Ivan Seljak

Ivan Seljak, nom de guerre Čopič (7 December 1927 – 23 May 1990), was a Slovene painter and illustrator.

Biography Seljak was born in Idrija in 1927.

During the Second World War he joined the Slovene Partisans as a young military courier, where he met Božidar Jakac and other artists who encouraged his artistic talent. After the war he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Ljubljana, from which he graduated in 1951.

His main medium was painting, but he also illustrated numerous children's books.

He won the Levstik Award for his illustrations three times: in 1955, 1963, and 1976. He also won the Prešeren Foundation Award in 1975 for the exhibitions of his paintings.

He died in 1990.

Selected illustrated works

(Marching to Freedom), by Peter Levec, 1945 (A Child of a Dark Race), by Jože Pahor, 1947 (The Three Daughters), Tatar folk tale, 1953 (The Crew without a Ship), by Tone Seliškar, 1955 (The Book about Tito), by France Bevk, 1955 (Twelve), by Alexander Blok, 1957 (The Harsh North), by Pavel Kunaver, 1958 (Short Stories), by Guy de Maupassant, 1958 (Happy and Sad Stories about Mules), by Tone Seliškar, 1963 (Aska and the Wolf), by Ivo Andrić, 1963 Gregec Kobilica (Gregec Kobilica), by Branka Jurca, 1965 Robinson Crusoe (Robinson Crusoe), by Daniel Defoe, 1975 (My Song), poetry by Karel Destovnik, 1985