Mijo Kovacic

Through tales of his mother, Mijo Kovacic developed already in his childhood a penchant for imaginative motifs.  Influenced by the works of the Netherlands old masters, the self-taught turns to the naïve painting, which enjoyed great popularity during the post-war period in Croatia.

In 1954, at the age of 19 years, Kovacic exhibits for the first time his works in a group exhibition.  Since that time his paintings can be found on numerous group and solo exhibitions in Europe and the United States.  Important for him was the encounter with Grgo Gamulin, an art theorist without prejudice towards naive art.  He wrote the first monograph of Kovacic’s work, 2 more should follow up until the 1990s.