BIOGRAFIJAPORTRETIMRTVA PRIRODAPEJZAŽFIGURA I KOMPOZICIJA

Marta Svečnjak née Smolikova was born on March 14, 1903 in Holice, Czech Republic. She graduated from the Prag Conservatoire (piano). Having married to Milan Premru, a physician, she moved to Sušak; from their exile in Assisi, she was Vilim Svečnjak's inseparable fellow-sufferer during World War II. Her visual art has been described by their longstanding friend, Jan Janković: "She came to Zagreb in 1952 to start dealing with painting and ceramic. With her extraordinary painter's sensitivity and imagination she created ceramic works of highest esthetic quality and visual value, having quickly captured affinity of the public at large as well as full recognition and flattering reviews from professional critics both in Croatia and abroad... She had noticeable one-man exhibitions in the center of ceramics, Faenza, then in Bassano del Grapa; ... her magnificent one-man exhibition in Trešnjevka Pioneer Theater foyer in 1963 has long been remembered by the Zagreb visual art public". Her last appearance in public was her participation in the World Triennale of Small Ceramics in Zagreb, 1984. Marta Svečnjak died on January 11, 1993 in Zagreb.