Ante Rašić, Brushstrokes, 1977-1978; A Brush Repetition Structure, 1977-1978; Torn Papers Painted White, 1979; Cut Papers Painted White, 1979

Ante Rašić
(1953)
Brushstrokes, 1977-1978
wall paint on hardboard
37.5×29 cm
MG-8445

A Brush Repetition Structure, 1977-1978
wall paint on hardboard
34×24 cm
MG-8446

Torn Papers Painted White, 1979
wall paint and paper on hardboard
34×25.5 cm
MG-8447

Cut Papers Painted White, 1979
wall paint and paper on hardboard
33.7×24.5 cm
MG-8448

Ante Rašić (1953) is a multifaceted sculptor, painter and designer of High Modernism and Postmodernism. He graduated in painting in 1977 under Prof. Nikola Reiser from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, where he has been teaching since 1995. He worked as an associate at painters Ljubo Ivančić and Nikola Reiser’s master workshop in Zagreb (1977-1978), and at Prof. Michel Charpentier’s sculpture studio at the Academy of Fine Arts in Paris (1978-1979). Featuring closed forms, plastic conciseness, processuality, purity of design and the use of achromatic white, his expression was formed in the 1970s within the framework of Conceptual, Primary and Analytical Art.

Created by gradually applying coatings of white wall paint on hardboard resembling a tabula rasa and evoking nothing but their name, process and elementary fact of being, his Brushstrokes (1977-1978), A Brush Repetition Structure (1977-1978), Torn Papers Painted White (1979) and Cut Papers Painted White (1979) paintings are great examples of Rašić’s primary-analytical strategy of expression. According to art historian Zvonko Maković, Rašić’s painting is not a space for recording the artist’s emotions, but first and foremost a surface on which the author critically explores the possibilities of painting. After the 1980s, Rašić started creating collages, reliefs, and paper and metal sculptures of suspended rhythms which were recordings of the process of creation and free-form sculpting (e.g., Noon series, 1984-1985). In 1998 he started creating a series of ambient installations with ready-made mirrors, which he uses in different contexts and environments, all of which was crowned with the giant Croatian Apoxyomenos at the Art is Beautiful exhibition (2011), which was also presented at the Church of St. Donatus in Zadar (2018). His In Anticipation of Rain land art piece executed for the White Road Project during the 36th Mediterranean Sculpture Symposium in the Dubrova Sculpture Park near Labin in Istria has received multiple awards in both Croatia and abroad. His works are in the holdings of numerous museums, private collections and public institutions. In 1997 he received the Order of the Croatian Morning Star with the Image of Marko Marulić, Croatia’s national order bestowed for one’s achievements in culture.

Text: Željko Marciuš, museum consultant of the National Museum of Modern Art © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb
Translated by: Ana Janković
Photo: From the Artist’s Archives

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