s gatarom – sada je on umjesto žene za stolom i više nije promatrač žanr-prikaza, nego sam postaje dio radnje. No, najintrigantniji detalj je lice gatare. Uspoređujući fizionomiju Generalićevog lica s fotografijama iz tog razdoblja i naslikane Ciganke, moguće je postaviti tezu da je Generalić sam sebe naslikao kao Ciganku razdrljenih ženskih grudi. Raskopčanu košulju i razdrljene grudi Ciganke koristio je i ranije na nekoliko prikaza grupe Cigana, primjerice u slici Cigani pod drvetom iz 1969. Taj detalj u tim slikama može biti metafora žalovanja, no sada je Ciganka sama i nasuprot nama, što otvara mogućnost simboličkog čitanja tog motiva.

  Ciganka sjedi nasuprot gledatelja, a stol nas uvodi u prostor slike i definira odnos prema promatraču. Bitan je element slike jer uvlači promatrača u njenu unutrašnjost ili, točnije, briše granicu između prostora slike i onoga izvan nje. Sam naš pogled na sliku povlači nas unutra, i odjednom smo suočeni s Cigankom. Ovdje, kao i kod kubista, granica između prostora i vremena slike te prostora i vremena promatrača je izbrisana. Međutim, događaj nije sadašnji, iako je lociran ovdje. Vrijeme radnje na slici je uvijek, ono je beskonačnost koju simbolizira kotač života.

  Ciganka je dodatno raspolovljena bojama odjeće – jednim dijelom crvenom ženskom suknjom, drugim plavom muškom košuljom. Psihoanalitički, rodna transgresija karakteristična je za maskiranje kao inkorporativnu strategiju melankolije, prema Judith Butler. U melankoliji osoba preuzima rodne atribute izgubljenog objekta. U ovom slučaju riječ je o gubitku supruge, a Generalić na slici preuzima ženske atribute, jer u žalovanju objekt biva potpuno izgubljen, dok je u melankoliji on još uvijek prisutan u subjektu, zatvoren u egu, gdje nastavlja živjeti i izazivati patnju. Freud to definira kao “sjenu objekta koja je pala na ego” – u ovom slučaju, femininu sjenu preminule žene koja pada na Generalićev ego.

  Ovo je najtajanstvenija od svih Generalićevih slika i vjerojatno jedna od najintimnijih. Zašto Ciganka pokazuje na svoju naušnicu u obliku kotača? To je simbol romskog naroda—hinduistička čakra, kotač života. No koristi li ga Generalić kao simbol kršćanskog kotača života? Govori li stol s kartama da se upravo gata naša sudbina, sudbina promatrača? Ili je ovo intimno zrcalo koje je Generalić postavio samome sebi?

  Koja je simbolika karata? Jesu li to dva asa – as života i smrti? Na jednoj karti roda nosi dijete, simbol novog kruga života, dok je na drugoj svećenik koji daje posljednju pomast. A zašto je Ciganka nasmiješena? Je li taj tajanstveni osmijeh preuzet s nekog drugog portreta? Je li ovo Generalićeva ciganska Mona Lisa?

  Ne samo da je granica između prostora slike i okoline izbrisana, nego je izbrisana i granica između simboličkog i realnog svijeta. Generalić nas uvodi u svoj unutarnji svijet, prodiremo u njegov intimni prostor, dok on istovremeno prodire u nas. Simbolički mozaik te metafizičke slagalice nikada neće biti potpuno složen. Albert Einstein je rekao: “Najljepše što možemo doživjeti je misteriozno. To je izvor svake prave umjetnosti i znanosti.”

  Ono što bi na prvi pogled moglo biti šokantno – rodna transgresija – s obzirom na patrijarhalni svijet iz kojeg je Generalić potekao, šokantno je samo u prvi mah. Rodna transgresija bila je uobičajena u pučkoj tradiciji Podravine, osobito za vrijeme maškara ili vjenčanja, kada su se muškarci maskirali i oblačili kao žene, a žene kao muškarci. Ta igra maskiranja s rodnim identitetom nije bila strana ni Generaliću u privatnom životu – postoje fotografije na kojima nosi žensku maramu na glavi. Također, bilo je uobičajeno da romski muškarci nose dugu kosu i naušnice, što omogućuje dvostruko tumačenje rodnog identiteta kroz detalj duge kose.

  Sam Generalić u nizu svojih slika romske muškarce slika s dugom sijedom kosom, primjerice u djelima Ciganski šator (1961.) i Rock and roll u Hlebinama / Ciganski ples (1960.). Ta sijeda kosa ima dodatnu metaforičku dimenziju – prikaz protoka vremena. Erwin Panofsky, pišući o liku Starca Vrijemena, klasičnom motivu iz renesanse i baroka, spominje da je simbol protoka vremena često imao sijedu kosu, osobito u baroknim prikazima Bronzina i Poussina. U starogrčkoj poeziji vrijeme je ponekad nazvano polios, “sijedokoso”.

  Naušnica u obliku kotača kod gatare može dodatno upućivati na cikličku dimenziju vremena, koju je Nicolas Poussin humanizirao u slici Il ballo della vita humana, prikazujući četiri žene kako plešu u kolu dok im svira sijedi Starac Vrijeme.

  Generalić je svoje cikličko poimanje vremena verbalizirao:

  “Sve što čovjek stvara, cijeli njegov život samo je jedna karika u nizu života prije nas i poslije nas, svega što je došlo i onog što je prošlo. Ja sam toga u potpunosti svjestan. Mi smo samo neka veza u jednom kontinuitetu, u jednom trajanju, u nečemu što se zove vječnost.”

  Po svom odnosu prema promatraču i njegovom prihvaćanju, ovo je možda najsuvremenije Generalićevo djelo, posebice ako ga usporedimo s definicijom suvremenog umjetničkog djela koju daje Nicolas Bourriaud:

  “Temelj današnjeg umjetničkog iskustva čini usporedna prisutnost promatrača pred umjetničkim djelom, bilo ono stvarno ili simbolično. Pitanja koja si moramo postaviti pred umjetničkim djelom glase: omogućuje li mi ovo djelo da postojim pred njim ili me pak negira kao subjekta, odbijajući prihvatiti Drugoga u svoju strukturu? Je li prostorno-vremenski odnos koji je naznačen ili prikazan u tom djelu, prema svim zakonitostima koje njima upravljaju, u skladu s mojim težnjama u stvarnom životu?”
  
  (Antonio Grgić, “Ivan Generalić: Djelo, život, vrijeme.” Hlebine, studeni 2014. Zbornik radova znanstveno-stručnog simpozija u povodu 100. obljetnice rođenja.)

   

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Ivan Generalic, White cat / Bijeli mačak, oil on glass / ulje na staklu, 90×75 cm, 1974 – Price on request / Cijena na upit

• Note on White cat: Damaged paint on cat’s neck and cheek
• Napomena: Oštećena boja na vratu i obrazu.

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Ivan Generalic, Catfish / Som, 1992, pastel on paper / pastel na papiru, 50×36 cm – Price on request / Cijena na upit

• Catfish gasping for air is possibly the last painting made by Ivan Generalic.
• Som koji lovi udah zraka je vjerojatno posljednje djelo Ivana Generalića.

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Josip Generalić

Josip Generalic, Vintage / Berba grožđa, oil on glass / ulje na staklu, 100×170 cm, 1973 – Price on request / Cijena na upit

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Josip Generalic, Sophia Loren / Sofija Loren, oil on glass / ulje na staklu, 150×120 cm, 1973 – Price on request / Cijena na upit

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Josip Generalic, First aliens in Podravina / Prvi svemirci u Podravini, oil on glass / ulje na staklu, 150×100 cm, 1975 – 15.000 eur

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Josip Generalic, John Lennon’s tongue / Jezik Johna L, oil on glass / ulje na staklu, 45×50 cm, 1975 – Price on request / Cijena na upit

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• [VIDEO] Exhibition of capital masterpieces in Gallery Hlebine, May 2018 (Croatian only, no subs)
• [VIDEO] Izložba kapitalnih djela u Galeriji Hlebine, svibanj 2018. (Hrvatski)

• Exhibition catalogue
• Katalog izložbe