Oton
Gliha - biography
Oton Gliha was a Croatian painter who graduated from the
Zagreb Academy of Art and spent time in Paris. In his early
years, he painted portraits and still lifes using not very
bright colours. His landscapes expressed Paul Cézanne's
construction of paintings, his portraits pointed out only
the most important features of forms, and his still life
made the material so thick that they became almost reliefs.
Oton Gliha was born on May 21, 1914 in Croatia, the Slovenian
temporary abode of his family with its roots in Istria,
whose residence was dictated by his father's civil service.
He lived in Slavonia until he was ten, and later moved to
Zagreb where he completed his secondary education and his
study at the Academy of Fine Arts in 1937. He studied with
the professors Maksimilijan Vanka, Marino Tartaglia and
Ljubo Babi. He then went to Paris, Vienna and Munich to
enhance his studies. After getting married to his study
colleague, the painter Mila Kumbatovi, he embraced her native
island of Krk as his own, undertook pilgrimages there and
continued looking for stimulation for his painting expression
in its coastal landscapes. Because he had made his living
from painting throughout his life, unrestrained by pedagogical
or, indeed, any other service, Gliha used to leave Zagreb
during the sultry summer and cold wintry days to spend many
months in Omialj (on Krk) and sometimes undertook study
sojourns abroad (Italy in 1952 and 1961, and the USA in
1958 and 1979).
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