Hinko Smrekar

Place: Ljubljana

Born: 1883

Death: 1942

Biography:

Hinko Smrekar (13 July 1883 – 1 October 1942) was a Slovenian painter, draughtsman, caricaturist, graphic artist, and illustrator. He was a member of the Vesna Art Club, which was active in Vienna, and a partisan in the Liberation Front of the Slovene Nation during the Nazi occupation of Yugoslavia. Smrekar's satire reflected epochal geopolitical changes between 1914 and 1942. He introduced international secessionist illustration to new audiences. Despite anchored by granular events in his native Carniola (now central Slovenia) and the city of Ljubljana, his drawings constitute a universal commentary on the struggles of everyday life, folk traditions and the human nature. An advocate for freedom of thought, Smrekar pushed back against authoritarians, to great personal cost.