Jože Tisnikar was a self-taught painter and a phenomenon in contemporary Slovene painting for not only his existential and incredibly honest iconographic depiction of the final stages of human existence and death but also for his unique egg tempera technique, which provides a specific range of colours that Tisnikar used to amplify the feeling of unease in the paintings. His creations, which boast immense expressive power, found their place in Tomaž Brejc’s book Dark Modernism and are now considered the pinnacle of both Slovenian and European figural modernism. Some of the key pieces from his most fruitful years in the middle of the 1970s are exhibited in one of the main collections of Art Gallery Slovenj Gradec.

—Marko Košan 

Jože Tisnikar was born in 28 February 1928 in Mislinja. He lived in Slovenj Gradec and worked in the Department of Pathology at the hospital until 1983. He was also a self/taught artist working in painting, drawing and print. In the period 1958–1998 he participated in over 100 solo and various group exhibitions in both Slovenia and abroad. In 1970 he received the Prešeren Foundation Award for painting. Jože Tisnikar died on 30 October 1998.