Ivan Picelj

Ivan Picelj (Okučani, 1924 – Zagreb, 2011) is a Croatian painter and graphic artist. Studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb 1943 – 46. One of the founders of the group EXAT 51 with which he exhibited in Zagreb. Among the founders of the movement of new tendencies within which he created programmed works by which he explored visual perception, rhythms, shifts (Programmed Case cm 8-1, 1966); organized exhibitions of the movement in Zagreb. By making posters, equipping books and catalogs of exhibitions, he promotes the visual culture of graphic design and advocates the equality of applied art. Published graphic maps in silkscreen printing technique (8 serigraphs, 1957; Cyclophoria, 1971; Remember, 1984–86; Variations, 2002). He developed geometric abstraction in painting (Composition, 1951; In honor of El Lissitzky, 1956). He found his origins in the general principles of constructivism and minimalism, and his basic procedures are the reduction of shapes to geometric elements, the multiplication of the basic plastic unit within the correct layout of the surface and the analysis of the tonal register of basic colors. He made reliefs and objects in wood and metal. He received the Vladimir Nazor Lifetime Achievement Award (1994).