Hlebine

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.

History

Hlebine is first mentioned in 1671 as a village of the Drnje parish and became a parish of its own in the 18th century; in the late 19th and early 20th century it belonged to the Bjelovar-Križevci County of the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia. It is the centre of Croatian naive art and the home village of several of its painters, among them Franjo Mraz, Ivan Generalić, Josip Generalić and Franjo Gaži (Wikipedia, Hlebine).

What's there

• 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.

Good to know

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.

Key facts