Cows under the Eiffel tower

1982
oil/sekurit
1600 x 1200 mm
signature: down in the right corner: IGen 1982

The repetition of a similar motif created the 50s with the impression of his stay in Paris. And here is the well-known symbol of Eiffel tower transmitted in recognizable landscape of Podravina, with a molded stream instead of the Seine. With the Eiffel Tower, which is the center of the composition shifted slightly to the right, with a crowing rooster. In front many colorful and playful cows and village in the background. The peasant in the left corner propped on a stick who watch their "treasures" (cows), dressed in patched trousers, wrapped in a mantle, and with a fine hat on his head, a mustache nice "gentlemanly" decorated - Ivan Generalic imaginatively challenged the compound urban details and symbols with distinctive motifs and rural landscape in the background.

Ivan Generalic was born December 21, 1914 at Hlebine, an unnamed village in the region Podravina in the heart of ancient swamps of Pannonia. As a young man took care of the farm work and in his spare time he drew. In the summer of 1930 Krsto Hegedusic and spent the holidays in Hlebine known academic painter and professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, by chance he met the young peasant Ivan and soon saw his extraordinary talent. In the footsteps of his thesis on the social peasant paintings, using the technique of painting on glass and experiences of the French painters naifs, Krsto Hegedusic gave Ivan Generalic bfirst painting lessons. Just one year after the young farmer became an extraordinary painter, exhibiting at the third exhibition of a group "Earth" (Zemlya) in Zagreb in 1931. In 1936 with his first solo exhibition Ivan confirmed his genius. Thus was born the Croatian Naive Art. In 1953 he attracted world attention with his solo exhibition in Paris, in 1955 in St. Paul and in 1958 the World Exposition in Brussels, where he secured an important place in the world. Today Ivan Generalic is considered one of the greatest painters of the naive and modern art of the 20th century. Following the example of Generalic the farmers from Hlebine, Podravina and Croatia but also Europe and worlwide began to paint. It set up the so-called Hlebine Art School that defines a style that more than one location. Ivan Generalic held exhibitions around the world, winning awards and accolades, he became a legend already while he was still alive. He died in 1992. His work is an essential part of Croatian and world art.
In 1985 an anex to the Gallery of Naive Art in Hlebine was open in which all of his works are permanently exhibited.