Oton Postružnik

He is best known for his abstract paintings of natural subjects, such as his Leaf series. Postružnik received the Vladimir Nazor Award for lifetime achievement in 1964.

• Name — Oton Postružnik • Born — 26 March 1900 • Birthplace — Maribor, Austria-Hungary (today's Slovenia) • Died — 21 January 1978 • Place of death — Zagreb • Field — painting, graphics, ceramics • Training — Zagreb, Prague, Paris • Movement — lyrical abstraction

Oton Postružnik was born 26 March 1900 in Maribor, then in Austria-Hungary, today in Slovenia. His childhood was spent in Pregrada, where he completed his primary school education in 1910. Following that, he began high school in Krapina, but in 1913 the family moved to Zagreb. There, in 1915, Postružnik enrolled at the private art school of Ljubo Babić. In 1917 he participated in an anti-Hungarian demonstration, where he gave a speech, and received a warning from the authorities. In 1918, Postružnik completed his high school education and enrolled at the College of Art in Zagreb. By 1920, he left to spend some time in Prague, returning in 1922 to continue his studies at the newly founded Academy of Fine Arts. He studied drawing with Maximilian Vanka, painting with Ljubo Babić, and graphics with Tomislav Krizman. He was also one of the first students to study ceramic techniques with Hinko Juhn. Postružnik opened his own private art school, along with the painter Ivan Tabaković, which they ran until the end of the 1920s. In 1924, he received a royal government scholarship and spent some time studying in Paris. In 1927 he graduated from the academy in Zagreb. Postružnik was one of the founders of the Earth Group (Zemlja), an artists' association that was established in early 1929. He participated in all their exhibitions until he left the group in 1933. He received a scholarship from the French government in 1935, and went to Paris for a second time. In 1937 he organized his first solo exhibition in the Salon Ulrich in Zagreb. In 1950 he was elected professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, where he worked until 1970. He received the Vladimir Nazor Award for lifetime achievement in the arts in 1964. Oton Postružnik died on 21 January 1978 in Zagreb.

• Klek, 1929 • At the Fair, 1930 • Expectation, 1934 • Landscape (a port), 1939 • Landscape from Zuljana on Peljesac, 1952 • Dalmatian Landscape, 1952 • Lunatic from Sipan, 1954 • Autumn, 1958 • Autumn II, 1958 • Composition, 1960 • Leaf series, 1961-2 • Fallen Tree, 1965

During his lifetime, Oton Postružnik held many solo exhibitions in addition to participating with the Earth Group.

Recent exhibitions of his work include: • 1976 Oton Postružnik retrospektiva, Modern Gallery, Zagreb • 1972 Oton Postružnik – Gallery of Fine Arts, Split • 1963 Oton Postružnik – Gallery of Fine Arts, Split • 1962 Oton Postružnik retrospective, Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb

• 2010 Intimism in Croatian Fine Art 1930–1950, Modern Gallery, Zagreb • 2009 Alternative Landscapes of the 1950s to 1960s – From Nature to Vision, Art Pavilion, Zagreb