Blue code – works of art from the fund of MMSU Rijeka Baška, Zvonimir Gallery 4.8. – 7/9/2017
Contemplative artistic content that approaches the limit of metaphysics is the common denominator of the works presented at the Blue Code exhibition. The selected images thematize the landscape of the sea, stripped of all kinds of visual noise, reduced to the blue of the sea and its changes, which, by communicating different states, create enchanting connections with the observer. Primordial, primitive nature, the presentation of its elusive forms, the wealth of unpredictable visions is a long-standing challenge for artists. The longevity of the same content and its innumerable interpretations through different historical and stylistic periods is an aggravating circumstance for those who tackle the topic trying to actualize it from the perspective of the present: the topic remains tempting and challenging, inspiring to its creator, interesting to the observer. Although the majority of exhibited works depict a concrete fragment of the seascape, a famous island, a named bay or bay, the atmosphere achieved in the painting is what we read as its primary content. A calm day and a completely silent sea, a sunset that spreads warm pink tones on the surface intertwined with the blue of the sea (John Janko Leard), dawn, dusk or a state before a storm (Josip Moretti-Zajc, Vladimir Udatny) are demanding visual images that can only be presented by excellent author. The view that opens in front of the intending traveler heading towards the sea from the interior, his encounter with the bay, the islands and the magical moment of the sun’s last rays penetrating through the cloud and their contact with the open sea was uniquely portrayed by the authority of landscape painting, Ljubo Babić. Although only a part of the frame is devoted to the sea, and the main part of it is occupied by the reduced architecture, we perceive the sea as the main motif of Oton Postružnik’s painting. The abstract versions of the seascape are special because of their ingenious artistic solutions: flat blue (Ivo Kalina) and geometrically structured frame (Zdravko Milić) in which the sea is imposed as a recognizable motif. The code or key for reading the bruise shown in the works is a variable dimension that oscillates from the literal enjoyment of the images that sublimate all the beauty of the depicted nature to the one that needs an additional dose of involvement and engagement when reading and deciphering them.
Vilma Bartolić
Authors:
Oton Postružnik Ljubo Babić Ivo Kalina Zdravko Milić Josip Moretti-Zajc John Janko Leard Vladimir Udatny
