Edo Murtic
Edo Murtic (May 4, 1921 - January 2, 2005) was
a renowned painter from Croatia.
Murtic was born in Velika Pisanica near Bjelovar
(then in Yugoslavia). He moved with his parents to Zagreb early
in his childhood, and received his elementary and high school education
there, where he also attended the School of Crafts. In 1939, Murtic
enrolled in the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb and studied for the
next year under Petar Dobrovic in Belgrade. Upon returning to Zagreb,
he then studied under Ljubo Babic.
Murtic was influenced by socialist ideas since
his childhood, and at the outbreak of World War II he became involved
in the anti-fascist movement. In the spring of 1944, Murtic joined
the liberation forces, where he first began his work as an artist,
designing graphics, posters, and books. After the end of the war,
Murtic's work was widely recognized, not only in Yugoslavia but
worldwide.
Since his first one-man exhibition in Zagreb in
1952, Murtic's artistic style had evolved significantly. His work
from the WWII and the post-war period mainly included figurative
paintings, while his modern work involved abstract expressionism.
He held over a hundred and fifty standalone exhibitions and participated
in around three hundred group exhibitions on all continents.
Murtic was an academician of the Croatian Academy
of Sciences and Arts and a member of the Croatian Helsinki Committee
for Human Rights. In his last years Edo Murtic lived in Zagreb and
Vrsar in the Istra region. He died in a hospital in Zagreb.
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