He was born in 1935 in the village of Hlebine, Republic of Croatia.
He was a great man of Croatian naive painting, succeeding his famous father Ivan Generalić.
He painted his first works in oil on canvas in 1950, and his first public appearance was in 1954 in Križevci, where he finished teacher’s school.
He had his first solo exhibition in 1959 at the Koprivnica City Museum.
In 1960, he began working as a teacher at an eight-year school in Zagreb, where he graduated from the Higher Pedagogical School two years later.
During his life, Josip Generalić has exhibited in over a thousand joint and 200 solo exhibitions on all continents.
He regularly exhibited at representative exhibitions of Yugoslav and world naive art, and for his artistic work he received awards from many juries.
Critics consider Josip Generalić to be one of the top painters and graphic artists of naive art, and one of the greatest representatives of the world-famous “Hlebine School”.
Josip Generalić died in Koprivnica in 2004 and was buried in his home village of Hlebine.
