23. Sailboat [1923.-1924.]

In the oeuvre of Milivoj Uzelac, coastal motifs became significantly more represented only after he moved from Zagreb to Paris in the mid-1920s. After quickly adjusting to the bustling Parisian international scene, from the early 1930s, Uzelac often went on painting excursions to Provence, specifically to Ollioules on the French Riviera. After the war, in the hinterland of the French Mediterranean coast, in a small place called Cotignac, Uzelac even bought a property and built a permanent home with a studio where he worked until the end of his life. Something to highlight is that upon his arrival in Paris, Uzelac encountered a blunted avant-garde scene and an agile painter "of the French Riviera", Raoul Dufy, who spearheaded a trend of renewing colorism and painting tradition. In such environment, his shrewd nature, supported by a finely honed craft and recent discovery of Mediterranean beauties, helped him to quickly break through and find buyers for his coastal landscapes and bathers, that little had in common with his earlier expressionistic and constructivist expressions achieved on the paintings he made in Zagreb and Prague during and after his painting studies (1915-1923). Croatian artists who were simultaneously catching up with recent painting trends in Paris (L. Junek, O. Mujadžić, V. Parać), spoke proverbially about Uzelac's easiness in creating and selling his work. Decades later, Croatian art critics (Z. Maković and I. Š. Banov) dubbed him a painter of Dufy-like ease of creation. It's worth mentioning that Uzelac was present throughout his creative life on the Croatian exhibition scene, he produced significant works for the inauguration of expressionism in Croatia, and thought of returning to Croatia during his participation in the First Annual Exhibition of Croatian Artists in Zagreb in 1940, however, unfortunately, the war interrupted this timely inclination and Uzelac returned to France. BRP

Dimensions

width 80 cm, height 52 cm

Description

oil on canvas, signed at the bottom right, in red, "Uzelac"

Dating

1923.-1924.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

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