Flowers

Liza Križanić first used the flower motif in 1930. Of the two hundred and ninety-nine paintings listed in the monograph of her artistic opus, a hundred and thirty-three are chrysanthemums, irises, roses, lilacs, magnolias, cyclamen, tuberoses, violets, hyacinths, pansies, sunflowers, wild and other flowers in vases, jars, jugs and other vessels, with only the outline of a base, always with simple, yet colour-wise harmoniously accordant backgrounds. She sometimes included blossoming branches, and flower arrangements even in her landscapes and a few still-lifes, so that she was truly a painter of flowers. Even these Flowers in a white majolica jug with only a hint of the characteristic blue ornament, confirm that Liza Križanić never gave up her intimist ideals, even when this movement was branded as decadent western formalism which was not compatible with the new social order. She definitely did not wish to change either herself or the world by revolution, although she kept concisely illustrating her husband’s cartoons with acutely witty sentences even in the years immediately after World War II. Her painting revealed the significance of the small necessary and dear details from one’s immediate surroundings. The nerve-lines of her drawings, the playful
brushstrokes and pastel tones reflect her tenderness and her nature. This old-school woman artist resisted new trends in art and kept nurturing what she had begun in her formative years. Yet her artistic work was not isolated but related to the work done at the same time by kindred artists such as Svetolik Lukić and Aleksandar Kumrić.