Kristian Kreković

Kristian KREKOVIC ( born February 28, 1901 in Koprivna, then Austria - Hungary, † November 21, 1985 in Palma de Mallorca ) was a Yugoslav- Peruvian painter of the 20th century. He became known through images, which represent the Inca culture of the past and present. He also ran portraiture and dealt primarily with the Spanish culture.

Kristian KREKOVIC was born on 28 February 1901, when the son of the forest and hunt master at the Viennese Court, in Koprivna in what was then Austria -Hungarian province of Bosnia. He was already interested since childhood in painting and studied at the Vienna Academy and then at the École des Beaux -Arts in Paris. In 1925 he exhibited at the Salon of French artists for the first time. 1928, at the " International Art Exhibition " at Bordeaux, he was awarded the gold medal and certificate of honor. He married the eloquent French Sina, the daughter of a renowned surgeon.

An exhibition by the Peruvian archaeologist Julio C. Tallo, in the Trocadero Museum in Paris, impressed him so much that he traveled to Peru in 1930. In the Andes, he came into contact with the descendants of the Incas. In addition, he completed libraries in his knowledge of the pre-Columbian civilization. Then he dedicated a whole series of paintings This Inca culture. But the presence of Peru he thematized. 1939 went, during a bombing raid on Paris, lost much of his earlier paintings. For the fascist Ustasha regime in Croatia (1941-1945), he developed designs for a monumental transformation of the central square of Zagreb, the Jelacic square (including design of a gigantic " Croatian Hall of Fame ").

His works have been in 1950 by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Syracuse Museum of Fine Arts ( since 1968 Everson Museum of Fine Arts) and the New York Museum of the American Indians (now in the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington DC) purchased. In 1955 he was a Peruvian citizen. From 1955-58 were his works under the title of " Past and present of the legendary Peru ", shown in the United States, Spain and Austria, said Peru's government took over the patronage. His works are completely drawn. By the momentum of his brush and the use of almost pure color the pictures took an impressionistic touch. The Peruvian city of Cusco, former capital of the Inca gave him an honorary citizen in 1966 and a gold medal.

As a portraitist, he painted, among others Queen Mary of England, King Gustav of Sweden, Alexander of Yugoslavia, King Juan Carlos of Spain and Mahatma Gandhi, with whom he was friends. It was after 1945 committed humanist and advocate of world peace, which he also addressed in many pictures. In 1975 he presented Pope Paul VI. two paintings entitled " Virgin of Peace ".

From 1960 until his death, on November 21, 1985 in Palma, he lived in Mallorca. During this time he painted pictures that reflect the culture of Spain and specifically those of the Balearic Islands. His paintings are among others where he founded KREKOVIC Museum to see in Palma de Mallorca.

Sources and Literature

• Information supplied by the Museu KREKOVIC in Palma de Mallorca ( in German ) in 1996.
• Compiled by Etta Becker- Donner: Fabulous Peru - Images from the past and present. Museum of Ethnology in Vienna 1958 - Quick reference guide to painting exhibition in Vienna
• Side of the Majorcan management about the museum Krekovic
• Online Guide to the Krekovic museum with a short CV of the artist and showing some works

• Painter (Peru )
• Peruvian
• Born 1901
• Died in 1985
• Man