Art and Life Are One: Zemlja Association of Artist 1929 – 1935

Klovicevi Dvori Gallery, Zagreb, Croatia 

One work from the Infeld Collection is part from the exhibition in “Klovicevi dvori”: The Watercolour „In the garden of pigs“ from the year 1933 is an early work from Ivan Generalic, one of the most popular Croatian naïve artists.

The emergence of Zemlja Association of Artists in 1929 radically changed the Croatian art scene between the two wars. Zemlja was a group of academically educated artists (Krsto Hegedusic), peasants (Ivan Generalic) and workers.

The central goals were the democratization and popularization of art, organization of exhibitions, study circles, public lectures. Such a comprehensive social and cultural project attempted to radically change the profile of art public, until then constituted only by the upper and middle class.

Dr. Petar Prelog, author of the exhibition write: “Zemlja’s goals were doubtlessly noble: it wanted to change the capitalist society with its large number of poor and underprivileged people, approach this neglected social class by thematising its everyday life, include it actively into social life.”