Đuro Tiljak
Đuro Tiljak (1895–1965) was a Croatian artist, writer and teacher. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, and studied for some time in Moscow with Wassily Kandinsky. During the 1930s, he was editor of the journal "Culture" (Kultura) and "Writer" (Književnik) magazine.
Đuro Tiljak

Savo Orović · Savo Orović, ratni dnevnik 1941-1945, Beograd 1972. · Public domain
- Name
- Đuro Tiljak
- Born
- 21 March 1895
- Birthplace
- Zagreb, Austria-Hungary (today's Croatia)
- Died
- 11 December 1965
- Place of death
- Zagreb
- Known for
- painting, graphics
- Training
- Zagreb, Moscow
- Movement
- magical realism
- Nationality
- Croatia
- Occupation
- painter
- Fields
- painting
- Movements
- magic realism
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Đuro Tiljak (1895–1965) was a Croatian artist, writer and teacher. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, and studied for some time in Moscow with Wassily Kandinsky. During the 1930s, he was editor of the journal "Culture" (Kultura) and "Writer" (Književnik) magazine.
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Đuro Tiljak (1895–1965) was a Croatian painter. The painter was born and died in Zagreb.
Đuro Tiljak was active in painting. The painter was associated with magic realism. Languages used include Croatian.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 30 September 2026
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wikidata · Q8079906 · wikipedia · Đuro Tiljak
In this article
Biography
Biography
For many years he was a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb. He was a member of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts.

Ivan Goran Kovačić, Ismet Mujezinović i Đuro Tiljak u Bihaću, prva polovina januara 1943
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Đuro Tiljak • Born — 21 March 1895 • Birthplace — Zagreb, Austria-Hungary (today's Croatia) • Died — 11 December 1965 • Place of death — Zagreb • Known for — painting, graphics • Training — Zagreb, Moscow • Movement — magical realism
Biography
Biography
Đuro Tiljak was born 21 March 1895 in Zagreb. He began his art studies in Zagreb at the College of Arts and Crafts, later to become the Academy of Fine Arts. His teachers there included Oton Iveković and Ljubo Babić. In 1919, he spent some months in Moscow, studying with Wassily Kandinsky, returning to Zagreb to complete his degree in 1923. In order to pay back his scholarship, he took up teaching posts in schools. During the 1930s, Tiljak travelled down the Dalmatian coast in search of inspiration, and visited the island of Vis. In December 1942 Tiljak joined the partisans along with his friend Marijan Detoni. During the war period he found refuge in the painters' colony in Cozzan, returning to Zagreb in 1945 to take up the post of professor at the Academy of Fine Art in Zagreb where he continued to teach until his retirement. Đuro Tiljak died in Zagreb on 11 December 1965.
Works
Works
• Park, 1925 • Brusnik, 1930 • Cipeliši (Shoes), 1931 • Djevojčica (Little Girl), 1944 • Kuča u prirodi (House in the Country)
Solo exhibitions
Solo exhibitions
Recent exhibitions of his work include: • 1972 Đuro Tiljak retrospective – Art Pavilion, Zagreb
Group exhibitions
Group exhibitions
• 1979 Paintings from the War for National Freedom, Museum of Modern Art, Dubrovnik
Legacy
Initially influenced by impressionist and postimpressionist painters such as Cézanne, Van Gogh and Matisse, Tiljak's style later moved towards magical realism. His landscapes were poetic, tending towards abstraction. In the early 1930s, Tiljak was active in the controversy over artistic expression. Their views were opposed to those of the establishment, and the more intellectual artists. He was particularly critical of the painter Ljubo Babic and the Group of Three, contributing to the polarisation of the Croatian art scene of the time. In the 1950s, he returned to a more intimate style, close to abstract. Tiljak's legacy is not simply his own work, but in teaching a new generation of Croatian artists. His early training with Kandinsky gave him an appreciation for the abstract, which he imparted to his students. In 1966, a memorial to the work of Đuro Tiljak was opened in Komiža, on the island of Vis In 2000, Croatian Post, Inc. issued a stamp of Đuro Tiljak's "Brusnik", 1930 as part of their Croatian Visual Arts series.
Public collections
Đuro Tiljak's work can be found in the following public collections Croatia • Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb • Gallery of Fine Arts, Osijek
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Naklada Leksikon d.o.o. Tiljak, Đuro. II. 567. 1997. 953-96728-2-1.
- 2.Croatian Post, Inc. Đuro Tiljak – Brusnik, 1930. Series: Croatian Visual Arts.
- 3.Petar Prelog. Tiljak against Babić: Characteristics of Ideological Controversy in Croatian Art in the Early 1930s. Journal 34 (2010). Institute of Art History, Zagreb.
- 4.Stamp Collector. DJURO TILJAK. Stamp Catalog: Croatia - series Croatian Visual Arts.
- 5.Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb. Đuro Tiljak. Collections.
- 6.Art Pavilion, Zagreb. Exhibition Catalogs. Exhibitions.
- 7.ArtFacts. Duro Tiljak 1895–1965, HR. Artists.
- 8.Museum of Modern Art, Dubrovnik. Likovna Djela Iz Narodnooslobodilačkog Rata. Exhibition History 1948-2000.
Bibliography printed in the source article · 1
- Đuro Tiljak – Retrospektivna Izložba. Monograph published by the Art Pavilion, Zagreb, 1972.
References
Citations
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