| Added by |
 Alain Martineau
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| General Description : | Serie: 117, Type: P, Stamps in serie: 3 Motiv: Vilko Gecan:"Self-Portrait", 1929 For too many years was Milan Steiner, a painter who died in his prime of life (b. 1894 - d.1918), represented in the Zagreb Modern Gallery with but a few paintings. The legendary "Rain" was one of them. However, the reputation he earned among his fellow painters and conoisseurs of art outgrew his fame onto what soon became The Steiner myth. His recent retrospective in the Art Pavillion in Zagreb in1987 put on display more than three hundred and fifty Steiner's works, which, again proved that his fame was undisputed and his high rank in the Croatian Art justifiable. This true follower of Kraljević and Račić gained his reputation and place among modern Croatian painters in only a couple of years (1916-1918). The retrospective denied the established opinion that, due to Steiner's premature death, his work was fairly small, fragmented and incomplete. There is literal truth in calling Vilko Gecan (b.1894-d.1973) both painter and traveller, as he was, indeed, dedicated to travelling through the distant regions of Europa and America, as well as through the various artistic styles of his time. V. Gecan appeared on the scene of modern Croatian painting with all the panache of a true artist, in the early twenties, after a tragic war experience. He acquired the reputation of the leading expressionist and his painting "At the Table", 1919 has an outstanding place in all the anthologies of Croatian art. Gecan's great capacity to assimilate, to transform and to invent lead him to many ventures into different styles:from Cezanne's Neo-Construction in "The Harlequin at Rest", 1920, or the painting of volumes so close to Cubism in "In the Inn", 1922 and the magic realism or the New Reality in the "Self-portrait", 1923 to the transformation of his colouring during his stay in Paris in 1928. The full expression of the last phase was displayed in the Self-portrait, 1929, which Gecan painted in America. Marino Tartaglia's complete work (1894-1948) is large to the extent of shadowing the insight into the very essence of his art. Yet, it is undeniably true that he was a modern painter par exellence. He artfully eluded the conventionally described styles and periods such as the New Style, Expressionism, Futurism, Colourism, Cezannism, the Lyrical Abstaction. The Croatian Post and Telecommunications issued a first day cover (FDC) and a first day sheet. |
| Face value | 4.00 Kuna |
| Catalog code (Michel) | HR 297 |
| Catalog code | Stamp Number HR 222 Yvert et Tellier HR 251 Stanley Gibbons HR 302 AFA number HR 320 Croatian post Inc. HR 119 |
| Series | Modern croatian painting |
| Stamp colour | multicolor |
| Stamp use | Commemorative stamp |
| Print run | 720,000 |
| Issue date | 12/10/1994 |
| Designer | Danijel Popović |
| Paper type | white 90g, gummed |
| Print technique | Multicoloured Offsetprint |
| Printed by | Zrinski - Čakovec |
| Perforation | 14, comb |
| Height | 35.50 mm |
| Width | 42.60 mm |
| Catalog prices | No catalog prices set yet |
