Although Jože Tisnikar was a self-taught artist, year by year he built on his technical knowledge of painting using his typical combination of oil and egg tempera, first on wooden boards and later on canvas. He was slowly able to transform the traumatic charge of everyday human tragedy that inspired him into a world of universal symbols of human life and transience. Like a metaphorical guard, a raven accompanied the painter, a sort of trademark of Tisnikar’s paintings that became one of the most recognisable icons of recent Slovenian painting.

Text: Marko Košan