Ivan Picelj
(1924 – 2011)
Surface I, Candra (-), 1966 - 1968
painted metal, wood
100 x 100 cm
MG-2534
Croatian painter, printmaker, designer and sculptor, Ivan Picelj graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb in 1946. He is one of the founders of EXAT 51 Group as well as the New Tendencies movement.
He created programmed works that explore visual perception, rhythms and motion. He started from the general principles of Constructivism and Minimalism, and his basic procedures included the reduction of shapes to geometric elements, multiplication of a basic sculptural unit within the regular raster surface and analysis of the tonal register of primary colours.
In this spirit he created reliefs and objects in wood and metal. He repeatedly multiplied a single geometric figure within the regular raster surface, with small shifts either in colour or shape, in which he often explored the dimensions of visual perception. With the minimalist design of the monochrome geometrically abstract relief titled Surface I, Picelj achieves the subtle light interaction between the metal structure and space.
Text: Tatijana Gareljić, museum consultant of the National Museum of Modern Art © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb
Translated by: Robertina Tomić © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb