Character. Collage. Slavko Kopač. Art Brut. Croatia

After studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, Slavko Kopač did a one-year internship in Paris, from 1939 to 1940, with a scholarship awarded to him by the French government. Then, because of the Second World War, as a Croatian citizen, he was forced to return to the Independent State of Croatia, where he arrived in April 1941 after passing through Mostar for several weeks and before reaching the capital to teach at the Lycée de Zagreb until 1943. From 1943 to 1948, he managed to go to Italy and lived and worked in Florence. In August 1948, he settled permanently in Paris and met Jean Dubuffet, then became the curator of the Lacompagnie de l'art brut collection, of which he was one of the founders. He is also one of the artists whose works were kept at the Collection de l'art brut in Lausanne. The Alphonse Chave Gallery paid tribute to him in 1985 by exhibiting him alongside Jean Dubuffet in Vence, under the title Salut à Jean Dubuffet. Finally, a major retrospective is dedicated to him in Zagreb in the Meštrović Pavilion in 2022. Collage, mixed technique. 18 x 41 cm. with black cardboard 23 x 50 cm.