Zagreb - Croatian painter Ivan Rabuzin, known worldwide for his Naive art floral motives, died Thursday night in a hospital aged 87.

A carpenter by vocation, Rabuzin began exhibiting in 1956 after attending an evening arts course in his late 20s. He began painting full-time in 1963.

Over the past five decades his works were shown across Europe and in Japan in more than 200 exibitions. In Japan, Rabuzin decorated the stage curtain in the Takarazuka theatre. (dpa)