''The ideas often betrayed us, everything that the mind could make up, but never the hand' LIFE WITH PICTURES 'I'm happy when one lives with my picture, and not when they are buying them for prestige' 'HAND CHECKED THE IDEA' 'I insist on synchronizing the hands and the mind . I always say to my students to nourish the hand .''
Nives Kavurić-Kurtović
The exhibition '' Prints'' featuring one of the our most reputable female artists Nives Kavurić- Kurtović , will be opened on 14 July 2015 at the Gallery of Fine Arts, as a part of the artist's works from the collection of the Gallery of Fine Arts. The graphics were created in the period from 1973 to 1976, and are part of the former Minister of Culture Bozo Biskupic's donation to the City of Split from 2008. The graphics are in the holdings of the Gallery since 2012. Nives Kavurić-Kurtovic is one of the most important living Croatian painters of the twentieth century. Her rich and varied body of work over a period of fifty years, includes a plurality of phases and cycles. Her works are often surreal and phantasmagoric with unsteady handwriting and refined colors.The exhibited graphics are actually two cycles named '' Nives K-K '' and '' Dilemma '' in which we can see the artists mediation with the outside world, an atmosphere of children's playfulness expressed with fresh colors and lines that run almost without interruption. She frequently uses her own or someone else's texts and itegrates them in to her work with subtle irony and references to the existential. She bases her work on Informel heritage, and a new found understanding of space. Her figures are almost disembodied and float in space, yet they are so real, depicted naturalistically. She is a painter of distinctive handwriting, harmonious colors and poetic titles.
Nives Kavurić-Kurtović was born in Zagreb on 18 January 1938. Having graduated from Deveta jezična gimnazija in 1957, she enrolled in the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb. She obtained a degree in graphic art (class of prof. Frano Baće) in 1962. From 1962 to 1967, she was associated with Krsto Hegedušić's Master's Workshop. This was also the period of her first individual exhibitions (started in 1963). Since 1971, she has been a member of the Forum Gallery. She had been working and creating as an independent artist until 1983, when she started teaching as a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb. In 1997, she became a regular member of the Croatian Academy of Arts and Sciences as the first Croatian female to gain such an honour. The painting style of N.K. Kurtovic is based on a lyrical representation of the human figure. Despite that, she does not hesitate to deal with more serious topics that describe a certain state of mind. In her paintings, one often stumbles upon the figures of women, lovers and similar images. She frequently uses her own prints or someone else's texts .She bases her work on Informel heritage, and a new found understanding of space. Her figures are almost disembodied and float in space, yet they are so real, depicted naturalistically. Besides a rich colletion of paintings and drawing works, she aso did graphics and graphic illustrations. Very fruitful as graphic artist, She is a painter of distinctive handwriting, harmonious colors and poetic titles. She is also a member of the Croatian Association of Artists. She has lived and exhibited throughout Europe and the United States. She has won numerous awards at home and abroad, including the prestigious first prize, at the Youth Biennial in 1967 in Paris. In 1968 she won the first prize on the 2nd Internationale Malerwochenin Graz, in 1973 the annual award "Josip Racic", in 1982 she won the Grand Prix at the 8th International Exhibition of original drawings in Rijeka, in 1990 at the 25th Zagreb Salon First Prize for Painting, and central award "Vladimir Nazor"in 1999 in Zagreb. She has held more than one hundred solo exhibitions and participated in around a thousand group ones. Her artworks can be found in numerous museums, galleries and private collections home and abroad.
