Zlatan Vehabović (Banja Luka, 1982) graduated in painting from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb in 2006 from the class of Zlatko Keser. As one of the most notable painters of his generation, he has been awarded multiple times, and his paintings are included in museum and private collections in Croatia and abroad.
The cycle of paintings An Atlas of a Lesser World, which Vehabović executed during the Covid pandemic and planned for the exhibition at the Museum of Arts and Crafts, due to the damage museum has suffered during the earthquake, found its natural home at the National Museum of Modern Art. The cycle refers to the rich cultural and archival heritage, primarily that associated with the museums of fine arts, with a dedication to its participants, the greats of Croatian painting. The theme is solved in the medium of painting with a palimpsest of motifs that functions as a metaphor for the interaction of rich layers of heritage with today's creative mind. The compositions are conceived as a painted collage, so the introductory text by art historian Sandra Križić Roban ends with the words:
From postmodernism onwards, collage has posed a challenge to objectivity and singular reality. It has become an interpretative tool that replaces language in a certain way, and with its complex attitude towards art media, without having a preference for any of them, has allowed artists to contextualise multiple realities, but also to point out the processes of memorisation of visual data, thus achieving new, more layered nuances of its understanding. Viewed in this context, Zlatan Vehabović moves away from the mimesis and procedures used by other artists who referred to the recorded content. He introduces the meaning of all previous stages and materials into his artistic voice, opening the space for a deeper analysis of this above-all transcendent process.
Zlatan Vehabović lives and works in Zagreb
Images: From the exhibition set up at the Zlatan Vehabovic's exhibition at the National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb. Photo: Vedran Benović © Museum of Arts and Crafts, Zagreb