Nives Kavurić-Kurtović was born in Zagreb in 1938. She graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb (where she studied under Prof Frane Baće) in 1962. Between 1962 and 1967, she was an associate at Krsto Hegedušić’s master workshop. In 1983, she became a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb. In 1997, she became a full member of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts.

Artistically, her contributions to the Croatian contemporary art scene granted her the title of ‘first Croatian surrealist artist’. Although she was influenced by surrealism –  largely informally – her paintings are thematically marked by the feminine experience, including issues of gender, sexuality and maternity. In the free, but very precise technique that prevails in her paintings, Kavurić-Kurtović explores the autobiographical and unconscious dimension, bringing out personal anxieties and traumas. This thematic darkness is transcended by her meditative and analytical work. In later works, influenced by new modes such as video, body painting and living theatre, Kavurić-Kurtović uncompromisingly probes the condition of abandoned human beings in the universe, using the motif of the malformed fetus and other subjects crushed by an inescapable sense of gravity.

Her corpus was rewarded with: First Prize at the Paris Biennale (1967), First Prize at II. Internationale Malerwochen, Graz, Austria (1968); the Josip Račić Award (1973), the Grand Prix at the 8th International Exhibition of Original Drawings, Rijeka (1982), First Prize for Painting at the 25th Zagreb Salon, Zagreb (1990) and the Vladimir Nazor Lifetime Achievement Award (2004).

Kavurić-Kurtović passed away in 2016.