Rabuzin, Ivan

Rabuzin, Ivan (1921– ). Yugoslav naive painter, born in the village of Ključ, near Novi Marof, in the Zagorje region of Croatia. He trained as a cabinet-maker in Zagreb, where he also attended evening classes in drawing. In 1950 he became foreman of a furniture factory in Novi Marof and in 1956 he held his first one-man exhibition in this village. He won first prize at the Federal Exhibition of Yugoslav Amateur Painters at Zagreb in 1958, and had his second one-man exhibition, at the Gallery of Naive Art in Zagreb, in 1960. In the same year a film about his work appeared on Yugoslavian television. His growing success enabled him to give up his job at the furniture factory in 1963 and devote himself full-time to painting. In 1969 he was awarded the Henri Rousseau prize in Bratislava, and his work has been seen in many exhibitions in his own country and abroad. Rabuzin's most typical subjects are landscapes, painted in a bright and optimistic manner. Usually there are no figures, but there are often signs of human activity—neatly ploughed fields and so on. Everything is in perfect order, in a radiant vision: ‘In my picture I beautify nature. In other words, in nature I create an order that suits me, I create a world that pleases me and appears the way I want it to.’