Croatian naive art. The magical world of Croatian naive Text of a scientific work on the topic “Naive painting of Croatia: Ivan Vecenaj”

An exhibition with this title, which opened in Moscow at the Museum of Naive Art, became the occasion for an interview with collector Vladimir Temkin. He brought to the capital the works of 16 Croatian artists, representatives of four generations of followers of the famous Khlebinsky school.

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“Naive Podravka painting is characterized by motifs from everyday village life, tranquil landscapes, as well as vibrant local color, especially characteristic of the unique technique of painting on glass. The motifs, colors and technique are so typical that the painting of the Khlebinsky school is equally recognized by world experts, critics, and ordinary amateurs,” Vladimir reads out his own quote in one of the catalogues. He has been friends with Croatian artists for quite a long time, and he is precisely friends - Vladimir Temkin personally knew 13 of the 16 authors of works at the exhibition in Moscow. The collector admits that for him this is not just a purchase of works of art, but an opportunity to make friends, communicate, and create.

The Hlebinsk School in Croatia never looked like a classical educational institution with programs, desks and students. This term is commonly used to describe the process of passing on knowledge and traditions from generation to generation of self-taught Croatian artists. At the origins of this process in the 30s of the last century was the academic artist, a native of the village of Hlebine in Croatia, Krsto Hegedusic. After studying in Paris, the young artist returned to his homeland and intuitively searched for an opportunity for self-expression for himself and his people. “During the period of its formation, the Khlebinsk school was simultaneously influenced by the sociocultural context, and ideas inspired by professional painting, and the popular feeling and mood of that time,” writes Alexandra Volodina, deputy director of the Museum of Naïve Art, in the catalog for the exhibition. “The means chosen by Hegedusic expressiveness - glass painting and bright colors - are now business card Khlebinsk school."

In approximately 90% of cases, Croatian naive artists paint pictures on glass using the so-called reverse method. According to Vladimir Temkin, this is a very labor-intensive technique, because the author imposes oil paint onto the picture in reverse order - first draws the highlights and small details, and then the pattern is applied layer by layer. Working with this technique, nothing can be corrected, because the very first layer, which the audience sees through the glass, for the author remains, as it were, at the “bottom” of the work, to which it is no longer possible to return. To create paintings using this technique you need to have excellent spatial thinking and keen attention. Looking at the meticulously drawn paintings of the followers of the Khlebinsky school, viewers often notice that “it’s not so naive, this naive Croatian painting.”

Stories from peasant life, made using a complex glass painting technique, have received recognition all over the world. As Vladimir Tiomkin said, the artists of the Khlebin School visited exhibitions on all continents and took part in receptions for presidents and members of royal families.

However, when the founder of the Hlebin School, Krsto Hegedusic, first showed the work of his students, young peasants, to the general public, a scandal erupted in Zagreb. At first they did not want to recognize the paintings of Ivan Generalić, Franjo Mraz and other students of Hegedusić, who did not have a classical art education, as art. As Tiomkin emphasizes, Hegedušić actively promoted the creativity of peasants and sought to prove that talent was not associated with origin and was not a privilege of the high class, as was the case in academic art. Hegedusic urgently asked his students not to invent anything or fantasize, to draw only what surrounds them, the life of a simple peasant.

And so it happened that naive Croatian painters not only represented the everyday life of the village of Hlebine in their works, but also remained peasants themselves. “Everyone we are talking about, despite the fact that they are internationally recognized artists, they still remain peasants. For example, Mijo Kovacic still lives on his farm. Every day he spends time in the vineyards, sowing corn, planting potatoes, driving honey, tending to bees. All this continues, despite the fact that the person is recognized throughout the world as an artist,” says Vladimir Tiomkin.

Our interlocutor gave an example from the life of the naive painter Ivan Vechenaya. Once in the 70s the artist met Hollywood actor Yul Brynner, who was in Yugoslavia at the time filming the film. Yul literally fell in love with the creativity of Croatian naive artists, looked at the paintings with pleasure and discussed them. And in the end he invited Ivan Vechenay and his wife to come to America for vacation. When the two-week vacation came to an end, the couple was offered to continue their journey and go to the ocean in Florida. To which Vechenaya’s wife replied that it was time for them to return, because the corn was ripe and it was necessary to harvest.

The exhibition presents works by painters from approximately 80 years of the existence of the Khlebin School phenomenon. Author's lithograph by Ivan Generalić (first generation), paintings by Mijo Kovacic, Ivan Lacković, Josip Generalić, Martin Mehkek and painters who stand on the threshold of history, their works are also recognized. Among them are Nikola Vechenay Leportinov, Martin Koprichanets (second generation).

The third generation of naive artists in Croatia is the most numerous. Stjepan Ivanec, Nada Svegovich Budaj are authors whose works are on permanent display at the Museum of Naive Art in Zagreb. A large number of articles and monographs have been written in the wake of their work. In addition, the third generation includes Vladimir Ivanchan, Mirko Horvat, Ivan Andrasic, Biserka Zlatar.

According to Vladimir Tiomkin, literally five artists can be counted among the fourth generation of followers of the Khlebin School. The most talented of them, as recognized by many critics and art historians, is Drazen Tetets, by the way, a participant in the Festnaive 2013 Triennial in Moscow.

During the period of its existence, the Khlebinsky school of naive painters experienced both complete denial and persecution, as well as universal recognition and love. According to art historians, the period of development of the Khlebin School phenomenon has come to an end. But to our question about what awaits world naive art in the future, Vladimir Tyomkin answers with optimism: “I think that naive art has a very great future. Perception is changing. All more people They themselves engage in painting, try to express themselves and thereby recognize and better understand the people around them. An exchange takes place. A person who is able to understand and accept, even academic or non-academic art, can tomorrow buy and hang in his home the work of a naive artist. What's the difference between a naive/non-naive artist? He is a creator and if this is a real work of art, then it touches the soul, doesn’t it?”

Exhibition " Magic world Croatian naive" will last until July 6 at the Museum of Naive Art at the address: Moscow, Izmailovsky Boulevard, 30. More information on the museum’s website http://naive-museum.ru/

Naive painting. Ivan Generalić - Patriarch of Naiva Croatia

The famous representative of the Khlebin school of naive painting IVAN GENERALIC (Generalic) is a self-taught Croatian artist (December 21, 1914, the village of Hlebine, Croatia - November 27, 1992, ibid.). Having created a school of peasant painters in his native village of Khlebin in 1930, he became one of the most famous masters of “naive art” in the world. His paintings (on canvas or on glass) are generally colorful and majestic, full of folkloric optimism, but also include many mournful motifs of the memory of the terror of the Second World War.

The biography of the artist, who was born into a peasant family, is not replete with events - he lived his entire life in his native Khlebin. Interest in art appeared early, but vocational education he didn't receive it. He was encouraged to take painting seriously by the Zagreb painter Krsto Hegedušić, a representative of left-wing intellectuals: in 1931 he invited Generalić and his fellow villagers, Franjo Mraz and Mirko Virius, to participate in the exhibition of his group “Earth” in Zagreb.

In the interwar twenty years, the discovery by professionals of the creativity of “naive” artists, free from the dogmas of tradition, met the task of democratizing society and opening up new expressive possibilities for art. The creativity of the Khlebintsy laid the foundation for the Khlebinsky school of naive painting, now known throughout the world, and Ivan Generalich is rightfully considered the patriarch of naive painting Croatia.

Features of creativity. Themes of social inequality characteristic of the early period were replaced by stories about the peasant life of Khlebin. These are genre, less often allegorical scenes with many details of a tightly put together peasant life, landscapes, and animated figures of people. Everyday prose meets fairy tales: ferocious bulls and birds of paradise, aloof deer and mysterious unicorns. Capacious symbols in the paintings “Sunflowers” ​​(1970), “Cat by a Candle” (1971), “Deer in the Forest” (1956) represent folk fantasy and the highly poetic personality of the artist.

Generalich's works are chamber-sized and painted in oil on glass. Icons were painted in a similar way in the old days in the alpine regions of Croatia and Slovenia - light passing through the glass creates a particularly rich color. The artist is faithful to folk craft and in the manner of depicting the world: a flattened image, clarity of the contour, rhythm of the carpet composition, in which all the details are equal in size and equivalent. The people's vision of the world, naive and wise, is combined with the artist's experience of acquaintance with mass visual production - kitsch, which gave rise to a unique fusion of childish spontaneity of perception with the boldness of artistic decisions.

Generalich's creativity, having been divorced from folk crafts and not joining the educated arts, formed a special niche, joining the international artistic process. The artist is free from the framework of tradition and style norms, but latently the history of art is still reflected in his work. Yes, him famous painting“Under the Pear Tree” (1943) with its high horizon of composition and restrained coloring is reminiscent of the paintings of Bruegel the Elder, the painting “Reindeer Matchmakers” (1961) is full of the charm of ancient Eastern reliefs, and “Khlebinskaya Mona Lisa” (1972) in the form of a chicken ridicules common stereotypes.

The patriarch of Croatian naive painting, Generalich, created a whole galaxy of masters of the Hlejin school. His son Josip also painted pictures with him. The works of Generalić and his colleagues are kept in the Gallery of Naïve Art in Zagreb, as well as in museums in many countries around the world.

There is hardly a person in our country familiar with painting who would not know the names of the most famous primitivist artists of the 20th century: Niko Pirosmani (Georgia) and Henri Rousseau (France). And only a few knew people like Generalich Ivan, Kovacic Mijo, Lackovich Ivan, Svegovich Nada. These primitivist artists from Croatia received recognition half a century later than Pirosmani, Rousseau, Matisse, Goncharova and other primitivists and neo-primitivists of the beginning of the last century. Fame in Russia, unlike other countries, came to them in the last five years, when several cities of the country hosted exhibitions of primitivist artists from the famous Khlebinsky school from Croatia.

I confess that I myself saw Croatian naive painting only a year ago. At the exhibition of the collection of the famous violinist and conductor Vladimir Spivakov, held in 2017 in Moscow, I drew attention to unusual icons painted in oil not on wood, but on glass. These were icons from Croatia, created by non-professional artists. I was attracted to the works by the simplicity of the images combined with the imagination of the artists. From the catalog I learned that icons on glass were considered more affordable than prepared boards or canvas, and were very common in Slovenia, Croatia, Romania and the Alpine regions Western Europe.

This summer, Yaroslavl residents do not need to go to Moscow, Zagreb, Nice to get acquainted with one of best schools folk painting - Croatian. Come to the Museum of Foreign Art on Sovetskaya Square, 2. It was there, on July 7, that the exhibition “The Miracle of Naive Art” opened from the collection of the famous collector Vladimir Tyomkin.

Vladimir Tyomkin became interested in naive Croatian art more than ten years ago, after seeing the works folk artists in one of the monographs. A trip to Croatia led to an acquaintance with modern masters painting and the desire to collect my own collection. The first personal exhibition took place in 2014 in Kostroma (the collector lives in Nerekhta, Kostroma region). Then there were Moscow (in several museums), Brussels, St. Petersburg, Tokyo, Mytishchi (Moscow region). After Yaroslavl, the exhibition will go to Yekaterinburg.

V. Temkin about the technique of painting on glass:

“Many Croatian artists work with canvas and cardboard, in gouaches and watercolors, a lot of woodcarvers, etc. But the main direction in technology, the universally recognizable brand of Croatian naive art, is, of course, painting on glass. The picture is painted in reverse. That is, not on the front, but on back side glass A pencil sketch, often very schematic, is placed under the glass, indicating the overall composition of the picture; then the foreground and all the small details are drawn in, and so on layer by layer. Each layer of paint must dry, so the work takes at least several days. The background is recorded last. An artist working with canvas uses the last strokes to paint small details and highlights. Here, everything is exactly the opposite. Then you can’t correct it, you can’t rewrite it. Naturally, you need a certain spatial thinking, and experience. good and large paintings take months to write. This technique, which largely determined the originality of the Croatian naive, goes back to folk icons on glass, common in many central regions of Europe. In Croatia they were called “glazhi”, or “glazma”, “malerai” - a derivative of the German “hinterglasmalerei” (glass painting). In the last century, such icons were the subject of exchange or sale at village and city fairs.

The exhibition in Yaroslavl presents several such icons by unknown masters.

Trinity. Glass, oil. Unknown artist.

Elijah the Prophet. Glass, oil. Unknown artist.

The man who played one of the main roles in the emergence and development of Croatian naive art, which later received worldwide fame, was academic artist Krsto Hegedusic.

He spent part of his childhood in the village of Khlebin, in his father's homeland. Then there was Zagreb, where he received higher art education at the Higher School and the Academy of Painting, where upon graduation he became a teacher and then a professor. K. Hegedusic was an extraordinary and talented person. He was looking for his own national and original flavor in depicting social themes. To search for new themes, the artist, from time to time, comes to the places of his childhood. One day, going into a village store, he saw drawings on wrapping paper. He liked them, and Hegedusic inquired about their author. The seller replied that it was his 15-year-old nephew who painted it. Ivan Generalich. So in 1930, an acquaintance took place between a teacher-academic and a student - a peasant. They were soon joined by young Franjo Mraz and then Mirko Virius. They are the first generation of artists of the famous Khlebinsky school.

Passionate about searching for new ideas in art, Hegedusic decided to conduct an experiment confirming that talent does not depend on origin. He began to work with self-taught students, teach them painting techniques, showed them and helped them master various writing techniques, including oil painting on glass. And, most importantly, he taught not to imitate, but to find his own view of the world around him, first of all, depicting village life, which was close and understandable to the young men. A year later, the students took part in one of the exhibitions in Zagreb, organized by K. Hegedusic. The creativity of the peasants caused a mixed reaction from viewers and critics, but at the same time generated interest in unusual paintings. I. Generalich became for his fellow villagers what Hegedusic was for the first three artists. Many peasants began to engage in creativity. Unfortunately, the second world war and the subsequent unstable situation delayed the process of entry and prominence of the Khlebinsky school into world culture for two decades. Only in the early fifties did the artists of naive art from Khlebinsk and other surrounding villages come to worldwide fame.

It happened in Paris in 1953 , where the Gallery of Yugoslavia was shown 36 works by Ivan Generalich.

The preface for the exhibition catalog was written by the famous French writer Marcel Arlan , who appreciated the artist’s work:

"There is nothing intrusive, nothing shocking in these thirty works that Ivan Generalić shows in the Yugoslav Gallery, and no one can say that the Croatian artist came to conquer Paris. But he surprises and disarms us. Because Ivan Generalić remained true to his roots, and because this small world that he brought to us is truly his. A small world, without a doubt, but of a gentle and virtuous quality, of a refined and serious spirit, where naivety and sophistication are closely connected. The restrained melody that sounds from his paintings, in. present moment- this is the melody of one person, one people and one region. This decoration, these landscapes, rural scenes. And there is always some kind of intimate dialogue between people, animals and nature: a yellow cow, a horse under a blue blanket are equally participants, like these hills, peasants and trees. Yes, the man there is the Generalich, who from his childhood, from the land of those cows and horses, under these trees, between these peasants, from their general history created his own story and dreams of showing it to others..."

The exhibition was such a success that it was extended for almost a month. All the paintings were sold before its completion, which was very rare for Paris, and orders for I. Generalich’s works continued to arrive. Paris, and behind it the whole world, was conquered.

At the Yaroslavl exhibition the viewer will see products of four generations of Croatian artists. Classics of the Khlebinsky school and naive art of the first two generations: Ivan Generalic, Ivan Vecenaj, Mijo Kovacic, Martin Mehkek. One of best charts in world naive art - Ivan Latskovich. In the third generation, critics especially highlight such artists as Nada Svegovich Budaj, Stepan Ivanec, Nikola Vechenay Leportinov, Martin Koprichanec. Today's generation of artists is small: creativity deserves the highest marks Drazhena Tetets.

In front of the entrance to the hall, the exhibition organizers placed large stands with information about the history of the Croatian naive, as well as a screen where you can see photographs of artists and landscapes of the country that inspired their work.
Each painting has brief information about the artist and the work itself. This will greatly help those who visit the exhibition on their own, without a guide. I remind you that every Sunday at 15-00, you can attend a free excursion conducted by museum staff (if you have a ticket to the exhibition).

A little about the paintings:
The work of artists is often divided into different periods. For example, Vasily Vereshchagin had Turkestan, Palestinian, Indian, Russian, and Japanese periods. Pablo Picasso has blue and pink. At some point in Ivan Generalich’s creativity, a fantasy, fairy-tale, magical moment occurred. This period is represented in the exhibition by the painting "Forest of Dreams" .

Ivan Generalich. "Forest of Dreams" Glass, oil.

The painting was the predecessor of his famous work "White Deer" .

Magically fantasy and at the same time real world created in his works Vladimir Ivanchan.

Vladimir Ivanchan. "Big Blue Night" 2008

Obvious mature skill showed Nada Svegovich Budaj in the series of paintings “Mummers”.

Nada Svegovich Budaj. "Mummers" II. Glass, oil. 1983

Nada Svegovich Budaj. "Mummers" V. Glass, oil. 1989.

In them she showed a clear departure from the traditional “Khlebinsky” school. By this time, the artist had significantly improved her technique of writing on glass, including the so-called “ala prima” (“raw on wet”). The picture is not painted layer by layer, with each layer drying, but immediately, like a sketch, without any preliminary preparation.

"Propped Jesus" glass, oil 2014. "Apocalypse" series.
Drazen Tetets.

The painting participated in several exhibitions in Croatia and Russia, including a large exhibition project "Creation of the World" within the framework of the V Moscow international festival"Festnaive" at MMOMA, in 2017.

The key point becomes bright, great job representative of the last wave of the Khlebinsky school (Croatian naive) Drazen Tetec "Propped Jesus". This is naive, on the one hand, in the understanding of Europe, on the other hand, the work itself, its content is philosophical view to the ideological crisis of the widest coverage of the world of Christian civilization. A warning picture and an alarm picture. It also shows how unnaive a naive can be, no matter what we mean by that word."
Sergei Belov, curator of the "Creation of the World" project.
The title of the painting “Propped up Jesus” is not accidental. Although “Propped Cross”, “Crucified Jesus” or “Cross on Props” would probably sound more euphonious. Actually, these names were mentioned in media reports.
Drazen deliberately avoids the emphasis in the title on an inanimate object, albeit a very symbolic one such as the Cross. Thus, transferring our attention to a completely different, metaphysical level. The name “scratches” the ear, immediately making you think about something human, more psychologically deep (we are always ready to use “props” in our lives, faith is no exception, rather the opposite).

Yaroslavl residents and guests of the city:
I remind you that every Sunday at 15-00 you can attend a free excursion conducted by museum staff.
The exhibition will last until September 9.
Day off is Monday.

Ivan Latskovich. Podravsko village. Glass, oil. 1978.

Mijo Kovacic. Portrait of a peasant. Glass, oil. 1985.

And thanks to the exchange, I became the owner of wonderful postcards from the exhibition “The Miracle of the Croatian Naive” in Kostroma. Of course, the first thing that catches your eye is the brightness of the colors and simple good subjects, reminiscent of the works of Bruegel. Well, let's get acquainted.

Ivan Generalich(Hlebine 12/21/1914 - Koprivnica 11/27/1992), classic of Croatian and world naive art, outstanding artist 20th century.

Discovered by K. Hegedusic as a talented fifteen-year-old rural teenager, he began to exhibit already in 1931, and in the 1950s his art made a big breakthrough and entered the European and world art scenes.
Ivan Generalić was born on December 21, 1914 in the Podravsky village of Hlebine, near the town of Koprivnica. Croatia at that time was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (now Hlebine is located almost on the border with Hungary).
Mato's younger brother, a future famous peasant sculptor, was born on October 7, 1920. Ivan had another younger brother, but he died in infancy. Father Mate and mother Teresa owned a small plot of land and ran a modest household.
Ivan completed five classes. Then he helped his parents with agricultural and household work.
Drawing attracted him since childhood; at school he loved this subject most of all. Due to their low income, parents could not buy Ivan painting supplies, so he invented brushes and paints as best he could.
As he himself said, the main materials and tools were twigs and sand, or coals and neighbors' fences... :)
In those long times winter evenings women made roses from colored paper for the Christmas tree. And, as Ivan recalled, “... I’ll mix those leftovers and scraps of paper with water in several cups, and I’ll get several colors. I used these “paints” to paint my drawings, or I’ll find old book with illustrations, preferably with people, and I also color them to make them beautiful. Hard paper served as my brush."

Then there was a fateful meeting with Krsto Hegedusic.
And the first result of this was the participation of Ivan Generalich (3 drawings and 9 watercolors) and F. Mraz (3 watercolors) in the 3rd exhibition artistic association Land in Zagreb.
The main results of the exhibition were not only the opportunity for peasant artists to show their creativity, but also the emergence and further formation of a separate artistic phenomenon - folk, original art. The exhibition, considered the starting point of the Croatian naive phenomenon, opened September 13, 1931.

Ivan Vechenay born on May 18, 1920 in the Podravsky village of Gola. He was the first of six children in a very poor peasant family. As a child, he worked as a day laborer in auxiliary jobs, and most of his life he was engaged in agriculture. He mastered the loom and was engaged in weaving, which probably helped him in the future when he took up painting.

His work grew out of parables he heard in childhood, old rural legends, randomly acquired books, church singing, and deep religiosity. The world of his paintings consists of scenes from everyday rural life, biblical motifs and folk customs.
Art critics consider Ivan Večenaj the best colorist among Podravsky naive artists. Its fiery clouds, cloudy winters, purple grass, green cows and gray roosters are famous.
Vecenaya’s first personal exhibition was organized in 1954, and then his paintings traveled all over the world. We had it too, back in the Soviet Union. Together with Ivan Generalich and Mijo Kovacic, he exhibited at the Hermitage, the Russian Museum, and the Pushkin Museum.

Mijo Kovacic, a classic of the Khlebinsky school and Croatian naive, was born on August 5, 1935 in a poor peasant family, in the small village of Gornja Šuma (Upper Forest) near Molve, in Podravina. Having completed four classes of basic school, Milhaud, together with his brothers (he was the fifth in the family, the most youngest child) helped parents in agriculture and housework.
Kovacic is an extraordinary phenomenon in Croatian naive art. Having started to paint on his own, without anyone’s help, and having learned that another self-taught artist, Ivan Generalich, lived eight kilometers away from him, in the village of Khlebin, Milhaud began to walk to him to get advice and learn a little.
And then, like an avalanche, absolutely inexplicably, huge, up to two meters, paintings on glass poured out of his workshop into our world. With many faces, a varied and motley crowd of people living in this phantasmagorical atmosphere of the poor Molvar region, next to the mistress of the river, which with enviable regularity floods their lands and destroys all their works. Mystical forest landscapes, an ancient forest overgrown with fabulous plants with many small lakes filled with warm water, with frogs, turtles, snakes, and some unusual birds living there. With people living in this fantasy world of the Big River, who pan for river gold, steal birds' eggs, fish in the creeks and love women. Like in the paintings of the old Dutch.

Kovacic is also known for his portraits; art critics call him the best portrait painter of the Croatian naive.
Kovacic had a huge influence on subsequent generations of Croatian naive painters; many beginning artists, and not only beginners, copied his painting style to one degree or another. Winner of many awards and a recognized classic of the world's naive art, Milhaud still lives in his village, continues to paint, and spends all his free time in his favorite vineyard.

And one more name from this series - naive slikar Drazen Tetets!

This is precisely a representative of that very small “fourth” generation. Today, 5 sculptors and 12 artists - representatives of naive art - live in Khlebin. Drazen is the “youngest”. Born on January 24, 1972, he completed eight years of school, in 1991 he began to draw his first paintings on glass, and in 1992 he took part in the exhibition for the first time.
Lives in his village house with his father and red dog Miki. He does housework, drives a tractor, collects firewood (there is little natural gas in Croatia, and in villages they mostly use wood heating), keeps livestock, and fishes. And he draws. He likes to draw in the early morning, when nothing interferes, the light is special, and his hand is as firm as possible. Like a real “professional” artist, he tries to do this every day.

I would like to introduce the readers of the community a little to Croatian painting. And talk about one of the most famous Croatian artists and the greatest watercolor artist of this country - Slava Raskaj.

Her work is inextricably linked with tragic story her life.

Slava was born in 1877 in the city of Ozal, rich in Croatian history. The city, which was the possession of the most influential aristocratic families, in which Ban Petar Zrinski had his residence, and which in the 17th century was a literary and cultural center. Deaf and mute from birth, Slava was an introverted child and compensated for the lack of communication with people by communicating with nature, which helped her deeply understand and appreciate nature and perfectly depict it in her paintings.

First pencil drawings flowers have already appeared in Vienna school for deaf and mute children, where she studied from the ages of 7 to 15 years. Slava’s artistic talent was first noticed by a teacher from her hometown, who came to Zagreb to take the post of head of the Institute for teaching children with hearing and speech impairments. He took Slava to the then famous artist Bela Cikos-Sesiy (one of the founders of the Academy of Arts in Zagreb), from whom she began to study painting. Throwing away artistic influence Chikosha, which consisted of using predominantly dark tones, Rashkai found herself in watercolor, which became her favorite form of artistic expression.

The work of S. Rashkai is usually divided into 2 phases, in the first of which drawing and color are the result of pure observation, a crystal clear vision of the beauty of nature. The second phase is characterized by the expression of one’s impressions (impression), and during this period her best watercolors were painted. It was then that Rashkai’s famous cycle “Water Lilies” was written, inspired by a small lake in the botanical garden of Zagreb.

In 1898 she participated in an exhibition of Croatian artists in Zagreb, and in 1899-1900 she exhibited in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Slava Rashkai is sometimes called Ophelia Croatian painting. Not only because of the unusual, special beauty of the tones, and the peculiarities of the experiences expressed in her paintings, but also because of her romantic, but tragic fate of a young girl. She was unhappily in love with her teacher and these feelings, according to some authors, were reflected in the portrait of Bela that she painted (no matter how hard I tried, unfortunately, I could not find this portrait). There are two versions about what the relationship between Rashkai and Cikos was like. According to one, they were only close colleagues and only collaborated in the field of painting. According to another, it was still love story, secret, since Chikosh was not only much older than Slava, but was also married. Apparently, it will no longer be possible to find out the truth about this relationship. It is believed that Slava spoke in detail about her life in letters to her mother, which she bequeathed to be buried with her in a coffin, but they were burned in a fire in her sister’s house in Budapest. The tragic circumstances of her life include the destruction of her house in her hometown and about 40 of her lost works.

Shortly before her mental illness, she painted a Self-Portrait, and after that more and more expression appeared in her works, mixing the visual and the fantastic. The state of deep depression, due to which she was placed in a mental hospital in 1902, was certainly reflected in the paintings, in the choice of tones and depicted motifs - ruins, abandoned mills...

She died of tuberculosis in 1906, at the age of only 29, in Zagreb, and her remains were transferred to hometown Slava Rashkay - Ozal.

During her lifetime, Slava Rashkai was only partially recognized as an artist. She participated in exhibitions, some of her works were sold, but for amounts that were incredibly small compared to the price of paintings by other artists of that time. Partly because she was an artist, and women's work critics were often perceived more as whim and entertainment, rather than real art, partly because watercolor and its small formats were not at all in use, the genre was considered somewhat frivolous, and wealthy buyers were looking for large, massive canvases. And critics were also confused by Slava’s love to the plein air, since she painted her landscapes entirely on outdoors, and did not complete them in the studio, as was customary then. However, the critic V. Lunacek admitted that he could not single out more than one artist of that time, except for Slava Rashkai, who, in his opinion, would have become popular during her lifetime if she had lasted longer.