Croatia

Artist: Lovro Artukovic

Lovro Artukovic was born in 1959 in Zagreb, where 20 years later he graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts, subsequently worked at the School for Applied Art and Design, and where some 40 years later he quit the Academy, where he had been teaching drawing by observation for the last 9 years. During this time he produced quite a bunch of paintings, many drawings and a certain number of prints etc.

Interpretation

I don't know if it is known elsewhere, but in Croatia there is a legend saying that when you catch a goldfish, it asks you to let it free and in turn grants you a wish. Or even three. This legend mostly appears in jokes in which the goldfish do the most incredible things just to get away. There is another legend, of the ancient Greek painter Apelles, who was so skilled that when he painted a cluster of grapes, birds came and tried to pick at the juicy fruit. So, if somewhere in a street you should run across a "heavy, leaden" bear with small "windows" on him permitting you to take a peek into his inner world, which is very much in contrast with the "heavy and leaden" impression that he leaves - blue like the Mediterranean Sea and full of goldfish - don't try to break the "glass" in order to free them. This is just an illusion, created by another painter. But having ran into this bear, you may as well make a wish, just in case. You never know, it might come true.

Lovro Artukovic

Sponsor: Botschaft der Republik Kroatien