Hlebine
A farming village that produced a school of self-taught painters working in oil on the back of glass.
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In 1930 the painter Krsto Hegedusic came to Hlebine and encouraged two young villagers, Ivan Generalic and Franjo Mraz, to paint what was around them without academic training. What followed became the Hlebine School: a body of work by farmers painting village life, weather and labour, using the technique of oil on the reverse side of glass so that the colours are seen through the pane. Generalic became internationally known and the style was widely exhibited in the 1950s and 1960s as naive art. The village gallery holds the work and the family houses of several painters are open, and the tradition continues into later generations.
What you actually see
- The Hlebine School - farmers painting their own village from 1930.
- Oil on the back of glass - the technique that defines the style.
- Ivan Generalic - the painter who carried it internationally.
- Painters' houses open - alongside the village gallery.
When to go
May to September; hours are reduced in winter. Half a day.
Honest expectations
The gallery is small and the village is otherwise an ordinary farming settlement. Painters' houses open on their own schedules. Naive art divides opinion sharply, and this is a lot of it in one place.
Nearby
Koprivnica is west; the Drava and the Hungarian border are north.
What to pack for Hlebine
Chosen from what this place is for. Tap a kit for the full checklist.
Opening times, ticket prices and seasonal closures change - check the official source before you go: official site.