Tag: 1991.

Vatroslav Kuliš, Seven Hundred Thousand m2 of the Sea, 1991

Vatroslav Kuliš
Seven Hundred Thousand m2 of the Sea, 1991
oil on canvas
200 x 300 cm
MG-6279

Vatroslav Kuliš (1951) is the most expressive postmodern Croatian colourist who continues the legacy of Action Painting and Abstract Expressionism. Initially inclined to figurative art, from the 1980s on, he abstracts the image with saturated colours and pictorial gesture that become his distinguishing mark. Kuliš’s painting was originally an emotional abstraction that springs from Action Painting and controlled automatic Surrealism. The composition is dominated by colourful bursts, unrestrained painting procedure and dynamic saturation of the canvas. The painting Seven Hundred Thousand m2 of the Sea is a massive painting monument that is so absorbing with its sumptuous colour.
He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb in 1976, in the class of Š. Perić. He worked as an art editor at the Miroslav Krleža Lexicographic Institute (1978 – 2002). His oeuvre is marked by the following cycles: Early Works (1978 – 1991), Waves (1990 – 1993), Painting-Collages / Objects Collages (1991 – 1994), Kornati (1996 – 2001), Voodoo Gutenberg (1996 –2001), Kuti (1996 – 1998), Metamorphosis of the Sea (1999 – 2002), Series (2000 – 2001), Riffs (2002 –2006), Herbarium pictorium (2006 – 2007), etc.
In addition to abstract works, he paints portraits and religious compositions, and he also worked as a graphic artist, set designer and mosaic maker. He staged more than 170 solo exhibitions and participated in over 140 group exhibitions in Croatia and abroad. His works are kept in numerous museum and private collections. Kuliš’s monograph, written by I. Zidić was published in 2010, and his retrospective exhibition was staged at the Modern Gallery (today, the NMMU), set-up by M. Bešlić. He has received multiple awards for his work.

Text: Željko Marciuš, museum consultant of the National Museum of Modern Art © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb, 2023
Translated by: Robertina Tomić
Photo: Goran Vranić © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb, 2023

Goran Štimac, Family Photo, 1991


Goran Štimac
(1959)
Family Photo, 1991
wood
part 1: 184 x 36 x 35 cm
part 2: 80 x 20 x 130 cm
part 3: 162 x 13 x 127 cm
part 4: 92 x 40 x 55 cm
part 5: 86 x 42 x 37 cm
MG-6265

In 1986, Štimac obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree – Department of Sculpture, at the Faculty of Teacher Education in Rijeka, and in 1988 he graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb in the class of Prof. Marija Ujević. In 1993, he received specialist training at the Higher School of Applied Arts in Vienna. He participated in various local and international art colonies and has exhibited at about a hundred group exhibitions at home and abroad. In addition to numerous solo exhibitions, he is the recipient of several art awards. Among them is the Modern Gallery Purchase Award for the work Family Photo, exhibited as part of the 4th Triennial of Croatian Sculpture in 1991.
The creativity and curiosity of Goran Štimac, unencumbered by traditional sculptural postulates, resulted in heterogenous experiments searching for an authentic artistic expression. The suggestive and symbolic work Family Photo is conceived as a group of five elements composed of roughly hewn wooden beams, planks and laths of simple and solid modelling. The archetypal forms of materialised children’s drawings, infantile figuration and playful objects take us back to the familial environment of childhood.

Text: Tatijana Gareljić, Museum advisor of the National Museum of Modern Art © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb
Translated by: Robertina Tomić
Photo: Goran Vranić © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb

Boris Demur, Requiem in Croatia, 1991

Boris Demur
Requiem in Croatia, 1991
acrylic on canvas
400 x 400 cm
MG-6519

Boris Demur (1951-2014) was a Neo-Avant-Garde painter and Post-Conceptual artist. He was a co-founding member of the Group of Six Artists (Zagreb, 1975-1981). He graduated in painting in 1975 (Prof. Raul Goldoni) and in graphic arts in 1977 (Albert Kinert), and from 1975 to 1977 he participated in painter and sculptor Ljubo Ivančić’s master workshop. Having equated art with life, Demur developed a personal image of an existentialist artist. During the 1970s, he started painting in the vein of Expressionist Abstraction, and later expressive Art Informel by combining (non)painterly materials and by using collage, decollage, assemblage and frottage techniques.

In the mid-1970s, Demur’s painting was primary, analytical, elementary and procedural in nature, with painting being nothing but a work of art, nothing but a fact. In 1983, he reintroduced motif and bodily gesture into his painting with the archetype of a spiral, which continued to be his main theme until the end of his life and career.

Demur’s Requiem in Croatia (1991), a painting of a white spiral on a black background, is a reflection of chaos theory, according to which all unpredictable processes have their own pattern and regularity. The cross is an expression of identification of Demur’s personal religiosity with unavoidable correlations with Croatia’s Homeland War reality. Later, he introduced the double spiral of yin-yang as a symbol of the integrity of life.

During the 40+ years of his career as an artist, he exhibited at numerous solo exhibitions in both Croatia and abroad, and in 1996 he was Croatia’s representative at the São Paulo Art Biennial. In the same year, he received the Order of the Croatian Morning Star with the image of Marko Marulić, Croatia’s national order bestowed for achievements in culture. In 2004, the National Museum of Modern Art presented a retrospective of his work (Retrospective I, curated by Zdenko Rus).

Text: Željko Marciuš, museum consultant of the National Museum of Modern Art © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb
Translated by: Ana Janković
Photo: Goran Vranić © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb

Željko Lapuh, Light Gatherer,1991

Željko Lapuh
Light Gatherer,1991
oil on canvas
195 x 145 cm
MG-6897

Željko Lapuh is a postmodern painter who combines figurative (traditional) painting with elements of Surrealism (avant-garde) into his own stylistic symbiosis. The painting Light Gatherer depicts a solitary sculpturally defined figure devoid of individuality, with a face like a mask without human characteristics. His “gaze” is aimed at the observer whom he invites and ushers into his mystical world. The protagonists of Lapuh’s compositions dominate the undefined, imaginary landscape which they are situated in. In this painting, the surreal, metaphysical atmosphere is accentuated by a neutral black background and dark colour palette that create a habitat for the “mythological creature” from Lapuh’s bestiary. Monolithic geometric forms constructed beyond mathematical or natural laws form the stage set of the presented world. The only indication of character, or better yet, the identity of the portrayed protagonist is derived from the title of the painting, Light Gatherer. In his painting, Lapuh uses symbolic language to introduced the observer into the world beyond reality, in the vein of the Italian art movement Pittura Metafisica and its founder Giorgio de Chirico.
Željko Lapuh (1951) was born in Split. He finished primary and secondary school in Zagreb. He obtained a degree in painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb in 1976 in the class of prof. Šime Perić. He was an associate in prof. Ljubo Ivančić’s and prof. Nikola Reiser’s Master’s Workshop. He received critical and broader public acclaim for his two cycles; Metamorphoses, 1989–92 and The Secret of Change, 1990–96 which have intrigued the art scene. He had solo exhibitions in Zagreb, Dubrovnik, Milan, New York and throughout his career he organized more than thirty solo and 150 group exhibitions.

Text: Željko Marciuš, museum consultant of the National Museum of Modern Art © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb
Translated by: Robertina Tomić
Photo: from the photo archive of the National Museum of Modern Art © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb

Goran Štimac, Family Photo, 1991

Goran Štimac
(1959)
Family Photo, 1991
part 1: 184 x 36 x 35 cm
part 2: 80 x 20 x 130 cm
part 3: 162 x 13 x 127 cm
part 4: 92 x 40 x 55 cm
part 5: 86 x 42 x 37 cm
MG-6265

In 1986, Štimac obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree – Department of Sculpture, at the Faculty of Teacher Education in Rijeka, and in 1988 he graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb in the class of Prof. Marija Ujević. In 1993, he received specialist training at the Higher School of Applied Arts in Vienna. He participated in various local and international art colonies and has exhibited at about a hundred group exhibitions at home and abroad. In addition to numerous solo exhibitions, he is the recipient of several art awards. Among them is the Modern Gallery Purchase Award for the work Family Photo, exhibited as part of the 4th Triennial of Croatian Sculpture in 1991.

The creativity and curiosity of Goran Štimac, unencumbered by traditional sculptural postulates, resulted in heterogenous experiments searching for an authentic artistic expression. The suggestive and symbolic work Family Photo is conceived as a group of five elements composed of roughly hewn wooden beams, planks and laths of simple and solid modelling. The archetypal forms of materialised children’s drawings, infantile figuration and playful objects take us back to the familial environment of childhood.

Text: Tatijana Gareljić, Museum advisor of the National Museum of Modern Art © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb
Translated by: Robertina Tomić

Photo: Goran Vranić © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb

 

Vlasta Delimar, Untitled, 1991

 

 

 

 

VLASTA DELIMAR

Untitled

1991

installation, 310 x 190 x 180 cm

MG-6351

 

Vlasta Delimar graduated from the School of Applied Arts in Zagreb in 1977. She started staging performances in the 1970s as an associate member of the Group of Six Artists.

In the framework of post-conceptual exploration, with her provocative performances she examines the themes related to the female body and the position of women in society as well as the relationship between men and women (Tied to a Tree, 1985; Walkthrough as Lady Godiva, 2001). With Body Art, that is, her own body, she transcends the stereotypical social codes and interprets deviant social phenomena, questioning primarily, in an independent and unadorned manner, the role and position of women in that environment on a symbolic – expressive level, through artistic self-reflection and self-presentation, often in collaboration with other artists and using new media and visual accents, including various props, characters, actions and ambiences.

This is an art installation of Vlasta Delimar’s motherhood scene set as a stage, with a dominant black and white photograph of the nude artist and her daughter, sitting down with their gaze aimed at the camera, that is, the observer. The woman has her legs crossed and her hands placed diagonally across her pubic area with an oval talisman around her neck, while the girl has a red rose in front of her pubic area. Next to them and outside the photographic background is a tray of wheat and a black background with rhythmically positioned mirror shards, while the composition is framed with a black folded tulle like a veil.

 

Text: Tatijana Gareljić, museum consultant of the National Museum of Modern Art © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb

Photo: Goran Vranić © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb

Skip to content