Ante Milas (with permission from Ante Milas)

During my studies, I understood all the necessities and ruptures of the historical development of modern art from Cezanne onward and tried to integrate them in my works; not in the usual modernist way of radically breaking with the long tradition of Western, Christian art; but, in the way which is much more demanding, trying to make a possible synthesis of these two greatness, said Ante Milas in an interview I conducted with him on January 30, 2025 in Cologne, in the nice Boesner Kunstbedarf Bistro.”

He is known for the monumental work of the History of Salvation (2004), an altar painting in oil on canvas, 14 and 8.40 meters in length, set at the Holy Cross Church in Fulda – Maberzell in Germany.

Ante Milas has continuously exhibited in Germany and other countries (Duesseldorf, Koeln, Paris, Rome, Zagreb, Rijeka, Madrid, Venice, New York, Dubrovnik). Many of his works are in public and private collections.

Born in 1953 in Croatia (Ivanovac), he studied theology at Đakovo (Croatian) and Bochum (Germany), as well as painting and graphics at the Duesseldorf Academy of Arts (Germany) obtaining master’s degree.

At an early age, aware of his talent, he decided to pursue art. He says that when asked why he chose art, he used to jokingly quote Ovid: “As a boy, I liked the song of heaven, and even then, secretly, the Muse was drawing me to her work.”

His early childhood experiences and impressions shaped his personality as well as the vision of his art. It also helped him maintain his independence and create his own way. The talent of Ante Milas is manifested in his sense for colors, balance, expression, and especially in an extremely precise and perfect drawing, which is unattainable to many painters. In his works one can recognise elements of past epochs in art, but only in the sense that he has mastered them. He uses them in a new, kind of way, thus bringing completely other emotions and thoughts.

The “blurriness” and dark tones on some Milas’ paintings might be compared to the most beautiful pianissimo in music composition when silence tons enhances attention and frees thought and emotions. Sometimes by “blurriness” he achieves spirituality.

His paintings reflect intellectuality, knowledge and spirituality. They encourage thought and attract the viewer to immerse deeper and deeper into the image, and they could always be viewed again.

Two monographs of Ante Milas have been published: Ante Milas-In Zikkurat (Firmenich 2002) and Ante Milas-Selected Works, ISBN 978-3-7319-1472-3

Ante Milas – St. Peter the Apostle (with permission of the author, Ante Milas)

Milas’ works of sacral content were included in the monograph Ante Milas-Selected Works; The History of Salvation, the Apostles (Disciples of Jesus), studies for the altar image of the Holy Spirit as well as several representative works from other cycles.
The altar painting History of Salvation with a rich and suggestive depiction, encompassing key moments of the mystery of salvation of the Christian faith from the fall of the angel, accompanied by the flash of lightning, the expulsion of Paradise, the Babylonian tower, the general flood, Noah’s Ark, Abraham with Isaac, Sinai, Golgotha to the Resurrection.

The cycle of paintings of the 14 Apostles is interesting and attracting attention with its different depiction, both in the unusual shape of the triangle on the rhombus and in the inspiredly chosen iconology of the painting, different from what has been the case in the long history of Christian art. The Monograph presents seven paintings of the apostles, and Ante Milas is currently working on the remaining seven.
The monograph Ante Milas – In the Zikkurat brings together several cycles, created during his studies at the Academy, whose titles suggest that Ante Milas depicts the world around him in a certain space and time. This is true, but Milas’s way of depicting it has made that world timeless, whether it be Memory of the Old Town, Asphodel Meadows – Flowers for Vukovar, University Cafe Duesseldorf or paintings of landscapes and cities ( Old Townt, plaster and pigment for paints on reeds, 180 x140cm).

Jasna Lovrincevic: If you could please tell a little more about your works from your student days, published in the monograph Ante Milas – In the Zikkurat.”

Ante Milas: “The main themes that I have been developing in series over many years and to which I always return cyclically after a shorter or longer period of time date from that time; University Cafe Duesseldorf, Asphodel Meadows – Flowers for Vukovar and Memories of the Old Town. The series of works begin with a drawing and oil on canvas in the manner of the old masters, so that the motifs in the next drawing or oil on canvas gradually develop, so to say, from drawing to drawing, from painting to painting, in the direction of abstraction until the edge of figurativeness. Parallel to this it is the process of realizing motifs in other techniques and materials, such as works in plaster, mortar, concrete or in collages of motifs in plywood of different thicknesses and colors, includig luminous panels that act like stained glass windows in a church.”

Jasna Lovrinčević: “In the Zikkurat there are several works from the Memory of the Old Town series. It is amazing how many characters you have depicted in these paintings, each character is different in appearance, clothing, position, movement and facial expression, each is fully crafted, but the painting leads the viewer to view it as a whole rather than individual characters.”

Ante Milas – In Laoocom, oil on canvas,75 x 100 cm. (with permission of the author, Ante Milas)

Ante Milas: “These are early works. If you look at the first drawings in the series University Cafe Düsseldorf or Memory of the Old City, all that multitude of faces and figures squeezed into the space of a cramped cafe or the multitude of geometric shapes that create the illusion of the interior of a modern room; the theme here is the relationship between parts and the whole. The relationships must be perfect, not a single part of the picture must jump out of the “circle”, it must not be profiled at the expense of the whole picture or its neighboring shape, neither in color, nor in shape, nor in the arrangement on the surface of the picture format. This is the essence of the art that my professor Klapheck has been engaged in all his life; the absolute harmony of the relationship between the elements of the picture and its whole. It cannot be identified in any place in the drawing or painting, but is constituted in the consciousness of the observer and created in the act of observation.
That is why, in front of Professor Klapheck’s work Bicycle, my acquaintance and Croatian poet Boro Lukšić once said; “What we see in his paintings is agonizing geometry, but Klapcheck transforms it into great poetry!”
I think that in the University Café I managed to satisfy all the requirements of such an aesthetic, while additionally lending a touch of atmosphere and thus spatiality with my colors!?

Jasna Lovrinčević: “Among your early works is Hiroshima – Christ (pencil and oil on canvas, 90 x 220 cm) from the Rise of the Titans cycle, originally called Prometeus. How did the name Hiroshima – Christ come about?”

Ante Milas:“I was inspired for this work by a picture in the news of Pope John Paul II stepping out of a plane onto the ground in Hiroshima, bending down and kissing the ground. A very moving picture, full of symbolism.

Ante Milas, The Last Guest, oil on canvas, 140 x 180 cm. (with permission of the author, Ante Milas)

If in the aforementioned series Memory of the Old Town and University Cafe the construction of the picture played the main role, in the series Rise of the Titans and Fields of Asphodel it was colour; grey paint and pencil drawing on canvas. The task was to achieve, following the example of Leonardo’s “sfumato”, a deep spatiality of colour. Leonardo succeeded in this by applying extremely thin glazes on glaze; like dew, layer upon layer, until the colour achieved, not its consistency but its appearance.
I tried to achieve this transcendentality, this spirituality of color, if I may call it that, by washing off the semi-dry paint with turpentine and a cloth, layer upon layer, until the illusion of color appeared as a membrane on the surface of the canvas, that is, on the border between this world and the next.

This is also the case with the painting Hiroshima Christ. I painted it during my academic studies as a summary of the spiritual life of my past and at the beginning of a new period of life that I wanted to devote entirely to art. I dedicated the painting to my mother.

I wanted to give the painting to Pope Benedict XVI. I got an appointment and came to Rome with the painting. The date for the painting’s delivery was postponed until further notice because the Pope suddenly had to attend another meeting. The painting remained in the Vatican with Monsignor Held (the German ambassador to the Holy See), who on the same day forwarded it (the painting) to the Secretary of State, Monsignor Genswein, in charge of the Pope’s gifts. Unfortunately, I did not get another appointment and to this day I do not know where the painting ended up.”

Jasna Lovrinčević: In Svjetlana Lipanović’s book The Splendor of Croatian Art, (ISBN 978-88-6864-213-6) in the text entitled “Ante Milas – Symbolic Realism” it is stated that you explained your art by quoting Franz Kafka that the art of a man will always contain the light of the church of his childhood. ”

Ante Milas: “Kafka probably wanted to say that a child in church experiences the world as holy, in terms as a liberated, saved world. The beautiful and most important Croatian words for this are: everything, universe, light, holy…, which are deeply connected. They are the beginning of metaphysics!? Is it any wonder that all monotheistic religions begin in the desert?! A negative landscape, as they say, only heaven and earth and the Spirit of the Lord hovering over the abysses?! And the wonder, or rather the admiration that Aristotle puts at the beginning of thought!? He puts wonder at the beginning of philosophy. Or in Kant the starry sky above us and the moral the law within us!?

Let’s go back to Kafka and the light of the church from childhood.

Ante Milas (with permission of the author, Ante Milas)

Until the Independent War, we Croats lived in a state that was not ours, in a regime that was imposed on us and in political misalliance with neighbors who were not kind to us as a people. That is why in church, during Midnight Mass of the Christmas Eve, for example, we got a feeling of liberation of the people *who walked in darkness and saw great light* (Isaiah, 9:1), we experienced mutual unity, harmony, reconciliation of heaven and earth because the Savior was born. I remember well how it snowed on Christmas Eve, how sleighs with horses came to our parish church at midnight from afar with lamps and the singing of people and children, wrapped in thick woolen blankets and fur coats, fragrant shade…

When I arrived in Germany, the world changed fundamentally. Duesseldorf, a rich and beautiful liberal city on the Rhine, a colorful society, crowded with people, the Old Town until late at night…Professor Dr. Frank Guenter Zehnder would later speak in his monograph Ante Milas in the Zikkurat about the “culture shock” that I experienced in the face of civilization. He was primarily referring to the encounter with art that I saw at the Academy (in Duesseldorf).

Unlike the city and German society, the Academy really shocked me. But not in a positive sense, as the professor’s text suggests, but in the sense of the famous scene from Tarkovsky’s film about Andrei Rublev, the famous icon painter, when the painter comes to a village that has just been devastated by the Tatars and to a devastated church…

The last priestesses of the Pythias in the ruined temple of Apollo in Delphi sent a message to Emperor Hadrian in Rome through an envoy
-Tell him that the hall of Daedalus has been destroyed, the source of the holy waters has dried up and the mouth of the prophet has become silent forever…

During my studies, I understood all the necessities and ruptures of the historical development of modern art from Cezanne onward and tried to integrate them in my works; not in the usual modernist way of radically breaking with the long tradition of Western, Christian art; but, in the way which is much more demanding, trying to make a possible synthesis of these two greatness.

Here I see my place in the wide range of what is being tried to encompass today with the “futile” word art!?”

Radovan Matijek ((Photographer: Peter Thielen)

“In the process of developing a sculptural construction, it inevitably arises my subconscious autobiographical dualism between dynamic dance movement and that one halted in one sculptural statics” said Radovan Matijek, talking about his sculpture Clamor Lugubris in a interview we had in December 2020.

An unbelievable life energy, power and courage radiate from the whole work of Radovan Matijek. During his studies at Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb in Croatia, he danced in an ensemble for contemporary dance, presented performances and exhibited in solo and group art exhibitions. Later he has expanded his artistic expression to acting, film production, scenography and choreography and he has specialized butoh dance. He was born in Split (Croatia), where he still has one of his studios and where he gets new ideas for his work. The other two studios he has in Germany, where he lives after spending some time working and studying among Berlin, London, Amsterdam and Paris.

His work indicates a high creative potential, which he by the power of his talent and broad knowledge directs towards the creation of impressive work. The uniqueness, aesthetics and expression of his work attract viewers attention, leading them to think and reflect.
It was a great pleasure and enrichment to talk to the artist Radovan Matijek whose new projects are awaited with great curiosity.

Jasna Lovrincevic: “In the autumn 2020 you exhibited a sculpture called Clamor Lugubris at Kreislauf 2 exhibition in Kranenburg and an installation at Katharinenhof Museum. At the same time, the play Kaltes Herz (The Colden Heart) for which you have created puppets and objects was shown at Hof Theater on the other side of Germany and you worked with Sabine Seume as a stage assistant for her dance performance Infinity at Atelier for Performing Art in Düsseldorf.

Through these three different simultaneous artistic events, it has been presented your artistic personality focused on different forms of art expression.

How do you feel about a situation like this where you are presented by different art forms
at three different distant places at the same time? ”

Radovan Matijek – Clamor Lugubris

Radovan Matijek: “First of all, I am a artist of fine art, sculptor and then a performer. But I almost always intertwine several media, I am quite present in the theater, I do special objects for various theater productions collaborating with various directors and choreographers. I act and dance and I make objects and create complete theatrical scenery. I make choreography and I exhibit my work.

This year 2020, there was a lot of turbulence due to covid 19, many projects have been canceled or postponed. Here, however, I have successfully realized three projects between the two ‘lockdowns’.”

Jasna Lovrincevic: “Your sculpture called Clamor Lugubris I associate with two figures in a butoh dance pose, perhaps knowing that you are known as a longtime dancer of that dance. Could you please tell more about the sculpture and your installation with glasses exhibited at Kranenburg until mid-November? ”

Radovan Matijek: “Kranenburg is a small, picturesque town. It is the place with the Pilgrimage Church and Way of St. James leads through it. Twenty German and Dutch artists exhibited their works in the outer circular belt of the town, between the walls and the water, and in the Museum.

Radovan Matijek – Clamor Lugubris

The sculpture Clamor Lugubris (Lamentation) is displayed at the beginning of that circular belt.
In this object, I have combined one insectoid and one floristic form. The sculpture stands on four legs which look like the legs of an insect. Out of the body twist two elegant necks ending in two stylized flowers, which look like wide-open mouths from which emerge vibrating tongues screaming toward the heaven. It’s actually a 4.5 meter high mutant.

You have nicely noticed that in the elaboration of the sculptural construction itself, it inevitably arises a subconscious autobiographical dualism between dynamic dance movement and that one halted in one sculptural statics.

But the dynamics is timed, the feeling is that the creature will move in a new direction at any moment and start to beat us on the heads. We should not forget Chernobyl, Fukushima… not to close our eyes to the flames of fire which swallow the Amazon, to the plastic which floods the oceans, to the CO2 which suffocates the already congested atmosphere, and our egocentric mind…

The sculpture is bright yellow and it has high´gloss. It is a bit robotic, futuristic and yellow colour is a sign of optimism at all this negative perception of the sinking world.

I hope deeply and sincerely that my multiplied sculptures of this type will not adorn the future gardens of a lost paradise.

At the Museum, I exhibited one installation of broken glasses called Fragil.

Radovan Matijek – Fragil

On one larger table, I set a hundred broken wine glasses without chalices or pedestals. Instead of missing parts, they carry thin branches of finely processed wood. The fragile, almost delicate constructions of inorganic glass and living wood have a metaphorical meaning. Broken glasses symbolize the fragility of human civilization which is always destroyed by wars or natural disasters. Each war leaves behind dead and wounded, ruins and ruined identity. It is questionable how something new can emerge from such seemingly hopeless remnants.
But each shard carries within it a small remnant of identity remanding of what it was before the disaster. The branches growing out of broken cups symbolize emerging life. This installation speaks about fragility of human life and about conditions under which a traumatic identity can be redeveloped for the good without concealing the ruptures and deformations left behind by the trauma. There is reason for quiet hope, but not superficial optimism.”

Jasna Lovrincevic/strong>: “In 2018 you participated in an extraordinary and significant German-Dutch project Brokopondo, travelleing to the state of Suriname where you exhibited an interesting wooden object called Lucifer (Mach). In fact it is the Dutch word for match as you have explained in our introductory conversaton.

Could you tell more about this project. Did you use the wood taken from an artificial lake, created by constructing a hydroelectric plant, actually wood from a submerged forest?”

Radovan Matijek – Brokopondo Project

Radovan Matijek: “Suriname is a small country in Latin America, a former Dutch colony whose area is 80% covered by the untouched jungle under the protection of UNESCO. Dutch is also the official language in that territory.

At the invitation of the Seewerk Gallery and Museum in Moers, I joined to ten selected artists for the Brokopondo project. Back in 2013, I exhibited at Seewerk Gallery, among other pieces, an installation called Streichhölzer, translated as Matches. Some twenty twisted “trees” whose ends are burnt blackened heads, actually make one burned forest. Such activist accents were followed by this invitation for Suriname.

There I made a sculpture of Lucifer, in Dutch it means a Match. It is made of hard wood ‘walaba’ which has been preserved in the fresh water of the Brokopondo Reservoir for thirty years.

The sculpture is 7 meters high and it is displayed at the New Amsterdam Open Air Museum at Paramarib, the capital of Suriname. When I returned to Moers, I made a very similar object which has been permanently set up in Seewerk Park.

My matches are accents against the burning of rainforests and the uncontrolled exploitation of wood in the Amazon and other rainforests across our planet. ”

Jasna Lovrincevic: You are graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, in the class of Prof. Stipe Sikirica. In spite of the fact that you were educated in some way by traditional classical approach you already as a student presented various installations. What challenges was the combination of modern and traditional presented for you at that time and what about nowdays? ”

Radovan Matijek: “Although I graduated in the class of sculptor Stipe Sikirica, I was already involved in installations art work at the time, which was a continuation of world and Croatian avant-garde heritage. Later, I have participated in my own installations as a performer.”

Jasna Lovrincevic: “Your biography is very rich, in addition to sculpture, dance and theater, it also includes work on film. In 1990 you produced the film Cej for which you, together with your collaborators wrote the script, did choreography and you were director. How did you start to work on that film and where has it been shown?

Scenes from the film Cej (Digitized by Miodrag Trajkovic)

Radovan Matijek: “The film came as a spontaneous reaction. We were looking for a venue for our new play and we didn’t find any theater where we could stage it and we decided to make a film. That was before the war (in Croatia), I act, dance and direct together with a colleague Ljiljana Mikulcic. The material was recorded in 1989. The title Cej has no meaning, it is just a sound or sigh.

It was a premonition of our war when people even didn’t think about it. We made a film about the horrors of war in an allegorical, metaphorical expressions.

It is a short film, it is a sound film, and there is no text. The film has been shown at many festivals, it lasts for 34 minutes, and it has been shown in France, The Netherlands and Germany on the television channel Arte. ”

Scenes from the film Cej (Digitized by Miodrag Trajkovic)

Jasna Lovrincevic: “Have you continued with film production?

Radovan Matijek: “Between then and now I have produced several short films mostly related to my art or dance performances.”

Jasna Lovrincevic: “You create and make puppets and different objects for various plays at several theaters in Krefeld, Monchengladbach, Essen and Hof as well as for the theater Freilichtbühne Alfter and Westfälisches Landestheater. How do you approach a design of all that objects or puppets? Are you independent at that work? ”

Radovan Matijek – Puppets (Photographer: H. Dietz, Hof Theatre)

Radovan Matijek: “I work in the theater in terms of making special objects and puppets. These puppets are big, two to three meters high, they are mobile, actually they look very lively, they are always animated by dancers or actors. Now, in Hof in Bayern on the Czech border, it is performing the play with title Cold Heart (Kaltes Herz). For this project I have made ten, long fingers. Each finger is carried and moved by one dancer. At the end of the show, a naked puppet which looks like a child stands on the stage supervising the audience by its big blue eyes and staring at it – ‘ the life goes on’.

Ideas arise in conversation with the director according to his needs of visualizing the play. In the realization itself, I have unlimited freedom. ”

Jasna Lovrincevic: “One unavoidable topic related to your artistic expression is dance, especially the butoh. You have danced as a student in Zagreb and later in London and Germany. In Zagreb you danced in the ensemble of Milana Broš, about whom the author Maja Durinovic has written that she (Broš) was “known for destroying elitist and aesthetic notions of art.” Did Milana Broš attract you by her ideas in dance or perhaps have you come under her influence in some way, in terms of dance? ”

Radovan Matijek – Puppets (Photographer: H. Dietz, Hof Theatre)

Radovan Matijek: “At the same time, while I studying at the Academy of Fine Arts, I danced in the ensemble of Milana Broš. She has received a large number of awards for contemporary dance both as a dancer and as a choreographer, abroad and then in Croatia.

Milana Broš at the time, in the mid-80s, was the only one to offer the dancer an avant-garde line within contemporary dance that I immediately recognized as a young performer, desirous for new experiences. I completely agree with Maja’s opinion, by the way, my colleague in the ensemble at the time.”

Jasna Lovrincevic: “You have made numerous performances with the butoh and you have written choreography for it. When did you start to dance the butoh and why do you like that dance?”

Radovan Matijek: “Butoh is an avant-garde, expressive dance, which originated in Japan in the early 1950s. It builds on the expressionist experiences of German dance in the 1920s of Mary Wigma and it brings an unavoidable aesthetic of the Far East with an enormous possibilitiy of improvisation and exploration of one’s own body and movement. Tatsumi Hijikata and Kazuo Ono are the fathers of this new stage expression.

And how did I start? I presented one performance in Zagreb with idea to perform one moving sculpture. I intended to play one stone sculpture in motion. I painted myself in white color and I somehow began to move in space. Someone told me it looked like the butoh dance. At the time, I didn’t even know what was the butoh. It was in London, while I was working at the Oktober Gallery, I met a butoh dancer. The dance immediately won me over with its expressiveness and at the same time by its mystery, its spontaneity, the aesthetics of the white body and the so-called ‘black soul’. The butoh is always associated with some dark side of our psyche. I am an artist who likes to try new things, who likes to dig through his own subconscious and complement the mosaic of the world around us. In this dance, the subconscious component, which deepens and opens new horizons, is very important. It allows your own body to move without any control.

Arriving to Krefeld, I have joined Sabine Seume, at that time a well known butoh dancer and choreographer, and I have specialized in butoh at her workshops. Still today, we are close collaborators.”

Jasna Lovrincevic: “I have read butoh dance doesn’t need choreography because of it’s spontaneity?”

Radovan Matijek: “Oh, of course the butoh has a choreography, but also the possibility of improvisation.

There are special techniques to make choreography. Kacogen is one of these techniques or rather a state of mind which progressively moves towards the exploitation of its own body. The process is very subconscious; with half-closed eyes the organism enters a trance state and then the body moves on its own. In this process, one tries to turn off the real mind system and to give the body the ability to expose itself without any control of mind. The movements can be very wild but can also be very slow so there is a wide range of sensation.

Of course, in that process, it is needed a person who observes all this from the outside. Then the choreographic elements are written down. One performan is built on a collection of active images.

Jasna Lovrincevic: ” You always have a lot to say and show. You always express yourself in a new aesthetic way and all your work indicates a high artistic potential and a talent that has no limit.”

Radovan Matijek: “Somehow these are my animations and interest that I have always had: stage and visual art. It’s hard to set boundaries where one art begins and where another. It’s my nature. Everything draws me to something and then it comes out that I have to accomplish it. Why (?), I haven’t thought about it yet. I just go to realize that project which presents a new challenge for me. ”

Radovan Matijek – Pirate Ship- Performance

Jasna Lovrincevic: “It is nice and interesting that you manage to fulfill and present your art ideas, what it is usually not easy and mostly unattainable for many artists.”

Radovan Matijek: “Probably, the collaborators and the audience love and respect me, they appreciate my creations, my way of thinking and acting.”

Anton Cetín

“What was really important for me was to leave the stamp of the time in which I lived,“ Anton Cetín saidin a conversation we had on the occasion of his recently completed series Covid-19.

When Mr. Anton Cetín sent me the image of the first painting from his Covid-19 series on May 14. I did not expect that I would have the privilege of following the creation of the whole series of 19 paintings, which I was finally able to view at the beginning of September. These paintings with Eve as a witness of the time, reflected a unpredictability of the coronavirus, just as scientific studies have revealed. After receiving the first nine paintings, my response to Mr. Anton Cetín was: “Something completely new!” So I was delighted when Mr. Anton Cetín agreed to an interview about his latest painting series.

Jasna Lovrincevic: “Your latest series Covid-19 is a rare artist’s response to this frightening pandemic disease. Through history, artists have thematized past infections much more, especially the emergence of the plague. The war, which is also disturbing and drastically life-threatening, has been a regular theme in almost all of the arts. However, artists remain mostly silent about the present-day coronavirus which has forced mankind, as scientifically and technologically advanced as we are, to resort to medieval methods of protection. Why have you decided to break the silence in this series?“

Anton Cetín: “From the very beginning the appearance of Covid-19, which is completely and irreversibly changing our previous reality into a completely new unimagined, unpredictably dramatic, frightening, perilous and worrying one, aroused in me the need to do something to react in my own, pictorial way – on canvas. The idea itself was not enough – it was necessary to think of what to paint and which elements would have to take precedence and which would be the best, the most picturesque to realize and show in such a complex and demanding task. And it wasn‘t simple and easy. And then how, by what technique or by what techniques to achieve all that. It was immediately clear to me that one painting would not be enough, that more of them would need to be painted – one larger series of paintings, the number of which was not really in sight at the time.

What was really important to me was to realize the idea in terms of leaving the stamp of the time in which I lived, the way I saw it, understood it, experienced it for the whole time I was painting it. That’s why I reacted in my own way, and I wasn’t silent. And that’s why I decided on this series.“

Jasna Lovrincevic: “Just before your departure for Paris, in 1965, your series of drawings of the Ominous Birds was created in Zagreb as a reflection of, as you said in one of our previous conversations in 2016, the ominous threat of apocalyptic proportions of the A bomb. The drawings, which you sent me, also strongly alluded to scenes from the Apocalypse: the devastated Earth, the smoke, hunger and exhaustion of the rare survivors, the self-destruction of man by his own technology, as well as the influence of cosmic forces. Has this, extremely imaginative series through the richness of drawings and especially shaded large dark as well as white surfaces, been an inspiration for your Covid-19 series?“

Anton Cetín: “It is true that in Zagreb in 1965, my series of drawings of the Ominous Birds was created as a reflection on ominous threats of apocalyptic proportions of the A bomb. All the rest of what you have stated in this question is also true. And, to be able to find an answer to this question in terms of the inspiration of the Ominous Birds series for the Covid-19 series, we must first go back to 1965, which means only 55 years back, so, in the year in which the scenes you mentioned in this question first appeared in my work. Some of these scenes from the Ominous Birds series became in fact a link to those in the Phantom series, created in Paris in 1967; and those from the Phantom series appear again in the Universe Desturbed series, created in Toronto, 2001; and now these scenes and symbols find their way to this new Covid-19 series.“

Jasna Lovrincevic: “In the first painting of Covid-19 series, which you showed me at the beginning of May 2020, one could notice the enigmatic number 2001, as I characterized it in my response after receiving that painting. The author Branka Hlevnjak in her text entitled New Series of Paintings by Anton Cetín Covid-19, published on the Epoha Portal in July 2020, stated that for this new series of paintings you have used forgotten, unpublished works from your series Universe Disturbed, created in 2001. This is a very interesting fact in addition to the fact that there were nineteen of those works.

That incredible coincidence with the number 19 that this horrible virus of unexplained origin contains in its name, as well as the connection with the Universe Disturbed series is strange. Did it come as a surprise to you? Did you perhaps accept this coincidence as synchronicity or as something connecting and anticipatory?“

Anton Cetín: “At the beginning of the spring of 2001, I started working on a series of paintings that did not have a title at that time. Early in the morning on 9/11, the day of the demolition of the World Trade Center in New York, I went to the city to do some work. As I was passing through the underground part of the buildings in one place I noticed a completely mute – silent and motionless bunch of people looking at something on the screen. It stirred my curiosity so I joined them and also saw the whole demolition. Those images impressed me terribly. I went back to the studio with the idea of recording it, but under the weight of everything I saw, I just wasn’t able to do anything. And when I looked around at the paintings I had been working on until then, the name Universe Disturbed emerged for them – at that moment I wasn’t even aware from where. One portion of the works on paper in the acrylic technique in preparation remained unused, so I stored it in a box and put it aside, completely forgetting about it.

Thinking about how I would start working on the Covid-19 series, I remembered the box. I opened the box and started counting, and to my great surprise there were exactly 19 of these unused works, which I simply – without any thought have decided to use. And so I decided on a series of 19 paintings. I accepted it as synchronicity because everything coincided in time, connecting because it was thematically related to previous events, and also as anticipatory because in my painting I sensed the arrival of something new – a new beginning.“

Jasna Lovrincevic: “Could you clarify if these works were unfinished and now in some way are completed, or have you painted over those paintings, leaving number 2001 visible?“

Anton Cetín: “These works were not previously completed, they waited while I worked on the Universe Disturbed series. I have transferred each of them to the canvas with a specific technique and I have painted new symbols over them related to this series – Covid 19. And since these unfinished works were created in 2001, I left the numbers visible for documentation. For example, in the upper part of the first painting of this series, one can see a character also painted in 2001 and now transferred to this series, a demon character in the role of generator of enormous energy of evil behind the viruses that dominate the entire image space accomplishing their task. From their empty dead whiteness, the white eyes of this character sow death. An evil satanic smile is a reaction to the doom that has befallen us and in which we are only helpless observers and victims.“

Anton Cetín – Covid-19, the First Painting

Jasna Lovrincevic: “In the first painting of this series, regardless of the frightening symbols, its symmetry and colours, lightness and brightness create a feeling of harmony and tranquility, as I wrote in reply after receiving the first picture. The following paintings reflect the horror and dramatic events that this virus has created in the world, showing its unpredictability. But, on the last image Eve appears smiling, symbolically representing the winner. In this sense, the whole series creates an optimistic impression. Has optimism guided you through the creation of this series?“

Anton Cetín: “Regardless of everything shown in the paintings, from the first to the last, optimism has carried me the whole time I worked on this series and leads me with hope to the positive end of this frightening pandemic.“

Jasna Lovrincevic: “Covid 19 has become the subject of intensive research by scientists around the world and we hope that some solution will be found to end this pandemic. In your depiction you have gone much further, giving a vision of the world future. In the last painting, the four graphic symbols of the coronavirus are associated with the four riders of the Apocalypse according to John’s Revelation in Chapter Six: a white one, a red one with brown ends of the coronary part, and a black one, all of them with corresponding contents below which reflect events of recent times.

The fourth rider of the Apocalypse is Death on a Green horse, while in your painting the fourth one, actually is the first symbol in gray. In addition to the content below it, the face in profile is painted in green, the colour of death. Did you intentionally make such a sequence of symbols of the coronavirus?“

Anton Cetín – Covid-19, the Second Painting

Anton Cetín: “In the last, 19th painting, I followed the order of current events: first the disease appeared – a pandemic symbolically represented by a rider on a gray horse; second, there is hunger and misery symbolically represented by a rider on a black horse; third, at the time it usually occurs, war is symbolically represented by the rider on the red horse; and finally the fourth, when the time comes for victory symbolically represented by the rider on the white horse. That is why in the upper part of the picture we have 4 viruses – gray, black, red and white, and below each of them is a more detailed pictorial representation of what each of them symbolizes. Beneath the gray virus, a green-colored figure at the bottom of the image represents a dead face.“

Jasna Lovrincevic: “The mysterious coronavirus has aroused different opinions about its origin; it has sparked varied research about previous infections through history; it has led many to read various prophecies, to think about economic prospects or about psychological consequences on the new way of life; and, it has provoked many other considerations related to all aspects of human life. One can say your last painting has summarized all of these reflections; an infection that turns life to gray, turns hunger to misery, war to blood and death; and finally, the yellow color of the sun and Eve represents the colours of new life. Such an explicit depiction certainly requires courage, but also it encourages viewers to reflect. Did you experience a dilemma regarding posting the last painting?“

Anton Cetín – Covid-19, Painting No.16

Anton Cetín: “No, I did not experience dilemma in posting of the last painting. Soon after the first few completed paintings, I started thinking about the last painting, which should complete or determine the series. Thinking about it and considering several other possibilities that have arisen, the idea of the possibility of applying one perhaps more specific solution – the apocalyptic one – suddenly appeared. I decided to tackle that challenging idea. While working on other images, I searched for the basic features of the Apocalypse, accepting the ones that I thought would be the most appropriate to best represent the content of the image and thus justify its final outcome.“

Jasna Lovrincevic: “All nineteen paintings individually retain the viewer’s view by the richness in diversity in terms of form, and expressiveness manifested by fantastic colours, as well as the richness of the characters because the individual paintings are almost figurative. The individual paintings, 16, 17, 18 as well as 15 or 14 are so rich in fine detail in terms of variety of lines, colours and shapes that they are reminiscent of the richness of miniature painting. What challenges has this series presented for you in terms of painting?“

Anton Cetín – Covid-19, Painting No.19

Anton Cetín: “As in my case this series is an artistic expression of the situation caused by the frightening Covid -19 pandemic disease, it has been quite clear to me that hundreds of human characters – portraits in all possible physical and mental situations in the paintings of this series, I can realize my ideas best in a figurative way.

Everything you have stated and described in this question is so beautiful and true to me that there is no need to repeat it. Thank you. And all this has been made possible by one of my specific techniques that I discovered while I was painting the series Universe Disturbed. Now, working on my Covid -19 series, I have discovered even more new possibilities that have enabled me to further develop this technique, I would dare to say, to perfection.

And it doesn’t surprise me when you say that individual paintings are so rich in fine details in terms of a variety of lines, colours, and shapes that they are reminiscent of the richness of miniature painting. The idea has been to achieve this with the greatest possible richness of lines and shapes, to connect them with other symbols, and to achieve a dynamic rhythm needed within each painting.

I think that in this sense it would be an omission to ignore some of the features or at least not briefly explain them in the mentioned pictures: 15, 16, 17 and 18. For example in the 15th painting, the characters, especially accentuated with bright colours, are actually wanderers in an almost apocalyptic depiction of a devastated landscape. In painting 16, the squares symbolically depict the graves of the unknown, without the religious features that are insignificant to the corona virus anyway. In painting 17, with its richness of lines, colours and shapes, I wanted to show children’s toys scattered everywhere, disturbed by a powerful virus, unfortunately in this case without children, but also with the hope of their quick return.

Painting 18, still rich in details as in previous images, essentially shows the virus-trapped Eve, who in spite of being trapped, firmly and irrefutably believes in the very end of the epidemic. Well, my idea from the very beginning was to paint not only viruses and ugly scenes of human beings in the situations they found themselves in – worry, fear, pain, suffering, death – but also the hope and belief leading to one final and more positive end of Covid 19.

In terms of painting, this series has been a huge challenge for me, enriching me with many new life insights and opening up new painting possibilities – I have a feeling that it expects to continue…“

Jasna Lovrincevic: “Your Eve recently celebrated her fiftieth birthday and at the promotion of Eve’s Monograph 1967-2017, you announced in your inspired speech that Eve would continue to be your muse and inspiration to the end. And now Eve has witnessed this difficult time as well. After the series of Universe Disturbed, Revival and the triumph of the Rainbow, Eve has taken you through the horror of the corona virus and has continued on to a new life. Eve has become like one original painting element. Could you imagine a composition without Eve?“

Anton Cetín: “That’s a very good and interesting question. As you say, it is true that in my speech at the promotion of the monograph EVE 1967-2017, I announced that Eve would continue to be my muse and inspiration to the end. And that is absolutely true, with two exceptions: the first would happen the moment I betrayed Eve, and the second in the unwanted one.

And a composition without Eve could only happen with a transition to abstract painting. And for that I see neither need nor purpose.“

Ivica Matijevic (Photo: Jasna Lovrincevic)

“Creativity to me is being able to allow an accident to happen at the process of creation”, says painter and sculptor, Ivica Matijević
in an interview I conducted with him in February 2019, at his studio, in Moers.

Ivica Matijević, well-known for his wooden objects, has completed his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Sarajevo and since 1991 he has lived in Germany where he works as a self-employed artist. His works are regularly exhibited in Germany and Bosnia and Herzegovina, but he has also exhibited in the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Poland, Montenegro, Spain and Mexico. His works are displayed in several museums and galleries in different countries, some of them belong to privat art collections and some of them can be found in open spaces and at some churches in Germany and Bosnia and Herzegovina. One of his paintings has been selected for the art collection of the German Federal Parliament in Berlin.

Ivica Matijević is an artist of great personality, with recognizable style and his own art technique. To meet him and his work is a very special experience. His cordiality, his confidence, his work attitude, his love for art and it’s power and his artwork are equally impressive. When you step into his studio, you are faced with a huge round wooden object attached, to a opposite wall. That work occupies you immediately with it’s beautiful blue colour, covered with different coloured dots. The scene is magnificent and mysterious, like a starry sky. It fascinates you so much that you with the same feeling continue to look at other pieces of art, sieted in the studio and in each of them you recognize something monumental and unique: whether it is wooden sculptures, various objects, wooden miniatures or open public space models. In the studio there is also one wooden creation of Matijevic, designed for an exhibition organised to mark 100 years since Bauhaus. Ivica Matijević is among three artists invited to exhibit there.

“A puerly geometrical form, and a flat roof are characteristic of Bauhaus architecture. The name of the exhibition is Inspiration Bauhaus”, said Ivica Matijević. On the sculpture, created for this exhibition, he has applied his original technique, a kind of intarsia.

Ivica Matijević says that he has discovered his technique by accident. His three-year-old daughter had put a pencil into the crack of the wooden cube and when she could not pull it out, he has tried to help her. He also could not do it and he has cut the pencil. Then he has noticed that wooden surfaces with the cut pencil has became so vibrant that he has decided to use different pencils in the similar way for his artistic work.

Until the year 1996 Ivica Matijević was known as a painter. For the first time he exhibited his oil paintings at his high school in Maglaj when he was fifteen years old. His first oil paints he received as the present from his uncle when he was only ten years old.
Jasna Lovrinčević: “Why have you continued using wood and what is so attractiv about that natural material?”

Ivica Matijević: “For twenty years I have been working exclusively in the wood. Wood is a warm material that can be sculpted and painted. When I sculpture an wooden object, I lead a conversation between it’s natural beauty or it’s form and aesthetics that arise by my hand. Wood is natural material and I am inspiried by its natural structures. Coming from Bosnia, I have a special feeling for the wood. Bosnia is forest-rich land. When we, people from Bosnia, live abroad, we notice how much it is in us.”

Jasna Lovrincevic: “How do you define your wooden objects, attached on the wall, which give impression of pictures, with smooth surfaces, without any texture?”

Ivica Matijević: “In art jargon, I make the objects. My objects have height, width and depth and in work process I use the sculpture and painting tools. With drill I make holes into which I put pencils. Then I apply different structures and about 20 to 40 layers of different paints onto a surface. It is interesting that time is important factor of my creation process; when I leave the studio, my works continue to be in process of creation, they are drying. Different structures, cracks and forms emerge from that drying process. That process is impossible to control. These new structures can be very inspiring for me. The following phase is the phase of archeologist. I start to hone and doing that I remove the paint layers. It is very important to recognise the moment when I must to stop it.

To be able to control this process to as extent as is possible, I always make an archive with apllied paints on one surface. Removing paints layers by honing I can approximatelly predict what paint is the next. If I remove larger amount of paint than is desirable, then it will be everything destroyed what I have done for 30-40 days.

Classic painting is the act of applying paint onto a canvas. If I do not like the colour, I wait until the paint has dried and then I apply a new paint. My technique is the opposite to that. I remove the paint. This principle is similar to method of archeologists who remove the layers of soil in order to penetrate into the past time.

The Principle of Accident

Ivica Matijević: I consciously apply different paints onto the surface, but what happens during the drying process, it happens by chance, what I call it: the principle of accident. This principle of accident is desirable for me because with it I get structures which is impossible to achive by painting or to create it. These new structures present certain aesthetic moments and it is important for me to recognize them. The interaction between applied paints and other materials create some of surprising effects. It gives the art freshness.

The classic painting that I had previously done, had been created more consciously, but now, my creative process is characterised by conscious and controlle.

Creativity to me is being able to allow an accident to happen at the process of creation.”

Jasna Lovrincevic: “There are often visible line likes ribbon on the painted surface edge of your object. Is that also a conscious part of your creative process?”

Ivica Matijević: “One important and recognizable aspect of my art is constructivism. I apply certain geometric shapes and lines with which I try to limit and to tranquillize my compositions to a certain extent.”

Jasna Lovrinčević: “Your artworks mostly have the names. How do you give them?”

Ivica Matijević: “The name is not given to the artwork, but it happens during the process of creation. The name of the artwork is something that has emerged as the painting itself. I can not give the name or title in advance, then it would be work on the subject as by the commission artwork. The name occurs in the process of creation or does not occur, there is no obligation to give a name.”

Jasna Lovrincevic: “What does it mean art for you?”

Ivica Matijević immediately answered “all” and he sincerely laughed.

Ivica Matijević: “All. What does it mean art for me? It is difficult question. Life is not art, but life without art is much poorer than with it. I have good luck that my profession, besides my family, is my great love. So, art is my preoccupation. I come to my studio every day. I start to work at eight o’clock and I leave my studio at five o’clock in the afternoon. I don’t need special inspiration. I find it at my work because I have been in a work continuum. Of course, for these 20-30 years of art, my way of thinking and approaching the image has become something as a science. I am constantly in some kind of aesthetic process like quest and search. To me the art is still an adventure and research. Each of my objects is a new challenge for me. At the start of a new work, I often have the feeling as I do it for the first time.”

The Cubes Enriched by Intarsia

Jasna Lovrincevic: “How did you have the idea to designe these cube?”

Ivica Matijević: “Sometimes the worthless pieces of wood that I usually receive from my friends, inspire me and thanks to my original technique, they become, I hope, something special. Today, many people think it is two hours enough to create an artwork. That is not true. It is very important for me to have patience and perseverance and to be clear and precise. Also it is important for me to have a concept and vision about it; how should something look like, not today or in two hours time, but in a month or in two months time.”

Jasna Lovrincevic: “You have designed a seriesof wooden cubes. It is interesting, each of them is different?”

Ivica Matijević: “One craftsman creates works using his skills and tools known to him, but one artist always starts from a zero. As an artist I know a technique, but the way how to produce the peace of art, how to breathe aura into my art object, that does not depend on my technical precision. One painting needs to have an aura. It is not necesseraly to look beautifully, but it should initiate some new thought in the viewers or give them an opportunity for discussion. Otherwise, it is just a imitation, an illustration of some idea. I do not accept it as an art. It means, a peace of art has to posses height and depth and each of breach what has to exist in one art work. What is specific to my works today is that they have an esthetic quality. I’m perfectionist, considering the style. It is said that my works look like baroque works considering their high aesthetic quality. Aesthetic is a very important element of my work and I always try to achieve it. The painting should be produced professionally and of high quality, it should have high aesthetic values and should be emotionally charged.

From The East

At the atelier of Ivica Matijević there is one big wooden sculptur, that attracts attention. It is one of fifty that Matijević has done. He says he would like to see them arranged in row, one by one.

Ivica Matijević: “It’s a standing figure. It’s called From the East. To create sculpture like this it is meditative and intensive work process. Actually, I liberate a figure from the wood, led by the structure and the natural growing form, trying to reveal what is hidden beneath the surface. Every beam has its own mystical power, it has something special in itself, and I could repeat the words of Michelangelo, who said: -There is one person inside each stone and I just need to set him free.”

The Public Art

Artworks, produced by Ivica Matijević are often commissioned by different institutions or organisations. Some of his commissioned artwork are still in process of production, and two of them sited on the squares of Neukirchen-Vluyn: a bronze figure called Homeland (Heimat) and Clogs (Klompe).

Jasna Lovrincevic: “Who has given the name for the bronze figure in Neukirchen-Vluyn?”
Ivica Matijević: “Homeland (Heimat) is a statue, created in 2004. That work was a gift to the city, given by a businessman Imre Ladocsi, who came from Hungary. He financed it together with the City of Neukirchen-Vluyn. In fact, he donated the statue to the city in gratitude for his successful years he spent there as an entrepreneur. This is a male figure, 2 meters high, in the middle is broken. The word homeland is written in seventy different languages because so many nations live in that city.”

Jasna Lovrincevic: “Who has commisioned The Clogs (Klompen)?”

Ivica Matijević: “The Clogs is an interesting project. Ten or fifteen year ago the Clogs were commissioned by The Clogs Friends Association from Vluyn (Die Vluyner Klompenfreunde). Once a year there is a tradition of dancing in the clogs on the square where this work is located. About 300 to 400 couples belong to that Association. Looking for inspiration I have asked what they are doing and what happens when they dance in the clogs. My wife who comes from that city, has said: “The floor is shaking.” So I have created clogs for men and women on an oblique surface to accentuate that dramatic movement. Creating the Clogs I had to learn about tradition and culture of the people from this region. It was interesting to Germans that someone who was not born here, could understand their tradition preserved for hundresd of years. Beside the clogs on the same surface it is written the text of a song on Plattdeutsche Sprache (Lower German Dialect).”

Jasna Lovrincevic: “One of your paintings has been selected for the art collection of the German Federal Parliament in Berlin. What is that painting and who has made selection for that prestigious collection?”

Ivica Matijević: “Every year, they seek written documents from 1000 of artists from all around Germany. The artists receive a invitation and 1000 of artists sent their catalogs. Original artworks are demanded from 100 of artists, and the artworks from circa10 artists will be purchased. I am lucky that I have been among those ten. We artists can not be recommend by ourselves to the Art Commission. The names of artists are suggested by museums, galleries, art historians or curators who arrange the exhibitions. My painting with the name The Way ( Der Weg, 2002, oil on canvas, 180 x 120 cm) was selected in year 2008.”

Sacred Art

Ivica Matijević is also known in Germany and Bosnia and Herzegovina by his sacred works, placed at several different churches. For Our Lady Church in Duisburg and for St. Quirinus in Neukirchen-Vluyn he has made the Way Of The Cross. At the St.Quirinus Church he also has created an altarpiece and a monumental image of the Resurrection. This year he has bee engaged for the first time in an evangelical church in Morse to create Tree Of Life. It is impressive circular shaped artwork. The diameter is two and half meters but now it is in a producing process.

Matijević’ first experience with fine art was in his childhood through the Nazarene Christian art.

Ivica Matijević: “At our churches the sacred paintings inspirire us to think and contemplate about thema that features in a work.”

Jasna Lovrincevic: “When did you begin to create sacred art?”
Ivica Matijević: “Very early and also I pinted it at the Academy in Sarajevo. The Academy was founded in the early seventies. The professors were young and modern and there was no special direction or style. We had freedom and we could experiment quite a lot. Although it was a communist country, there was no socialist realism as in the countries of Eastern Bloc. Having artistic freedom is often more difficult than to have a specific task. We had professors who knew how to give us instructions and to each of us to give advice for the next step, but not to follow their way but to stay on our own way.

For the first time I made a sacred painting when I was in seventh semester of Academy. The professor came and said: “Ivica, what is that? It looks good.” The professors were liberal and open. There were no problems. I am very happy and grateful to former professors who have taught us about discipline, persistence, and a beautiful cultivated artistic sensitivity.”

Jasna Lovrincevic: “Have you got any requirements, in terms of style or way of representing the theme for Church commisioned artwork?”

Ivica Matijević: “As an artist I have absolute freedom because there is no canon in the Catholic Church like, for example, in the Orthodox Church. If we artists receive orders from the Catholic Church, we have freedom to interpret and to make a picture as we see the theme. Of course, sacred architecture is very demanding and one of the tasks or challenges for an artist is to designe a work that will fit into that space, not in the sense of being subordinated to it, but to enoble it. By entering one of the peace of art into the church, it gains a completely new function and role that is, perhaps much biger than the image itself. I have done a hundred of works for various churches, here and in Bosnia. When they talk about me as an artist who makes also some sacred art, they often say about my non sacred objects that I do, that they have also something of that sacred significance and greatness.

Working for the sacred spaces like churches is always a pleasure for me. I do not have to change myself, especially my attitude and my style in order to make a sacred image. That is recognisable on this commisioned artwork, Tree of Life. I think it’s impossible to learn how to make sacred art, it somone brings with himself, he has it within himself or not. We artists sometimes need such great topics to make special works. We still have great respect for sacred space. Churches have always been the biggest and the generous patrons of fine art.”

Jasna Lovrincevic: “You have made one art installation for the Our Lady Church in Duisburg. If you could please say more about that installation?”

Ivica Matijević: “It’s art installation The Resurrection. This installation was created as a joint project with me and members of the ecclesiastical community. They brought some objects and we have done this project at my studio in three to four days. Among other things in that installation there is a mirror. Resurrection is a yearning; we wonder what will happen later on. The mirror is a symbol of a reality and our physical presence. In Resurrection it is about that; at first look at yourself in the mirror, maybe you are already the oucome of some resurrection. Before you start looking in the future, first recognize the moment in which you live and how you live, recognize yourself.”

Open Your Eyes And Watch It!

Ivica Matijevic (Photo: jasna Lovruncevic)

Talking about today’s tendency of seeking explanation from artists about their art, Ivica Matijević considering that in visual art the people use the sight more than other senses, supports idea to experience the visual art watching it.

Ivica Matijević: “We use mostly the sight (in visual art), all the other senses we use only 10 percent and in spite of that, many people look for instructions, some text or something written about the artwork. It is interesting, if a large picture is set in a museum or gallery, the most of visitors read the text beside it; title, year of creation and technique as though they could better recognize a picture or experience it. In visual art it goes about that to allow yourself, to use your eyes, inteligence and feelings to recognize a picture, to wander into the picture and to experience it, but not to try to decipher it theoretically or in whatever way. What does this artwork mean? Open your eyes and watch it!”

Jasna Lovrincevic: “Today when art can hardly surprise us with something absolutely new, how difficult is to be original, to find own way?”

Ivica Matijević: “The fact is that we live at a time when there are no special artistic tendencies, no some particular styles. If there is no strong style in 2019, for today’s artists it is fortune or misfortune. Most of them, who are unable to find their own style are guided by fashion and trends. Those who have their own style, without worryng about what is going on, wherever the wind blows, whatever happens, they continue their way. Here, in Germany, they say “Heutige Stillosigkeit ist unsere Stil in Kunst” (Today’s lack of style is our style). To have no style and to have absolute freedom, for many artists mean permanent wandering and seeking, but not for me! There has been no time when I have not known what to do, where and how to work. I have my own style in art, I’m recognizable. It is that what is main intention in art. We recognise it as a compliment when someone says, “You have your own brand!” That is a big compliment.”

Ankica Karačić (Photo: Jasna Lovrincevic)

“It is the most beautiful experience for an artist when his works gain recognition”, said Ankica Karačić in an interview I conducted with her in early October 2018, just after her participation at the Peru International Art Festival ICCA 2018, held from 20 to 28 of September.

As professional artist she started her career 1970, after graduating from the School of Applied Arts, Department of Textile Design in Novi Sad and the Academy of Fine Arts in Novi Sad. She has been equally successful as a fashion designer and as a teacher of art, and today she is an internationally renowned painter.

For her fashion creations she has received different prizes in Milan, Zagreb, Ljubljana, Belgrade and Skopje. As a art teacher together with her art group Pčelica (Honeybees – group of school children from the city of Šid) has won over 200 prizes in different countries, including China, Japan and India. She and her Pčelica has been presented on Croatian TV (RTV Zagreb) and in the year 1990 she edited the program for children on Radio Television Belgrade.

At the end of 1991, together with her husband and her two children, because of the war in Croatia, she left her house in Ilok in Croatia and came to Germany to Iserlohn, where she soon became recognised as a painter and art teacher and gained the status of a free artist. She has exhibited independently over forty times and participated in more than 100 group exhibitions in Germany, South Korea, China, Azerbaijan, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, Croatia and Serbia. Her triptych “Momačko kolo” has been displayed permanently at Croatian National Council in Subotica.

For two years, 2016 and 2017, she was member of the Jury for Assessment and Approval of School Projects in Märkisch District in the German province of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Since 2000 she has organized The Art Competition for children of Croatian emigrants from all over the world who attend Croatian language classes.

She is a member of the Artists Association of the The Ruhr (BBK – Bundesverband Bildender Künstler Bezirksverband Ruhrgebiet e.V.), DINA 4 Malaga in Spain, atelier -L – Kordi in Vienna, Arttotal in Croatia and CROART in Subotica. As a member of the International Creative Artists Association (ICAA), she has exhibited in South Korea, China and this year, in September, in Peru. She is appointed Director of ICAA for Croatia.

Ankica Kračić – Salpo

Jasna Lovrincevic: What does it mean for you, your involvement in Peru International Art Festival ICCA 2018?”

Ankica Karačić: “It means so much to me! This is extraordinary world Festival. There were three wonderful exhibitions in Trujillo, Salpo and Lima with 60 artists from different parts of the world. We have learnd about a different way of living and about another culture. The first exhibition, held at a beautiful gallery in Trujillo, was opened by artist Carlos Cuadra Mercado and Mayor of Trujillo, who prepared a solemn reception and amazing program for all of us. Carlos Cuadra Mercado is a appointed Director of the ICAA for Peru.

Another exhibition was in Salpo, situated at an altitude of 3500 meters. It is a sanctuary of the the Virgin of Mercy (La Virgen de la Merced), patron of Peru. In Salpo, each artist painted a new picture to give it to this sanctuary and every one tried to make a most beautiful work. All circumstances were inspirational for us to do it. Before we started to paint in front of the church, we had attended the holy mass and had prayed together. At that altitude, among those people with their warmth which we had particularly experienced, all of us had a special feeling. It was blissful experience for all. We had acrylic paints available for our paintings. The artists made wonderful pictures. I painted Jesus head with a thorn crown in black and yellow colors.

The last exhibition was arranged in Lima, at El Parque Reducto n.º 02.”

Jasna Lovrincevic: “The title of Peru International Art Festival ICCA 2018 was Voice of God.
It is extremely challenging and very significant title. You have chosen a biblical theme?”
Ankica Karačić: “I have painted Moses in the momemt when the dear God spoke to him on the Holy Mountain. It is mixed technique, 1.2 m x 1m. Moses is facing viewer, he is concentraited, his eyes are closed and in the background is Holy Mountain. The Words of God, “the place on which you are standing is holy ground” I wrote by a Glagolitic letters. I painted it in black and white, only the Holy Mountain is reddish. It looks mysteriously. That is what I wanted to achieve and have achieved it.

My picture with Moses attracted attention of the people. Glagolitic script, beautiful and decorative old Croatian alphabet, which I had learned before I arrived to Germany, was particularly interesting for the participants of the Festival. They touched the picture by their fingers in order to feel its extraordinary texture and they asked me many questions about the theme and Glagolitic script.”

Jasna Lovrincevic: “The theme Voice Of God is surprising for today world. How did the other participants approach that topic?”
Ankica Karačić: “Artists have done wonderful works, many of them have painted Jesus in a special way. The messages of their art pieces are beautiful. Each artist presented his or her work and talked about it in relation to the Voice of God.”

Ankica Karačić

Jasna Lovrincevic:”You have exhibited you works all over the world. How do you find your life as an artist’s life?”
Ankica Karačić: “That’s a good question. Art creation is fun for me. That profession (proffessional artist) suits me well and I do not consider it as a real work, but I always try to do my work correctly. But the artist’s life is not easy, because your are twenty four hours occupied with that (with the art), and you don’t have any time free of that because I watch the world on the different way. I observe whole world differently. My brain constantly works; what I could use, draw, paint, make… And while I am lying to get some rest, I think about my art; what I’m going to paint, how to do it, how to shape it…?

I always have it in mind, even while I’m prepearing the meal. Also, it is always possible to recognise an artist; they dress differently, they have different way of eating, … It is obvious that those persons are a little bit different. It does not mean that I am positive, but I’m a little bit different.”

Jasna Lovrincevic: “How do you find the other side, more beautiful part of your artistic life, participation to different exhibitions?”
Ankica Karačić: “The most important thing for the artists is when the people recognize their works, their effort and talent. I think it is the most beautiful experience for an artist when his works gain recognition.”

Jasna Lovrincevic: “The art has brougtht you to different parts of the world. What does it mean for you?”
Ankica Karačić: “That is wonderful. I have more opportunities than others to travel and to learn about the world and in the same time to show my works. If you see my exhibition catalogues, you can see who are those exhibitors at the different evenst around the world. You can see their profiles. It is extremely high level.
Meeting the other artists and connecting with them is the greatest treasure for me and the best thing that I as an artist can receive on my travels around the world.”

Jasna Lovrincevic: “When you consider different exhibitions of your art, which one do you remember most vividly?”
Ankica Karačić: “I have exhibited in many countries, but Rome has remained in my heart. There were exceptionally nice exhibitions in South Korea, Peru is also special, but Rome still touches me.”

Ankica Karačić

During the conversation, Ankica Karačić also talked about beautiful nature of Peru and people she had met there. “I am delighted with Peru, and its people with great heart”, she said.

In Peru, she was surfing for the first time and sandboarding in desert dunes. She was especially excited about meetingt the Croats, who live there and about her participation in the church choir during the holy mass in the Croatian language. Her painting, the watercolor depiction of the town of Dubrovnik has remained in the possession of the Croatian Club Dubrovnik in Lima.

She stressed that all exhibitions of her works around the world were connected with profound experiences with people.

Ankica Karačić: “And so beautiful things happen to you that you can never forget it.”

Anton Cetín

“Through my painting I strive to explain to myself the past, the present, and the future, actually the continuity of life”—these are the words of the great Croatian and Canadian artist, Anton Cetín, who to date has exhibited independently throughout the world, participated in a great many significant group exhibitions, with works found in many world museums and galleries, and whose name can be found in several Canadian, American, Croatian and international lexicons. A permanent exhibit of his work can be found on display in Čazma in a gallery bearing his name since 2001.

Cetín’s artistic output is vast and also awe-inspiring. Looking at individual series of his works chronologically and the output in its entirety, the placement of new ideas is fascinating, elaborated as variations of a theme. With the force of all possible artistic elements, the series give the impression of a stream of consciousness, a continuous flow of ideas fraught with dilemmas, questions, revelations, emotions and hope, unquestioningly preoccupied with the transcendental and yearning for the eternal.

The compositions with Eve and the bird, Anton Cetín’s recognizable motifs demonstrate an inexhaustible imagination and tremendous artistic power in portraying subjects in a novel way and always through new expressions, resulting in a host of themes and associations. Through the symbolism associated with her, Eve consistently directs towards life and, in various forms, to life’s abundance and diversity, to its fragile quality, its continuity and eternalness.

The series with wheat fields are especially noteworthy and can be viewed as interesting depictions of the Canadian landscape, but also as the development and exuberance of life and personal interaction. (Wheat Fields A8, 1981.)

I was greatly honoured and pleased when in January 2016, Anton Cetín sent a short e-mail agreeing to an interview. I am particularly grateful to Mr. Cetín for taking the time whilst preparing for five exhibitions planned for September 2016 in Croatia, as I learned at the end of our conversation. The exhibitions in question will be held in galleries and museums of the native Croatian areas closest to him—Čazma, Bjelovar, Kutina, Petrinja, and then Zagreb. Because of his sense of belonging and kinship with his native land, on the occasion of the artist’s 80th birthday, all the exhibited works will be gifted to the galleries and museums of the cities mentioned, as well as to the National University Library in Zagreb.

Jasna Lovrinčević: “Your works of art, their presentations and reception throughout the world are immense and admirable, as is your life’s path which took you from Bojana in your early childhood, through Zagreb to Paris, Toronto and through your works to the rest of the world. Could you tell us something about your beginnings in art, when did you actually start painting, or rather drawing? When was it that you recognized the painter or artist in yourself?”

Anton Cetín: “I started to draw quite early in my life, when I was five or six years old, and to paint a little later. When I reflect on what has transpired in my life between then and now, including my involvement with art, I become more convinced that there was a certain guiding force or protector standing behind certain events, perhaps one could even call it a higher force. Already quite early in my childhood I faced and lived through many horrors of the Second World War. But even in those times there were positive moments. All that, I believe, shaped not only my view of the world, but also my involvement in art. Because it was risky and dangerous during the time of war to leave the house, my curiosity and tireless star-gazing and contemplation about what was actually happening in that endlessly mysterious space or universe, was only possible to do at night, through the window.

By the end of the war in 1945, I was nine years old and I had an unbelievably wondrous dream in which I saw unusual architectural forms and even stranger flying objects which to me were unbelievable until then, and I heard a voice say such objects would be built in the near future not only on the earth but also beyond it, in space. From this dream later emerged the series of paintings Spaceships and Space Architecture.

Anton Cetín: Ominous Birds 1965

The period from 1954-1964 I attended the School of Applied Arts followed by the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb. The professors at these two educational institutes, mostly well-known Croatian artists, guided us with their artistic experience and knowledge, in learning and perfecting the techniques of drawing and painting, and introduced us to the secrets of the art profession. After graduation, confident in our academic grounding, we set out courageously in pursuit of our artistic goals and dreams. The path, however, was not as smooth as we had imagined in that we did not expect the thornier side of the calling. In the end our creations will be the only indicators of our success.

At the beginning of the 1960s in the last century, the fear of the atomic bomb made the situation in the world extremely precarious and the ominous threats of apocalyptic proportions hung over our heads. We feared not only for our own survival, but also for the unpredictability of our future. As a reaction to all of that my drawings entitled Ominous Birds emerged in 1965.”

Paris – Genesis of Eve

Jasna Lovrinčević: “From 1966-1968 you lived in Paris and created a significant body of work, some 250 pieces. This represents an extraordinary burst of creativity. What was the main stimulus behind that intense drive? In 2008 at the Mimara Museum in Zagreb you exhibited 100 of your Paris works and you said that you “often looked at those works while in the intimate confines of my atelier as dear mementos, long-harboured in the heart…” What exactly do these works mean to you? Had you already been to Paris prior to that? I would like to ask you to say something more about that particular period which is said to be an important passage in the development of your art when you introduced Eve into your paintings.”

Anton Cetín: “My first trip abroad was in 1964 as part of an excursion with a group of Zagreb Academy students to Paris. My second trip to Paris, this time with the intention of staying, came about at the beginning of 1966. However, in order to be able to stay and live there one had to find work. It was impossible to live from one’s art, especially for those newly arrived and unknown. I brought with me ten selected illustrations from among one hundred that I made for the publication From the Pedestrian to the Rocket at the Mladost publishing house in Zagreb, and I showed these to Mr. Tamagno, director of the illustration section at Larousse in Paris.
Enthused with the quality of the illustrations, he kindly directed me to one of the five best-known illustrators in Paris and their immediate associate, J. M. Rabec, who immediately offered me a job. Along other design work, I also worked on illustrations for the Larousse publication Planètes & Satelites. With this I resolved the question of living and staying in France.
My two years in Paris were indeed intensive and productive. Besides working and learning the language, I devoted all my free time to art. Finding myself in a new, different and freer environment with a less tense international atmosphere, my art experienced a major transformation. Unexpectedly the sun, clarity and hope in a better tomorrow appeared in my new works and opened up new creative possibilities for me. In 1966-1967 my Phantoms emerged, successors of the Zagreb Ominous Birds, slowly freeing themselves from the burdens of the recent past, resolutely leading towards a more positive and brighter future.

Anton Cetín: Maternity

It was here that my Eve was born in 1967. From her very beginnings, through different civilizations and cultures in history, Eve was surrounded by mystery, transformations and adoration, which has not changed to this day despite our modern, what we like to call, enlightenment. She represents femininity, the giver of life, the spirit of peace and harmony, the icon of creative sanctity-in short, she is a spiritual being. In my works she often takes on a heart-like shape, and the heart is the centre of life, determination and prudence, intelligence and wisdom, a symbol of earthly and divine love, and as such Eve is an inspiration and the moving force which guides my creative energy towards the creation of what for me is a new world, a world of the vision of my art. I consider the oil on canvas painting, Maternity, to be one of the first works with the image of Eve, which continued to be present in countless variations later in Canada. My Paris works, sketches, drawings, gouaches, collages, paintings and lithographs, which I created in my nineteen months there, were indeed extensive. They were the result of a truly creative drive.”

The First Independent Exhibition

Jasna Lovrinčević: “You held an exhibition in Paris, which, I imagine, was not an easy thing to do. It would be interesting to learn about the circumstances that led to it.”

Anton Cetín: “On a beautiful spring day in 1967 as I was walking through Montparnasse I found myself in front of the Atelier Edouard Noël. I walked in and met the owner, the charming Mr. Noël. After introductions and a conversation, he offered me workspace in his atelier under very favourable conditions, which I could not turn down. Whenever I had free time I would go to the studio and already by autumn I completed several coloured lithographs which impressed him. To my great surprise not only did he offer me an exhibition, but also offered me to move to his castle outside of Paris with ample space to live and work, under his sponsorship. I accepted his offer of an exhibition, but because I had already made plans to leave Paris, I declined the other offers. Thus, at the beginning of February 1968 I had my very first one-man show of some of the works I had created in Paris at the Atelier Edouard Noël.

Even though with time the number of my Paris works in my possession had become smaller, due to a planned exhibit in Croatia I was still able to select 100 works which in my opinion, were the most characteristic of that period. The exhibit, entitled 100 Parisian Works was displayed in 2006, 2007 and 2008 and traveled to museums and galleries in eleven Croatian cities: Čazma, Kutina, Koprivnica, Križevci, Bjelovar, Vinkovci, Našice, Slatina, Virovitica, Zagreb, and Split.”

Canada – A Time of Intensive Creativity

Jasna Lovrinčević: “From Paris you moved to Canada. What impact did the new milieu in Toronto have on your artistic inspiration?”

Anton Cetín: “On arriving in Canada, specifically to Toronto, and becoming acquainted with new surroundings completely different from what I left behind in Paris, I endeavoured to devote all my free time to painting and print-making. New themes emerged through intensive and dedicated work, such as the series of paintings entitled Lovers, the series Search for the Beyond and Reflections on Infinity. In the series Lovers the embracing figures on the canvas represent not only a sense of freedom of motion in space, but also a belief in the capacity of the human mind to extend its limitless imagination beyond the confines of this Earth.

Anton Cetín: Reflection on Infinity II 1971

The series Search for the Beyond is essentially a continuation of the series Lovers—the concept was the same in the creative and technical sense, only now the lovers are joined by flying crafts—spaceships—by virtue of whose presence the boundaries of space are appreciably extended, giving the paintings a new dimension, opening up limitless possibilities of its further exploration. In the series Reflections on Infinity the use of a specific technical approach in resolving the paintings’ structure— especially on the surface of the paper—brought about complex, almost surrealistic planes and depths within a new and different space. Within that space are images of windows made with emphatic, sharp lines—closed, half-closed or completely opened—and inside the windows there are depictions of the Earth or some other planet, and in some instances the figure of Eve is included. The windows appear as portals suggesting some other place—another dimension—which together reveal not only the idea of infinity and its expansion in all directions, but also an attempt to present that reality as a rational organization of geometrical figures.”

Confidence in His Own Creativity

Jasna Lovrinčević: “Following Paris, after less than a year in Canada, you held an exhibition in 1969. This was followed by exhibitions in 1971, 1973, and already in 1974 you exhibited in Japan, Belgium then again in Canada followed by practically the rest of the world… This is a fascinating turn of events. Were you personally at all the openings? How difficult was it to organize so many exhibitions? I invite you to say more about this, because very few artists experience this.”

Anton Cetín: “Indeed, I started to exhibit my works after only one year of arriving to Canada. The exhibitions in Canada led to opportunities to exhibit abroad. With the help of people I met and worked with during my exhibits, it became increasingly easier to organize new shows. Since exhibitions often took place in more than one country at the same time, I was unable to be present at all the openings, but I made a point of personally attending the bigger and more important shows. Of course, this was only possible because of my persistence and dedication, an immense will and above all because of my belief in myself and in my art.”

Artistic Transformation

Jasna Lovrinčević: “You once spoke of a car accident in 1972 and how that made you realize, in a sense, the purpose of your life. Could you please tell us something about that? You also declared that after the accident you discovered a desire to fight against everything negative in the world. In what way did you do that? Today the negative is not accepted as negative and the good is not considered good; what do you actually see as good in this seemingly relative approach?”

Anton Cetín: “The car accident was an extremely critical experience. In an instant I found myself in a sort of tunnel filled with indescribable whiteness, and with dizzying speed all the moments of my life passed by in a few seconds. And then suddenly everything stopped, disappeared. I woke up a few hours later in a hospital with a doctor standing by my bedside telling me I was incredibly lucky to be alive. I felt I had been reborn and along with that I experienced a new, more positive understanding of the value of life and its spiritual side, all of which caused a great transformation in my art. After a recovery that lasted an entire year, I returned to a painting I had started before the accident and infused it with the change that I had experienced and when completed I called it Rebirth. The same happened with the painting Existence – Continuation. My declaration that I fight against everything negative with the positive emanates from the experience of that accident. I think the suggestion that today the negative is not perceived as negative and that the good is no longer accepted as good is a generalization I do not have an answer for.

Anton Cetín: Celebration of the Universe 1975

The series Eve and the Moon from 1974-1975, consisting of several tens of drawings and collages, shows two figures from the mythology of love—Eve and the moon—in their long and complex history of iconography interwoven with Eve’s constant and unpredictable transformations. In these drawings and collages I attempted to gather the richness of imagery, colour and materials which could assist in the realization of new ideas in new series or particular themes. Thus from that series there emerged a large format painting, 183 x 549 cm, a triptych titled Celebration of the Universe, followed by other paintings, also in large format; the triptych Three Graces, the triptych Invitation, Eve in Red with her spiritual symbol, and many others.”

Landscapes Around Calgary

Jasna Lovrinčević: “The paintings in the Wheat Fields series from the1980s are presented in the form of endless lines in concentrated circles, but one field under the title Contoured Field II creates the impression of a labyrinth. Am I seeing it correctly? Do the wheat fields open up the question of preordination and freedom, because in the painting Wheat Field A8 from 1981 one gets the impression that the endless line is being drawn by someone from above?”

Anton Cetín: “The series Prairies came about after a flight to Calgary in 1980 that left a strong impression on me. From the airplane at some 10,000 metres, the sight of wheat fields, arable land, uncultivated surfaces and the lakes fascinated me and I could not resist recording this with some sketches in pencil and in photographs, sensing the start of a new series, a series of a vision from a completely different environment. It was truly impressive to view those immense surfaces from that vantage point, so reduced from that height yet with clearly defined forms, structures, and colours which they filled. The core idea behind the paintings in this series aims, in part, to artistically portray the structures that emerge from the cultivation of land as well as at the depiction of the impact of the experience in relation to space and perspective.

The lines moving in a concentric circle and in other patterns of the wheat fields are actually lines that the combines leave behind when harvesting the fields, which viewed from that height create the impression of a labyrinth. In less than two years, from 1980-1981, I created a good number of drawings, collages, paintings and prints. Periodically from 1981 onwards the theme resurfaces and remains alive. Thus, for example in 2015 when I created a new series of works titled Inspirations of the Fields, the image of Eve is visibly connected to them.

Anton Cetín: Contoured Field II 1981

The year 1981 was an exceptionally important and productive one for my work. For the first time a fully developed figure of Eve appeared in a profile followed by the series Eve and the Flower-bird; a combination of Eve, the bird and the flower. At the opening of my exhibition at the National and University Library in Zagreb in 1988 among other things, Tomislav Ladan said: “The mystical and vibrant trinity of woman-bird-flower embodies irrefutable traditional roots of the spirituality of the feminine combined with the cult of the life-bearing woman and the spirit symbolized by the bird, together with the flower representing love and nature itself.” From this interconnectedness emerged a large painting in 1983, Eve and the Flower-bird in Blue, followed by paintings of various sizes: Ecstasy, With Yellow Flower-bird, With Green Hair, Mystery, and others.”

Contemplation About the World Beyond

Jasna Lovrinčević: “You made a very interesting statement once saying that you feel you are living not only here on this earth but also in some other place and that is why your figures find themselves in a particular space or there is a window into some other dimension. The painting titled Motion in Space VIII (2000) or the diptych Eve, Then and Now (1993), the painting Play in Blue (1992), as well as the series of paintings called Rainbow (2012) with a blue-coloured background suggest a total immersion into blue space. Is the blue space in these paintings related to the space that you sense?”

Anton Cetín: Contemplation Upon the World Beyond III

Anton Cetín: “Given that we all live on this Earth and that daily we look into that limitless and mysterious space or universe and contemplate everything that is happening there, my personal thoughts on this are based on events from my childhood as well as later ones which I already mentioned, as an attempt to realize everything that I had experienced, including things of a transcendental nature. From this I came to the realization that, looking from earth, I am personally, and with that my art, a part of that universe and within it a part of some other space. It is because of this that I feel as if I am living also in that other place. From 1987 to 2000 a great number of works emerged: paintings, pastels, drawings, collages, prints in various techniques on themes tied to the ones from the 1970s on contemplations about infinity, the otherworldly and the unknown world, including Journey to the Unknown, Play in Blue, Eve, Then and Now, Eye into Infinity I, II, III, Rapture, Contemplation upon the World Beyond I, II, III, and others.”

Expression of Colours

Jasna Lovrinčević: “Looking at your works that were created in Canada with their pronounced colours which create a strong impression and generate an atmosphere which affects the viewer—in the monograph Anton Cetín Branka Hlevnjak states that “These colours, according to the artist, are chosen for a reason”—one immediately thinks of Goethe, Mondrian, Kandinsky, Rudolph Steiner… Once again the question about the choice of colours comes up: was this a conscious choice based on a familiarity with the theoretical texts of the mentioned authors, or is the selection a subconscious one guided by your artistic intuition?”

Anton Cetín: Universe 47 (2002)

Anton Cetín: “At the beginning of 2001 I started to work on a new series of paintings on canvas using mixed media that was yet to be titled, a series that already carried signs of the troubles of that time. On September 11, after the dreadful event of airplanes crashing into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York, and while the fire was still burning and the smoke still smoldering, I went to my studio with the intention of transferring some of that onto canvas. However, impacted by what I had seen and experienced and overwhelmed by emotion, I was unable to do anything. And then suddenly, to my surprise, the title Universe Disturbed appeared. Since I always considered myself to be an advocate of humanity and spirituality, I felt an irrepressible need to immerse myself in this extremely challenging series based on that horrifying event to draw attention to the inhumanity that surrounds us and to alert us to the increasingly aggressive intent to limit, if not destroy, our humanity and spirituality. In the works from this series the external objects, mainly of triangular shape, are directed at Eve who by retreating into her own world is trying to protect herself from those threats. The colours, particularly the combination of black, red and green within those extraneous objects, were chosen because they best convey their aggression. After close to three years of intensive work, the Universe Disturbed refused to be reconciled with my bringing it to an end, persistently wanting to return, because clearly the universe was still ‘disturbed’.

Anton Cetín: Revival III 2003

Immediately after the completion of paintings on that distressing theme, Universe Disturbed, in 2003 a new series emerged, titled Revival, which was described by Ivanka Reberski in a catalogue for an exhibition marking the tenth anniversary of the Gallery Anton Cetín in Čazma (2001-2011) as follows: “Once again light flooded into Cetín’s world. From the bright circle of the sun, which now prevails, flows a great source of energy. From this field of energy positive impulses unfold, while on the sensitive face of the faithful ‘Eve’ a feeling of infinite yearning and hope radiates, for without hope we would no longer be able to believe in a better world. This positive charge continues in the paintings called Revival I and Revival II from 2003. As though with a thin vertical line, Cetín divided the world in these paintings into the present and the past or the future, into good and evil, into light and darkness, with which he confronted us directly by depicting a shining circle of the sun on a dark blue background which can be associated with the night, the sea, the sky, the distance, the depth. Everything remains open to our powers of association and left to the free imagination. It is in precisely this that the uniqueness of Cetín’s artistic rhetoric rests.”

The Rainbow as a Sign of the Almighty

Jasna Lovrinčević: “From 2008 a new series of paintings appeared titled Rainbow. What do the colours of the rainbow, the rainbow itself, mean to you?”

Anton Cetín: “The series of paintings Rainbow came after observing that natural phenomenon and thinking about it as a spectacle of beauty in all its colours, which are also mentioned in the Bible. It is believed that the rainbow is a sign of the Almighty. It is also mentioned in the story about Noah when after the flood, God appears and in the sky a beautiful rainbow emerges signifying his glory and power.”

Jasna Lovrinčević: “The painting Rainbow 35 from 2012, without Eve, depicts a modified cone filled with the colours of a rainbow floating in infinity, but divided into three shades of blue, giving the impression of a culmination of a sequence of reflections or a spiritual quest that can be followed throughout your works, but also in the manner of your artistic exploration which too is traceable over time. Looking at this painting in its array of creativity, one hears almost a triumphant music, a grand finale (this is my personal experience) or perhaps indifference. Does this painting perhaps represent the end of artistic creativity in the absence of Eve, your “creative force”, does she represent the realization of longevity in art or is it a culmination of a certain realization? The Rainbow series from 2008 and 2009 remind me personally of Jakob Böhme and his Philosophical Sphere or Eye of Eternity. Can such a parallel be drawn? On the other hand, you said in a video recorded at the time of your Wheat Fields that through your paintings you are attempting to explain the past to yourself, the present and the future—the continuity of life. Can the series Rainbow also be understood in that context?”

Anton Cetín: Series Rainbow 35 ( 2012)

Anton Cetín: “In the series of paintings from 2008 and 2009, as well as in 2012, in addition to resolving the issues of harmony and balance of the colours of the rainbow with the image of Eve, we encounter not only certain artistic explorations but also the positioning of other elements in relation to her image in the context of the overall composition. There are contemplations and searches for the esthetic as well as for spiritual values. In order to achieve especially the latter quality, the blue colour is of special importance. As already mentioned, through my paintings I am trying to explain to myself the past, the present and the future; the continuity of life actually, and the series of these paintings can be understood in that context as well.

The thought that the series Rainbow remind you personally of Jakob Boehme’s Philosophical Sphere or Eye of Eternity through which he expresses his vision and understanding of the harmony of the universe and the gift of a specific calling from God is flattering. The very fact that we are dealing with a gap of four hundred years, the very thought of making such a connection with the name of Jakob Böhme could be interpreted as overly aspiring. I therefore leave it to you to draw the suggested parallel.

The series Rainbow without Eve is an attempt to create something new in my work—to create a visual sense of the sound of music. When I paint I almost always have music playing in the background, mostly classical music, and I see that as an important component of my creativity. That is why I think your suggestion that one can hear triumphant music, a grand finale, when viewing this painting is not only not surprising, but is also flattering, if I may say so, because it confirms what I intended to portray. Regarding the question of whether this painting represents perhaps the end of my artistic creativity, especially in the absence of Eve—my “creative force”—I would say that many other of my works also contain no image of Eve, but this does not mean, however, that she is not present in spirit.”

Jasna Lovrinčević: “The images or symbols that regularly appear in your paintings; the figure of Eve, the heart, the bird, the flower, the rainbow, are in a sense, recognizable features of your works. Did these symbols emerge intentionally, consciously, or as an inner need to express something that is not apparent from their conventional meaning, and which, as you say, every viewer of your painting creates his or her own interpretation?”

Anton Cetín: “Many of the images that I use, symbols actually (the image of Eve, the heart, the bird, the flower, the colours of the rainbow—the rainbow itself) came about intentionally, though admittedly there are also nuances that came about as a result of an inner need to convey something beyond what these symbols conventionally represent; and to be sure, as you say, every viewer of my paintings or paintings of other artists, creates his or her own interpretation in some world of their own.

In 1978 a Canadian art critic and historian, Gordon McLennan, stated the following in a review of my art for the journal artmagazine37: “For Cetín art civilizes and humanizes. The artist deals with spiritual truth. He creates because he has no alternative”.”

Translation from Croatian: PH.D Vladimir Bubrin

Gabrijela Iva Polic (Photograph: Jacqui Turk)

In the Land of Wonderfuls is the title of a solo exhibition of works by academic painter Gabrijela Iva Polic

opened on 3rd December 2015 in Huges Gallery in Sydney, in Australia, whose opening attracted many visitors. Gabrijela Iva Polic presented sixteen works created in the last eight months, reflecting her research into the nature of human relationships. Exploring different connections in nature and among man-made objects, she shows the magical world of colourful ” Land of Wonderfuls “.

Shortly after the opening of Polic’s exhibition in the interview I conducted with her, she said:
Gabrijela Iva Polic: “Most of my paintings are of natural scenes which depict what I like to think of as ‘characters’ that are having some sort of dialogue which each other. One thing always grows from another which is leaning on something else that drips down and waters another thing giving it life and letting it grow. I don’t like to draw or paint things are how they are. I invent my own species of things. I suppose that is how the work can seem somewhat fantastical. The paintings are all about the connections within them. Everything needs to be connected in some way and play a part in the whole, both in the sense of the image and the conceptual idea. Conceptually its all the parts and all the people that make up who you are. Because in a sense I think I am made up of many of those who have played some part in my life. My work explores that.”

Gabrijela Iva Polic:The games and tricks the two friends played

Gabrijela Iva Polic, after graduating from the University of New South Wales’ College of Fine Arts in 2013, she exhibited her paintings in Sydney in 2014, presenting scenes in nature as a metaphor for loving relationships in human that help them grow. For this year’s solo exhibition she prepared pictures which gravitate towards the man made world with elements like machinery.

Jasna Lovrinčević: “Have you anything essential change in your artistic concept
since last year’s exhibition?”
Gabrijela Iva Polic: “The work has definitely developed since I exhibited back in 2014. For the last couple of years it has been relatively simple in composition. Now, the compositions have become more complex, and I’ve added more elements to the pictures than ever before. Another interesting point is that previously my work only comprised a sort o ‘landscape’ theme. Now it also reflects on the built environment by referencing working machines along with man made objects such as jewellery pieces, necklaces & earrings to be specific. This also shows the move away from pictures containing only natural scenes. I’ve slowly starting gravitating to the man made world with elements like machinery.”

Gabrijela Iva Polic: The machine that ran on wonderfuls

My concern is only with the good

Gabrijela Iva Polic: “The work is a reflection of the immaterial nature of the human bond. My earlier work showed this by exploring the workings of symbiotic relationships in nature. And so now it was important to start referencing man made objects in the work, machines because they are constructed specifically to make things work. A machine can be like the network of beautiful human relationships. Some people may say yes, but machines can break just like a bond. But that is not my concern, my concern is only with the good.”

Gabrijela Iva Polic (Photographer: Jacqui Turk)

Jasna Lovrinčević: ” What was your leading idea prepearing your exhibition?”
Gabrijela Iva Polic:”The leading idea was to continue with the same concept I have been concerned with for the past few years – the nature of the human bond. However, along with that, the work is much more playful and fun. In both the compositional structures and colours used. My aim was to bring an element of joy into the work.”

Speakng about nature of human relationships Gabrijela Iva Polic emphasized: ” I can’t speak for anyone but me. I’m just exploring my own world, mainly the bond I myself have with loved ones. Those I hold dear are my muses.”

Luis Alberto Lovrincevich

Luis Alberto Lovrincevich, an Argentinian artist from La Rioja and descendant of Croatian emigrants, has shown his sculptures for the first time.

He is known for his own technique “urdiraña” in which he pulls the thread (“urdi”) creating unique works of unrepeatable beauty with fantastic virtuosity like a spider (“raña”).

Until now he has been creating works that one can view and perceive as an image. Now his artistic expression is realized spatially, in the form of sculptures, achieving the visual effect of movement in space and time.

Luis Alberto Lovrincevich

Speaking of his sculpture, Luis Alberto Lovrincevich said:

Luis Albert Lovrincevich: “In my sculpture the fourth dimension is integrated. In addition to the height, width and volume, there is a visual impression of movement created and by this also time, the movement through time. ”

The sculptures of Luis Alberto Lovrincevich, similar to his “images”, truly exude a fascinating combination and harmony of colors which attract views and draw attention of observers.

Exhibition of Marijan Dadić and Valentina Kvesić (Photo: J.Lovrinčević)

In the light-filled space of the Mittelrhein-Museum, in the Forum Confluentes, in Koblenz abstract paintings by Valentina Kvesić and paintings of strong expressions by Marijan Dadić have created an atmosphere that encourages life plunging into its depths; the magical colours of poetic compositions in the paintings by Valentina Kvesic, and paintings by Marijan Dadić from his cycle “Music and dance”, the image of St. Francis as well as picture with reminiscences of landscapes from his homeland.

Members of CCA Koblenz (Photo: J. Lovrinčević)

 Exhibition Opening

The exhibition, opened from 18th to 25th of April 2015, was organized by the Croatian Cultural Association Koblenz on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of its establishment. The exhibition was opened by Mr Josip Spoljarić, Consul General of Consulate General of the Republic of Croatia in Frankfurt am Main. Previously, the young musician Tihana Lovrinčević had performed her own composition “The Dawn” on the guitar accompanied by the guitarist Dragan Lovrinčević. The dynamics and the rhythm of this programme music piece expresses the birth of the day with playful tones presenting the domination of light. It was a nice introduction with the music crescendo to a wide range of impressions and reflections evoked by each art painting in the exhibition.

Mr Josip Špoljarić, Consul General RC in Frankfurt am Main (Photo: J. Lovrinčević)

Exhibition opening (Photo: Peter Wayand)

Tihana Lovrinčević (Photo: Peter Wayand)

Valentina Kvesić

V.Kvesić (Photo: J.Lovrinčević)

Valentina Kvesić was born in Split in Croatia. She has completed studies of pedagogy and psychoanalysis at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main in Germany. At the exhibition she presented twenty-five paintings including some artworks from her cycle “Cosmos” exposed for the first time. While making art Valentina Kvesić is continuously surrendering to the particular moment and letting her intuition guide her. The viewers’ unlimited imagination is evoked by the outlines, forms and colors in her paintings, especially in her recent works, with intense, flaming colors. Only complex titles of Valentina’ s works may represent or indicate a bridge between her two worlds, the business one and her art world. Actually, she is a human resource manager at an international company. Whether her two worlds unite or diverge in the infinity of “cosmos”, displayed in the series of her paintings with the same name (Cosmos), a subject to which Valentina always returns, it remains unknown.

Valentina Kvesić “Kosmos”

V.Kvesić “If You Can Dream It, You Can Do It”

V. Kvesić (Photo: J.Lovrinčević)

Marijan Dadić

M.Dadić (Foto: J.Lovrinčević)

The painter Marijan Dadić was born in Tramošnica in Bosnia and Herzegovina. After completing his studies in theology and philosophy in Sarajevo he finished Malakademie for painting and graphics in Cologne. For this exhibition he chose seventeen pictures. His paintings, devoid of details with strong, intense colors and accentuated brushstrokes, fantastically reveal the atmosphere, the emotion or the movement as it is in the painting “On the Sea”. The unity of music and emotions of musicians is expressive potrayed in the artwork “Soundbody”. The final ballet scene in “Die Vollendung” as well as the two resting reapers with a wheat field in the background in “The Talk” are a powerful representation of the atmosphere as well as the meditative atmosphere in the painting “St. Francis”.

M.Dadić “The Talk”

M. Dadić “On the Sea”

M.Dadić “St. Francis”

Croatian Cultural Association Koblenz

This exhibition of Croatian artists living in Germany is an addition to the varied activities organized by the Croatian Cultural Association Koblenz (CCA). Since its establishment, it has been organizing cultural events for its members and guests monthly, including lectures, various projections or celebrations with a literary musical program, excursions and trips. The Croatian Cultural Association Koblenz has organized the performance of the Theater “New Life” from Zagreb as well as a number of musical and theatrical presentations of its honorary member Peter Wayand. Former Presidents of the Croatian Cultural Association Koblenz were: Ljerka Vivoda, Ivona Dončević, Rajko Radišić, Viktor Sinčić, Franjo Kolobara. The current president Mrs Suzana Petrović was one of the initiator of the Association establishment. She took part in preparing the brochure published on the occasion of the tenth and the twentieth anniversary of the CCA Koblenz. In the last brochure she wrote an article about the Croatian poet Malkica Dugeč, with reference to her life and work.

Suzana Petrović (right) with guests (Photo: J. Lovrinčević)

(Photo: Peter Wayand)

Valentina Kvesić

Inspiration and the process of creation differs from one artist to another. While she is painting Valentina Kvesić is led by her feelings and intuition which makes her distinct and interesting. Her art is an expression of her instant feelings what results in an individual and unique style. These are flashes and overflows of everything the artist carries in herself what leads the brush in her hand over the canvas. Through this approach she creates artworks of irresistible attractiveness: a symphony of colors, tint and shades, incredible forms and amazing structures.

Broken Clouds

In the interview I conducted with Valentina Kvesić in October 2014, she said that the most important part of creating art is the process, in which she gives herself up to her feelings and intuition.

Valentina Kvesić: “When I start to paint I give myself up to my feelings and intuition. I admire to paint with the colors that inspire me at a specific moment, to let the painting develop itself, to let my feelings guide me and I admire the process of painting evolving the way the material requires it or the image itself. The process itself is for me most important. Before I begin to paint I have an initial idea, but rarely a specific motif. While I paint I allow the initial idea to change, sometimes I even reverse the top of the canvas to the bottom and I continue to paint from that point. At the end I title the painting when the image is almost finished or already finished.”

Another interesting fact is related to Valentina’s process of painting; she often paints simultaneously more artworks.

Wild kitchen

Valentina Kvesić: “I always paint more canvases simultaneously. While I am painting one canvas, I let the other one to dry and in this way I distance myself momentary from the painting. Later I perceive and observe the image in a different light and thus I get new inspiration what I eventually like to add. ”

Valentina Kvesić’s first major solo exhibition was in 2001 in “Bürgerhaus” in Dietzenbach. Since then, her style of painting has changed.

Valentina Kvesić: “Back then my art was not as abstract as it is today.”

Asked whether it was a conscious decision to change the style, Valentina Kvesić replied:
“No, that was not my goal. My style developed spontaneously, it has not happened consciously. I want to paint intuitively and emotionally. I like abstract art because anyone can interpret something else depending on the observer. When visitors of my art exhibitions look at the titles of the paintings, they often start very interesting conversations, especially if they do not associate the titles with the images. These titles are only an option which shows how I see the paintings, what I associated with them, and I do not expect someone to see the same and to accept these titles. For this reason I like abstract art because it offers the viewer the possibility of thinking and fantasising.”

Spirits that I have summoned

The story of a traveler

Undercover

For her paintings Valentina Kvesić has chosen acrylic, a material that allows her to experiment.
Valentina Kvesić: “I like to experiment. While I am painting I get an idea what I should do, what I could try out, for example, to stick something and to unglue it or to use some new materials with which I accomplish a new structure or a special effect. With acrylics it is possible to correct or paint over an image so that it allows experimentation. I gladly accept new painting appearances, I simply let the image be as it should be at a particular moment. I have an initial idea, but I don’t have a certain goal, when I begin to paint, I let it proceed and evolve … ”

Through experimentation Valentina Kvesić has developed a new, original technique which she is applying on a series of paintings called “Cosmos”. All images of  “Cosmos” are painted on canvases of the same size, measuring 24 x 30 cm. She has emphasized her wish to expose once hundred paintings of this cycle in order to achieve the impression of one whole image.

Kosmos (1)

Kosmos (3)

Kosmos (2)

When asked how much time she needs to finish a painting, Valentina Kvesić replied:
Valentina Kvesić: “It varies. Some paintings I make spontaneously in a few hours, but sometimes it takes up to six months to finish them, of course it also depends on the canvas size. When the size is narrow, it is harder for me to work, and large sizes give me more freedom and it is easier to work. I would like the sizes of my paintings to be even bigger, but I choose that size to make the trasportation to the exhibition easier.”

Fire splendor

Colors as inspiration

The colors are a great inspiration for Valentina.
Valentina Kvesić: “Colors are essential to me, they are my inspiration. The colors in my paintings either contrast or harmonize.”

Just as colors and their stunning combinations emerge in Valentina’s art, in her dressing and in the design of her living space, they probably reflect Valentina’s range of interest in different things, too. She likes many different things, and she is optimistic, an always smiling person who loves languages, sports, jokes, and above all to combine colors.

She came from Split to Germany in the 90s when she was ten years old, so that I was wondering whether the strong colors in her paintings are connected to Split where strong colors equally dominate the landscape: blue sea and sky, green Marjan and reflections of the sun.
Valentina Kvesić: “Yes, maybe this remained within me. I love Split and everything related to it…”

Autumn

Melting process

From a life of a dog

Valentina Kvesić has finished the study of pedagogy and psychoanalysis at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main. She is employed in an international company with frequent journeys so that she paints only in her free time.

Valentina Kvesić: “A few months before the exhibition I already start with preparations. I usually have the time for painting when I “catch” it or on weekends, I often paint also during a pre-planned time. Since my existence does not depend on my art, I can devote time to my artistic work when there is an impulse and, of course, free time. ”

Since she was ten years old Valentina Kvesić has attended various drawing and painting courses, starting from children courses for beginners to professional ones (among others in the famous school of art Städel in Frankfurt am Main). She has attended courses of the German painter Helmuth Jahn. Although Valentina’s style is quite different from his, Ms Kvesić says that he probably helped her accepting a completely abstract painting.

Valentina Kvesić: “I have developed my own style and I continue to nurture it, I organize my exhibitions, I identify with what I am doing and I believe that my paintings are liked by others too.”

(Dis) balance between light and heavy, will and power, rights and duties

Jasna Lovrinčević: “Do you bind yourself to your paintings?”
Valentina Kvesić: “To some of them more, to some less. My first painting in acrylic I have kept to myself. Emotionally I relate to each of my paintings, because I have left a part of myself in them, and perhaps a bit of my soul. Well, I am glad when others like my paintings and want to have them. ”

Jasna Lovrinčević: “Do you remember your paintings?”
Valentina Kvesić: “Yes, each of them.”

Till now Valentina Kvesić has had 32 solo and group exhibitions in fourteen cities in Germany, and she is preparing an exhibition in Singapore next year.