Behind the Wire

2/2 20th century
oil/glass
500 x 310 mm

In the center of the composition a male character holding to a wire fence. The outlines are blurred, there is no clean-cut, except in some places in the face - dark eyes with dark circles indicated, mustache and rosy cheeks. Behind the figure orange background in contrast to the blue ribbon around his neck. In the upper third of the composition, behind the head, dark blue background dotted with patches of white, circular shape.

Ana Matina was born on Februry 26, 1909 in Hlebine. She started painting in the end of 1960's. She has painted on glass oil paint - instead of a brush she painted with her fingers. A simple peasant housewife with prone imagination and poetic interpretation of everyday life. Despite a difficult life she created a parallel world of strange characters, clunky composition and open, bright colors, on the border of the real and the fantastic, but quite her world. Like a unique Mare Puškarić in nearby Novigrad Podravski or Angela Beck in Medjimurje and she has managed to build his artistic universe, independent of any influence and completely away from the uniformity of most recent works of Hlebine School. She died on July 31, 1989 in Hlebine. (Marijan Spoljar, Ana Matina/Nikola Kopriva, Muzej grada Koprivnice, Koprivnica, 2013.)