Jože Tisnikar

Tisnikar was born in Mislinja, a village at the foot of the Pohorje mountain range.^[3] He had a difficult childhood and left elementary school after four years.^[4] When his father died, he had to take his place at a cardboard factory, where he worked until he was drafted into the army. He spent two years in the army in Pirot, Serbia, where he worked at a hospital ward and had his first contact with dead bodies.^[5] After his military service, he returned to his home village and soon moved to Slovenj Gradec, where he got a job at the local hospital.^[6] He performed mostly physical tasks with patients until the hospital opened a morgue, where he was employed as an autopsy assistant.^[7] He worked there until his retirement in 1983. He died in 1998 as a pedestrian in a traffic accident, shortly after a retrospective exhibition of his works at the gallery in Slovenj Gradec.^[8][9]

Tisnikar started to paint in 1955, when he made his first oil painting (Autopsy) with the motif of a morgue atmosphere.^[12][8] He developed his artistic skills under the mentorship of academic painter Karel Pečko in Slovenj Gradec between 1954 and 1964.^[13] He received the Prešeren Fund Award in 1970 for his paintings exhibited in 1969.^[14][15]

Tisnikar's paintings were described as "uncomfortable" and depicted the transience of human life.^[16][17] Most of Tisnikar's paintings were done in egg tempera style. He is famous for his representations of crows and dark images of dead people, funerals, landscapes and self-portraits.^[1][4]

• Ljubezen (1977) ^[11]