From the earliest age, the shapes of rocks, light and shadow play and the lavish colours of nature around Biokovo Mountain fascinated young Rudolf.

At the age of fifteen, he witnessed the horror of war for the first time in August 1942 when the Italian army sentenced the boy Matutinović, along with several other people from the village, to death by execution.

In autumn 1943 he found himself on Hvar Island with the army brigade of Biokovo-Neretva County, and was later sent to El Shatt refugee camp, located in the desert near the Suez Canal.

The works have been saved and preserved by Ranko Marinković - an act of special encouragement and great honour for Matutinović.

In 1948 Matutinović passed the entrance exam at the Academy of Fine Arts and began the long-coveted study of sculpture.

Among his colleagues were Borka Avramova, Veljko Bodulić, Ivan Mitrović, Boro Mitričevski, Vladimir Dorić, Marijan Kocković and Vera Fišer.

During his college years, in 1951, he sculpted a portrait of his colleague Borka Avramova – his first work of art made in stone (Figure 1).

Meštrović’s response arrived shortly afterwards, dated 6 August 1954: "I hereby declare that I shall be happy to accept as talented a sculptor as Rudolf Matutinović to my sculpture department art classes at the University in Syracuse, NY.

Professor Ivan Meštrović, Syracuse University, NY.” Matutinović’s trip to the United States did not happen, however - the passionate artist hurt his back while working on a project, and, as he himself noted: "...The questions that I received from the American Embassy in Belgrade had a McCarthyist flavour that did not sit well with an immigrant from a socialist country..." In 1955 his first exhibition opens in Zagreb.

The not very large register of sculptural themes recalls the tradition of the old masters one of the characteristics of whom was their concentration on a small number of topics.

And here the artist's choice of model was crucial, for he personally knew all the people he portrayed, and established an emotional relation with his sitters.

As far as craft skills are concerned, the sculptor Matutinović had mastered them all, but for him personally what was particularly important was the vital strength of the work.

In 1968, in honour of the sculptor Ivan Mestrović, Matutinović produced a medal, which represents a fragment of the monument to Njegoš on Lovćen Mountain.

With this gesture, Matutinović has expressed his objections towards abstraction and the new trends that were neglecting the traditional values of arts and crafts.

He painted family portraits, female nudes and illustrated books of his wife Ljerka Car Matutinović.

In 1980 he created the grandiose monument to fallen soldiers in Zaostrog – ten meters tall, built in white concrete and stone.

In his half century of work, Rudolf Matutinović created a major artistic oeuvre, characterised by knowledge and honesty.