Kauzlarić Atač Zlatko – Portrait of Zlatko Makek

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 of the master workshop of Prof. K. Hegedušić. In 1973, he became an assistant at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, where he currently works as a full professor and served as dean for a period. Alongside painting and graphics, he has been intensively involved in scenography and costume design, collaborating on around a hundred theatre projects both nationally and internationally, as well as several film and television productions. He is also the author of several visual interventions in public spaces. In 1996, a monograph about him, written by Tonko Maroević, was published. He is the recipient of many awards for painting and scenography, as well as the Order of Danica for merits in culture. Atačevo’s existence in the field of painting has been marked by works – starting with those created during his involvement within the group “Biafra” (from 1970), portraits of famous people in expressive movement, nudes, and numerous self-nudes. From the very beginning, the author inherits a sense of the expression of the moment, rhythm, movement, and characteristic artistic engagement. His current painting preoccupation is nudes immersed in water where drawing is replaced by the dominance of pure painterly treatment of the surface with color, revealing the virtuosity of a master who does not restrain expression with figurative expression.