The gallery of naive art in Hlebine is part of Museum of city Koprivnica, and located in Hlebine, at the source of Kaikavian Naive Art.
Kaikavian Naive Art, is specific expression of Kaikavians in North Croatia through fine arts that emerged in the 1st half of 20th century. While its core was "Hlebine-school" named after the group around Hlebine, it spread further North into Kaikavian region.
Kaikavian Naive Art as an artistic expression through fine arts is rooted and inseparable from Kaikavian tradition of living and relating to life, to the forces of nature, to spirits and to the universe. Although it often uses motives from everyday life, but is not limited to, it often uses them as symbols, thus transcending the seemingly Profane, and reaching into surreal and spiritual realms (e.g. Ivan Večenaj - Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse). The Universe where this surreal and spiritual heritage is felt and recreated is the immediate surrounding of the artist - already mentioned nature & society, perceived in the spiritual way.
Kaikavian Art Naive shows us thus a specific emotinal and spiritual relation with the Nature, the connection with the soil and paysage, and with the society wherein the artistic expression is being created. Mostly it is created within the rural context, which is rich in culture and spirituality, as us numerous old and arhaic Kaikavian folk-songs, tales and old customs show. fo Thus specific relation with nature and life is in turn heavily influenced by traditional Kaikavian folk customs, spirituality and mythology which all shaped artist's views and experiences.
Kaikavian Naive Art started to convey this specific Kaikavian spirit at the time when "Zadruga"-type of society is disappearing, and the old ways of life dramatically change - the spiritual heritage and the bond with the soil is vanishing - leaving only some unwritten rules in the rural society to survive and Kaikavian Naive Art to take it on the journey into the future.
These 1000-years old bonds with nature & spirituality dissolve and ceased to be experienced conciously for the biggest part, today they do not exist anymore in the same form as they still did some 50 years ago when they defined the complete traditional way of life of a village.
This is the reason why real Kaikavian Art Naive cannot be "repeated" anymore. Kaikavian Art Naive spread from Hlebine where it emerged, quickly all the way through Kajkaviana, accepted by Ivan Rabuzin (Ključ at Novi Marof) Matija Skurjeni from Veternica at Golubovec, and Slavko Stolnik in Donja Voča below Ravna Gora mountain in Zagorje, each of whom developed their own unique style.
The permanent display in the gallery of Hlebine includes old masters of Art Naive: paintings of Ivan Generalić, Franjo Mraz, Mirko Virius, Ivan Večenaj and others.
Architecturaly, the gallery is nice example of modern redefinition of traditional Kaikavian wooden architecture. By using traditional material for the building, the gallery kept this mellow, natural Kaikavian spirit which is conveyed by the masters of Kaikavian Art Naive in their paintings.