oil on canvas, 66 x 57.5 cm, signed and dated lower left, in red, "Prica (19)57"

Research information

The work was likely exhibited in 1957-1958 at one of Prica's international exhibitions (London, Paris, Vienna), before soon ending up in a collection in the USA.

Zlatko Prica, an extremely important Croatian post-war modernist, was born in Pécs in 1916, and died in Rijeka in 2003. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, after which he joined the partisans and together with Edo Murtić, made linocuts for the first edition of the Pit by Ivan Goran Kovačić. He spent some time in Paris, where he came into contact with liberated figuration and intense color, and in India, where he contemplated artistic practices quite different from European ones. The results of Prica's strives in the visual arts in the 1950s can be seen in his cycle Fruits of the Earth, to which this Still Life also belongs. The entire cycle attempts to portray the vitality of fruits in the language of modern painting. This is evident in this image. A classic painting theme, such as still life, is expressed in a style characteristic of Prica - in strong linearism and areas of intense colors. This visual dynamics suggest vivacity, energy, pulsation in the depiction of a static motif. Compositional balance and well-hit coloristic rhythm, achieved by aligning the dark red stripe on the right side and the predominantly blue background through which a red underpainting is visible, make this painting a compact and vibrant whole, with the motif being just a particularly expressive part of this visual game. The best parts of Prica's creativity, which include this painting, can be found precisely in the works where the author engages all his sense for a specific balance of the visual work. FG

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