Vilko Šeferov
(1895-1974)
Dubrovnik Landscape, 1936
oil on hardboard
93.5×69 cm
MG-5880
The Dubrovnik Landscape painting from 1936 depicts the ambience of a summer’s day, which Vilko Šeferov painted as his immediate experience of the world around him whilst spontaneously inspired. This inspiration, which later turned into a flow of thoughts and a “flow of the brush”, represents the very beginning of his work on the painting. The painting’s impressionistic effect is highlighted by Šeferov’s use of a wide range of colours, which take precedence over the other elements of the composition. This is why and how Šeferov created a pronounced colouristic charge in his landscapes of a meditative mood.
Vilko Šeferov was born in Mostar in 1895. He enrolled in the Art School in Belgrade in 1912 under Prof. Vladimir Becić, but the outbreak of World War I interrupted his studies. After having graduated from the Hungarian University of Fine Arts in Budapest, he moved to Sarajevo, where he participated in the founding of the Association of Artists of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 1924 he moved to Zagreb, where he exhibited at The Spring Salon. During his stay in Zagreb, he surrounded himself with artists and writers of contemporary worldviews, which started manifesting itself in his depictions of socially engaged themes. At that time he also produced many portraits of his friends and members of his “intellectual circle”. His study stays in the USA in 1951/1952 and in Egypt in 1962 proved to be of great importance for his style because this was where and when he enriched his repertoire of themes and adopted novel colouristic tendencies. Together with painter Vladimir Becić, Šeferov set up an art colony in Blažuj in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and was one of the founding members of the Rovinj Art Colony and Gallery in Croatia. He exhibited at many solo exhibitions in Zagreb, Sarajevo, Prague, Vienna, Venice, New York, Los Angeles, San Pedro, etc., and received the 1974 Vladimir Nazor Lifetime Achievement Award given yearly by Croatia’s Ministry of Culture.
Text: Zlatko Tot, curatorial intern © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb
Translated by: Ana Janković
Photo:Goran Vranić © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb