The founders of naive art– Jan Knjazovic

Jan Knjazovic was born on June 18 in 1925, in a farming family in Kovacica. He was the most original and the bravest painter of naive art from Kovačica, who did not hesitate to fully express his rich imagination and to surpass the natural tendency of the naive painter to...

© Goran Gajić

  • Jan Knjazovic was born on June 18 in 1925, in a farming family in Kovacica.
  • He was the most original and the bravest painter of naive art from Kovačica, who did not hesitate to fully express his rich imagination and to surpass the natural tendency of the naive painter to imitate reality as convincingly as possible.
  • Jan Knjazovic was a painter of the night, although he also painted scenes depicting life during the day. Under the guise of his “ultramarine nights”, a happy life took place in the countryside of the wonderful art world.
  • His paintings are exhibited in major museum and private collections, and even in the Vatican museum.
  • He was the only Slovak whose painting was exhibited in the Louvre.
  • His painting “Children’s Dance” was reproduced in 1974 on the postal stamp of Yugoslavia.
  • He died in 1985. In its collection, the Gallery of Naive Art, keeps 18 original works of Jan Knjazovic.