Ante Kaštelančić , A Diptych, 1972

Ante Kaštelančić
(1911-1989)
A Diptych, 1972
oil on hardboard
89×119 cm
MG-2993

Ante Kaštelančić (1911-1989) was, according to art historian Igor Zidić, “a latent expressionist” of an intense, fiery colour palette arising from his immediate surroundings, which is brought to life by a dazzling reduction of motifs native to Dalmatia (sails, coastal trading vessels, landscapes, still lifes, different types of figures, mornings, dusks). In the second half of the 20th century, he often painted on the very fringe of Figurative Art, particularly in the period of his personal high style during the 1970s. Because he never completely crossed the boundaries of figuration, he was also a latent abstract painter. Kaštelančić is an important link in Croatia’s painterly expression interconnecting painter Ignjat Job’s second Expressionism and painter Edo Murtić’s Abstract Expressionism and calligraphy. He studied under painter Emanuel Vidović and attended the School of Applied Arts in Munich between 1926 and 1930. Kaštelančić embraced Vincent van Gogh’s expressive flame and then Chaïm Soutine’s expressive deformations thanks to painter Ljubo Babić (under whom he graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb in 1936) and during his training in Paris at André Lhôte’s Academy (1937-1938). In his mature reductionist stage, he replaced his formative influences with influences similar to the gestural and grapheme-like forms of Pierre Soulages, Franz Kline, and Nicolas de Staël, however structurally different they may be from one other. In his work up until 1958 we observe quickly executed paintings of curly dynamic systems, which was followed by static models of much slower constructive graphs within the diagonal or coordinate organisation of his paintings (Igor Zidić). His last paintings are dynamic compositions, featuring mostly the motif of sailboat. Kaštelančić’s A Diptych painting from 1972 is a glowing abstraction of motifs executed intensively using wide brushstrokes. He also taught painting in Split.

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

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