Painted ceramics by Miha Maleš

The graphic artist and painter Miha Maleš (1907–1989), a native of Jeranovo near Kamnik, also worked in Schnabl’s ceramic workshop in Kamnik. He was engaged in graphics, drawing, canvas painting, wall fresco painting, stained glass, tapestries and book illustrations … and of course ceramics.

He began his artistic career in Zagreb and continued it in Vienna and later in Prague. There he was influenced by various modern trends and the greatest artists of the time such as Fauvism with their colourfulness and the artists Picasso, Chagall and Dufy. Despite his great knowledge, he never neglected folk art, and also because of his experimental desire, around 1935 he created an extensive opus of painted ceramics in the Kamnik workshop. From a strict square or the rectangular design of the art surface – paper or canvas – he thus moved to the soft wavy surface of the plate and drew various images on it with flexible, quick and soft strokes. In 1935, he painted a self-portrait and a portrait of his wife Olga in the technique of underglaze painting.