Jangchub Dechen to be first western artist to hold a solo contemporary art exhibition in honor of The Great Fourth

Tatjana Krizmanic who got her Buddhist name – Jangchub Dechen from Thrangu Rimpoche, will be the first western artist to hold a solo contemporary art exhibition in Bhutan’s history. Her paintings will be on display at Wangduechhoeling Palace in Bumthang from September to December, and she will donate the entire body of work to the …

Tatjana Krizmanic who got her Buddhist name - Jangchub Dechen from Thrangu Rimpoche, will be the first western artist to hold a solo contemporary art exhibition in Bhutan’s history.

Her paintings will be on display at Wangduechhoeling Palace in Bumthang from September to December, and she will donate the entire body of work to the country. It will be donated to the Wangduechhoeling museum and cultural center, and the museum will in turn donate some of these pieces to Bhutan Echoes. There are a total of 70 pieces which will be on display from September till December this year.

The art exhibition is titled Echoes of a Kingdom: Tribute to the Bodhisattva King of Bhutan held under Royal Patronage in honor of the 70th Birth Anniversary of His Majesty The Fourth King Jigme Singye Wangchuck.

The 61-year-old Croatian-American artist, who has two daughters and a son, said her intention was for the offering to be pure and heartfelt towards the country.

Krizmanic’s paintings in this exhibition differ from her earlier works, which were often filled with crowds and vibrant scenes. “My paintings usually have a lot of people. And this collection are the opposite. Nature is big, and people are very little. You know, the scale is different, like nature is the boss,” she said.

The works also explore cultural preservation, with images of dances, weavers, textiles, and Bhutan’s democratic history. One painting, Fields of Promise, shows His Majesty The Fourth King with the people, and the last image in the exhibition depicts the Great Fourth placing the crown on His Majesty The King.

The exhibition begins with the Fourth King standing alone on his coronation day. “I feel like how this person, the Fourth King, basically from birth, his life was in service. Even before he became the Monarch. That he was so young, 17, so that’s what the exhibition begins with,” she said. For Krizmanic, the entire body of work is a way to honor His Majesty’s life of service. “When I was painting, I felt a lot of joy, tremendous appreciation for His Majesty as a truly a Bodhisattva, you know, it’s a life of service, the whole entire life in service and a kind of aspiration to have some tiny bit of that in my own heart and behavior,” she said.

Her choice of venue, Wangduechhoeling Palace, was also deliberate. “It really came together, and I think it is the appropriate place because it’s a tribute to His Majesty and this is the birthplace of Monarchy, so it feels very fitting,” she said.

Krizmanic’s journey as an artist began in Zagreb, Croatia, then Yugoslavia, before the war. She grew up around art since her mother was very passionate about it. Spending so much time in museums shaped her sense of what spoke to her. She identified very early on what spoke to her and as she got older she understood more sophisticated art.

Although her parents were lawyers, her father’s best friend was one of Croatia’s most beloved painters, Nikola Reiser. “He was very poetic and a kind romantic kind of painter. So when I was about seven years old, we shared a summer house together. I saw him with his easel and paints, and i asked him to take me with him to see him paint.”

She remembered one formative moment that shaped her path as an artist. “I really remember this one moment where it clicked for me. He was in the field painting this farmhouse on a hill. And I could see it looked this way, but in his painting, it had everything, it had the smell, the breeze, the heat of the sun. He somehow in the gesture,of his expression, captured it all and that was it for me. I was like, okay, I want to do this.”

Reiser agreed to teach her seriously, starting with the basics of stretching canvas and grinding pigments. Although her parents discouraged her from going to the Art Academy, Reiser told her, “It doesn’t matter. I teach at the Art Academy, I gave it to you already anyway, and we’ll just continue.” They continued like that for many years. Later, when she was supposed to study law, she refused and chose to study language instead, which brought her to the United States.

In the US, Krizmanic worked for about ten years as an art director in advertising. In the late 1980s, she met meditation students and became deeply interested in the practice. “In doing some of the meditation programs, somehow it came to me. What am I doing with my life? I want to paint,” she said. She began painting in her free time and giving her works as gifts. Then someone at Naropa University saw her paintings and invited her to exhibit, and from there her career took off.

Her first subjects were tropical fish and landscapes, chosen for their color. “I was after color, bright colors,” she said. Over time, her work became known for its vibrant depictions of crowds, which sustained her career for decades. “I got a little bit for a few decades stuck in that, because, that’s what was paying the bill. But I evolved as an artist and my work is very different now, and especially this body of work that, that sources here. To me, it looks different, it feels different, and I’m very actually proud of it.”

She has studied painting her entire life with different teachers, most recently Sharon Sprung, who painted the White House portrait of Michelle Obama. Krizmanic said it took years to integrate what she learned from Sprung into her own style, and the exhibition in Bhutan is probably the first successful result. She was also strongly influenced by her Buddhist teacher, Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche, an abstract expressionist painter. “Watching him also taught me a lot, even though our styles are completely different, but watching him paint and listening to a little bit of his thoughts and process that was really amazingly helpful,” she said.

Krizmanic first came to Bhutan in 2010 as part of the celebrations for Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche’s 100th Birth Anniversary. She joined a group of Croatian students, invited by Rabjam Rinpoche. Since then, she has returned three times, including a pilgrimage trip with her family and friends.

Preparing for the exhibition, she went into retreat for three months separately, balancing meditation in the mornings with painting in the afternoons and evenings.

Her relationship with meditation began long before Bhutan. Growing up in communist Yugoslavia, she had little exposure to religion, but as a teenager she encountered transcendental meditation. Later in Boulder, Colorado, she connected with the community of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche’s students. She said it rang a bell for her and she continued the practice. Eventually she became a student of Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche, describing him as a strict teacher who guided her through years of retreat and practice.

Her inspiration in Bhutan extends beyond temples and monuments to everyday life. One of her favorite moments was walking early in the morning in Phobjikha Valley, where she met farmers heading to harvest potatoes. “They spoke perfect English. They were so educated about their work and what the potatoes do for the country and the exports and what it has done for them. It was really beautiful,” she recalled.

She said she often constructs her paintings in her mind, envisioning how they will flow together. For this exhibition, she imagined them on yellow walls, unusual for galleries and museums. When she visited Bhutan Foundation in Washington DC, and saw Wangduechhoeling Palace as a possible venue, she realized it was the place. She said that when she looked at the picture of the palace and thought to herself, “That’s it, that’s the yellow wall.”

Her largest painting in the collection, depicting Phobjikha Valley, would be valued at USD 25,000, but she chose to donate everything instead. “I didn’t want it to be a transaction. I wanted it to be really pure. I really wanted it to be just this heartfelt gift, because I’m a student of Vajrayana Buddhism, this is the last Vajrayana kingdom on the planet. I feel honored to be able to do this,” she said.

She hopes her work brings joy. “Most of the time when people look at my work, they say it makes them smile, so I hope it makes people smile on the simplest level. But I’m also hoping that people wil pause long enough that it’ll draw them in long enough to find more about each piece, to give it time to resonate.”

Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche shared that Tatjana Krizmanic’s paintings are filled with boundless playfulness and reflect the way she lives and breathes art. He noted that she carries an artistic mind and spirit with her at all times, expressing everything she encounters, whether landscapes, oceans, skies, cities, cafés, or people, through her unique vision and sense of humor. For her, he observed, art and life are inseparable. He expressed gratitude that her work is being exhibited in the Royal Kingdom of Bhutan, which he described as one of the most beautiful and inspiring countries in the world.

“For me, as an artist and a person, what Bhutan does for me is it breaks the difference between imagination and whatever we call reality and it flows together. And so, I appreciate that because my heart can settle and be like this is who I am and it’s okay. It relaxes my soul,” she said.