Ivan Rabuzin

Croatia, 1921 - 2008

Schoolnaive

BiographyIvan Rabuzin (1921-2008) was a Croatian naïve artist. French art critic Anatole Jakovsky described him in 1972 as "one of the greatest naïve painters of all times and countries."
Rabuzin's father was a miner, and Ivan was the sixth of his eleven children. Ivan worked as a carpenter for many years, and did not begin painting until 1956, when he was thirty-five years old. He had little formal training as an artist, but his first exhibition of paintings proved successful and he changed careers, becoming a professional painter in 1962.
Rabuzin was active in politics as a member of Croatian Democratic Union, and from 1993 to 1999 he was a member of the Croatian Parliament. He took a stab at industrial design in the 1970s with decorating the upscale Suomi tableware by Timo Sarpaneva for the German Rosenthal porcelain maker. Rabuzin also collaborated with Japanese theaters, museums and filmmakers.
His art was exhibited throughout the world: Zagreb, Paris, Antibes, Zurich, Milano, USA (Louisiana, Smithsonian Institution, Carnegie Institute Museum of Art, Scottsdale Center for the Arts, Milwaukee Museum Art Center, Chicago Public Library, C.W. Post Art Galery/Long Island University, Pittsburgh), Oslo, Munich, Dusseldorf, Amsterdam, Verona, Brescia, Florence, Tokyo, Osaka, Geneva, Cologne, London, etc.

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