Vladimir Varlaj
Dalmatian Landscape, 1926
oil on canvas
62 x 79 cm
MG-2478
The Dalmatian Landscape from 1926 is a quintessential example of Varlaj’s interpretation of the Croatian landscape as a symbol of absolute beauty and harmony. Vladimir Varlaj, a true master of pure form, distils observed reality into a drawing of distinctive sharpness and clear geometric composition. Influenced by Lhote’s and Šumanović’s post-Cubism, he stylises the houses into almost pure cubes and pyramidal shapes. In the methodically structured, cultivated landscape with its suggestive symbolic colours, Varlaj creates an ideal projection of a transcendent world and cosmic serenity.
Vladimir Varlaj began his artistic education in Zagreb with Professor Tomislav Krizman and completed his studies at the College of Arts and Crafts under Emanuel Crnčić. He returned from the Russian front as an invalid in 1917, and the following year, he went to Prague to join his friend Milivoj Uzelac, who was continuing his art studies there. Varlaj exhibited at the Zagreb Spring Salons from 1919, and regularly participated in exhibitions of the Group of Independent Artists, initiated by Ljubo Babić, from 1921 to 1927. His notable series of landscapes and cityscapes was cut short by severe illness in 1934. He spent his later years painting mostly still lifes. He died in 1962, never having held a solo exhibition.
Text: Lada Bošnjak Velagić, museum consultant 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