Kauzlarić Atač Zlatko – Lying on the Side

He was born in 1945 in Koprivnica. After finishing high school, he enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb. During his studies, he became involved with the work of the Student Experimental Theatre. He graduated in the class of Prof. Miljenko Stančić and immediately became a collaborator in the master workshop of Prof. K. Hegedušić. In 1973, he became an assistant at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, where he still works as a full professor and served for a time as dean. Alongside painting and graphics, he intensively engaged in scenography and costume design, participating in about one hundred theatre projects both domestically and internationally, as well as several film and television projects. He is also the author of several visual interventions in public spaces. In 1996, a monograph about him was published, written by Tonko Maroević. He has received many awards for painting and scenography and the Order of Danica for merits in culture. Atačevo’s existence in the field of painting is marked by works—including those created during his involvement with the “Biafra” group (from 1970), portraits of well-known individuals expressing movement, nudes, and numerous self-nudes. From the very beginning, the author embraced a sense of expression of the moment, rhythm, movement, and a characteristic artistic engagement. His current painting preoccupation is with nudes submerged in water in which drawing is replaced by the dominance of pure painterly treatment of the surface with color, revealing all the virtuosity of a master who does not suppress expression by figurative expression.