Janez Bernik, Note 67, 1967, colour etching; recipient of the Grand Prix, 8th International Exhibition of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana, 1969.
The exhibition included twenty-six colour etchings made between 1962 and 1971. Bernik brought radically new insights to Slovenian graphic art. His prints are distinctly autonomous, fine-art objects speaking from and about themselves. All until 1972, Bernik zealously experimented in the techniques of etching and aquatint. His development took place in cycles with rounded content adapted to the possibilities of graphic expression. The Magma and Stacks of Soil cycles are characterised by the conveyance of structure and texture, while Notes are characterised by graphisms. With the period of “objects” at the end of the 1960s, he came close to New Figuration. The exhibition presented his colour aquatints form all the mentioned periods with an emphasis on the works he created in the last two years.