Zoltan Novak, Diavolo in Me, 2019

Zoltan Novak
(1963)
Diavolo in Me, 2019
acrylic on canvas
220 x 300 cm
MG-8443

Zoltan Novak (1963) is one of the most prominent Croatian painters of the postmodern Narrative Figuration. He develops it in correlations and with references to reality, visual arts, film and literature. He was a student in the Department of Art Education at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb (N. Koydl, Z. Keser), and he graduated in the class of Z. Kauzlarić Atač in 1997. Since 2004, he has worked as a professor of painting at the same institution. Since 1998, his painting has been imbued with the determinants of Art Brut and Neo-Expressionism, which he has been formulating since the early 1990s, using the method of reductive figuration, into the paradigmatic sign of the Walker. In 1994, he created the fully formed depersonalized Walker, which he then rendered in paintings, silhouettes, relief paintings, sign installations, targets and crosses. He shapes the sketchy internal projection into a pictogram, a paraphrase of Da Vinci’s man with arms and legs outstretched or an illuminated sign on a traffic light. With the series Night Paintings (2009), Novak restores the corporeal and the image of reality to the sign. In the information-saturated contemporary age, the painting Divalo in Me (2019) from the series World Without Measure, shows the horror of (self)existence in the brave new world. The seemingly ordinary scene from a café with formulaic characters is transformed into a horror-caffe, with a referential self-portrait of a loner in a crowd devouring everything around him with an ominous gaze. The inscription intensifies the state of horror, and the red silhouette of a lonely rider is dedicated to Sergio Leone’s spaghetti-westerns and the heroic times of the generational subjective idealism. In the course of his thirty-odd years long painting career, he has staged numerous solo exhibitions in Croatia and abroad (Rome, Paris, Munich, New York, Berlin), and in 2009 he was the Croatian representative at the 53rd Venice Biennale.

Text: Željko Marciuš, 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

Zoltan Novak, A Duel, 1998-2000

Zoltan Novak (1963)
A Duel, 1998-2000
oil on canvas
250 x 360cm
MG-6766

Zoltan Novak (1963) is one of the most famous Croatian painters of postmodern Narrative Figuration, which he develops in correlation and reference to reality, the visual arts, film and literature. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb (mentored by Nikola Koydl and Zlatko Keser), and graduated in 1997 in the class of Zlatko Kauzlarić Atač. He has taught painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb since 2004. Since 1988, his painting has been influenced by Art Brut and Neo-Expressionism, and since the early 1990s by using the method of reductive Figuration he marked it with the paradigmatic sign of a Walker. Novak finalised his fully formed and depersonalised Walker in 1994 and started introducing it into all of his paintings, silhouettes, relief paintings, sign installations, targets and crosses. He shapes this sketch-like internal projection into a pictogram, a paraphrase of Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man and the symbol of man appearing in traffic lights. With his series of Nocturnal Paintings (2009), Novak restored figurative and realistic representation to his paradigmatic sign.
Novak’s monumental painting A Duel (1998-2000) transforms the dual nature of the Walker (both a victim and a bully at one and the same time) into a conflict between two equal and ruthless rivals. The patterned figures, and intense black and white contrasts indicate the brutality of the violent scene. Novak’s critical stance on violence is evident through the exaggerated format of the painting.
In the thirty years of his career as a painter, he exhibited at numerous solo exhibitions in Croatia and abroad (Rome, Paris, Munich, New York, Berlin), and in 2009 he was Croatia’s representative at the 53rd Venice Biennale.

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

Tekst: Željko Marciuš, muzejski savjetnik Nacionalnog muzeja moderne umjetnosti © Nacionalni muzej moderne umjetnosti, Zagreb
Foto: Goran Vranić © Nacionalni muzej moderne umjetnosti, Zagreb

Zoltan Novak, Ecce homo II, 1992

Zoltan Novak
Ecce homo II, 1992
oil, metal, wood/canvas
130 x 130 cm
MG-6320

Zoltan Novak (1963) is one of the most prominent Croatian painters of the postmodern Narrative Figuration. He develops it in correlations and with references to reality, visual arts, film and literature. He was a student in the Department of Art Education at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb (N. Koydl, Z. Keser), and he graduated in the class of Z. Kauzlarić Atač in 1997. Since 2004, he has worked as a professor of painting at the same institution. Since 1998, his painting has been imbued with the determinants of Art Brut and Neo-Expressionism, which he has been formulating since the early 1990s, using the method of reductive figuration, into the paradigmatic sign of the Walker. In 1994, he created the fully formed depersonalized Walker, which he then rendered in paintings, silhouettes, painting-reliefs, sign installations, targets and crosses. He shapes the sketchy internal projection into a pictogram, a paraphrase of Da Vinci’s man with outstretched arms and legs or an illuminated sign on a traffic light. With the series Night Paintings (2009), Novak gives the sign a corporeal and realistic representation. The painting Ecce Homo (Eng. Behold the Man) from 1992 is a paraphrase of Pontius Pilat’s words as he pointed to the bound, whipped and crowned Christ and presented him to the crowd. It is a plausible metaphor applied to wartime in Croatia that shows the painter’s sensitivity to man’s position torn “between the horror and ecstasy of life”, desolation, general mortal danger and the search for meaning despite the brutal events of war. The painting is executed as a painting-relief with a silhouette of a crucified walker in the centre of the composition, prominent in front of an indented cross. In the course of his thirty-odd years long painting career, he has staged numerous solo exhibitions in Croatia and abroad (Rome, Paris, Munich, New York, Berlin), and in 2009 he was the Croatian representative at the 53rd Venice Biennale.

Text: Željko Marciuš, 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

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