Oton Gliha

Oton Gliha (Črnomelj, 1914 – Zagreb, 1999) graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb in 1937 (Lj. Babić, O. Mujadžić, M. Tartaglia). In his early years, he painted still lifes and portraits in the spirit of Cézanne’s painting and the French Fauves (Three Walnuts, 1940; Self-Portrait, 1940). From 1945, he increasingly painted landscapes with a new harmony of colors and harmonious relationships (Krk Landscape – Omišalj, 1946; Jurandvor, 1954) and increasingly freely worked on surface and space in figural compositions (Self-Portrait with Goat, 1947). From 1954, he began the process of summarizing visual elements; then he created the painting Primorje, the first work from the large Gromača cycle. He transferred the rhythm of Gromača into his visual material, suggestively expressing his experience of the landscape by creating abstract works. Space was reduced to a surface, drawing became independent, and the basic plastic elements became related to Glagolitic calligraphy (Krčke gromače, 1957); in this cycle, he is close to the Informelist understanding of the surface. After 1963, he created classic works of blinking rhythm that create the illusion of light and spatial infinity (Gromače 5–63, 1963); during the 1970s, he emphasized chromatic rhythm (Gromače 5–79, 1979), and in the following two decades, he created light and space in the painting with the power of color (Gromače 3–95, 1995). He is the author of an impressive drawing opus and two maps of graphics, wall paintings, stone mosaics (Hotel »Ad Turres« in Crikvenica, 1969) and the ceremonial curtain of the Croatian National Theatre Ivan pl. Zajc in Rijeka (Bakarske gromače, 1981). He received the “Vladimir Nazor” Award for lifetime achievement (1976).