Vilko Gecan (16 June 1894 – 25 June 1973) was a Croatian painter, influential in the Zagreb modern art scene of the 1920s and 1930s. He is best known for his expressionist paintings and drawings, and for his contributions to the local avantgarde magazine Zenit. He showed his work in many solo and group exhibitions in Croatia and abroad. In the Zagreb Spring Salon of the 1920s, he participated with Milivoj Uzelac, Marijan Trepše and Vladimir Varlaj, who together were known as the "Group of Four" or "The Prague Four". Trained in Prague, works of these young painters brought new expressionist ideas that went on to dominate the 1920s Croatian art scene. Vilko Gecan is considered one of the masters of early Croatian expressionism. Two retrospective exhibitions of his work were organized during Gecan’s lifetime, and a large posthumous exhibition was held in 2005 at the Art Pavilion in Zagreb. Gecan received the Vladimir Nazor Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1967. Biography Vilko Gecan was born 16 June 1894 in Kuželj near Brod na Kupi. In 1899 he travelled with his parents to Australia, returning to Croatia again in 1902. He attended school in Karlovac, Glogovnici, Zagreb, Dubica, and from 1910 the gymnasium in Banja Luka, where he met Milivoj Uzelac, with whom he developed a strong friendship that was to last throughout his life. In 1912–13, they both attended the private art school in Zagreb of Tomislav Krizman. In the autumn of 1913 Gecan moved to Munich, where he enrolled in the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich, as well as Heymann's private painting school. At the beginning of the First World War, Gecan was drafted. At the Battle of Soči in July 1915, he was captured and spent the rest of the war in prisoner-of war camps on Sicily. In 1919, he went to Prague with Milivoj Uzelac. That same year, they exhibited at the Zagreb Spring Salon, and later as part of the Group of Four (Gecan, Trepše, Uzelac, Varlaj). In 1921 Gecan held his first solo exhibition at the Art Pavilion. In 1922 he went to Berlin, where he studied stained glass techniques, and in 1924-28 he spent time in the United States (New York, Chicago). While there, he attended exhibitions of modern art, seeing the works of Cézanne and Picasso. In 1928, he stayed for a brief time in Paris with Uzelac. By 1931, Gecan experienced