Museu Kreković

Kristian Kreković

(* 28. Februar 1901 in Koprivna, previously Austro-Hungary; † 21. November 1985 in Palma de Mallorca)

was a Bosnian Croat painter of portraits and ethnographic art. Later in life he became known for his fascination with Incan art, and spent a number of years living in Peru. From 1960 he resided in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, where he died in 1985. Mallorca has a museum named after him and devoted predominantly to his art.

Kreković is believed to have been born in the village of Koprivna near Modriča, Bosnia and Herzegovina, then a part of Austria-Hungary, to a family originally from the region of Lika (modern-day Croatia).

At the end of World War I Kreković went to Vienna to study, although he eventually completed his studies in Paris. His first public exhibition was in 1925 in the Lounge des Artistes Français. In 1928 he was made a member of the French Society of Visual Arts and awarded the gold medal in the Bordeaux exhibition of international art.

In 1930 Kreković he began travelling with his wife Sina to Peru, where he was to reside for a period of 35 years. During this time Kreković studied many aspects of the Incan civilisation, and often travelled in the Andes looking for indigenous subjects to paint. He travelled back to Europe on several occasions during this period, and at various stages was commissioned to paint portraits of the Queen Consort, Queen Elizabeth and a number of other members of European royal houses. In 1931 Kreković became friends with and painted a portrait of Mahatma Gandhi, who is quoted as saying "The sentiment of Kristian Kreković towards the world is unique. It impregnates all his art, and it impregnates it with extraordinary creativity and constructive character.

He spent World War II in the Croatian capital of Zagreb Post-war he was tried by the communist Yugoslavian government along with Lovro von Matačić and Tin Ujević for his painting of Croatian leader Ante Pavelić.

In 1955 the Peruvian Government sponsored an exhibit of Kreković's Incan-inspired ethnographic art throughout the United States. On this tour Kreković insisted on being characterised as a "Croatian-born Peruvian artist" which resulted in protests from the embassy of Yugoslavia.

In 1966 the Peruvian city of Cuzco (or Cusco) granted him honorary citizenship and the Gold medal of the city.

In 1965 he settled in Palma de Mallorca, where in 1977 he built the Museum of Palma de Mallorca with his works of art, now known as Museu Kreković (Collección Pintor Kreković). The Kreković Museum was officially opened in 1981 by Queen Sophia of Spain. Kreković died in his home in Mallorca in 1985.