The Most Beautiful Prints. Slovene Graphic Art of the Past 50 Years; Nuša in Srečo Dragan, From East to East (1978) (front); Dušan Pirih Hup, Leftkoşa (1992) (behind, from left); Boris Jesih, Window (1976); Metka Krašovec, Pie de la Cuesta (1988) and Yantra Landscape (1980); Lojze Logar, Figure BMC 1 (1969), 26th Biennial of Graphic Arts Ljubljana, 2005, installation view of the accompanying exhibition at MGLC.
Photo: Tomaž Lunder. MGLC Archive.
This exhibition offers a selection of the “most beautiful” or, perhaps, most characteristic examples of Slovene graphic art created between the years of 1955 and 2005, that is, from the time of the first International Biennial of Graphic Arts in Ljubljana to the 26th Biennial of Graphic Arts. The exhibition’s anthological selection of representative prints presented both classical graphic art, as a pure discourse and medium in accord with the principles of modernism, as well as works that illustrate a revised and expanded notion of graphic art characterized by the hybrid discourse and media-based approach of postmodernism. The central current of Slovene graphic art with the leading figures of the Ljubljana school of graphic arts and individual prints by certain artists that fall into what is referred to as dark modernism were represented. The exhibition drew attention to the early changes in the period of expressive figurative art as well as neo-constructivism and the influence of the use of computer technology and ideas relating to conceptual art. It pointed to later shifts in the perception of graphic art in Slovenia that can be attributed to the originators of photorealism and minimalism, the postmodern “new image”, the concept of the retro-avant-garde and the revival of classical printmaking processes. It also drew attention to the total pluralistic obscurity of the pictorial language typical of the 1990s and the post-2000 period.
Artists:
Janez Bernik, Viktor Bernik, Bogdan Borčič, Riko Debenjak, Nuša and Srečo Dragan, Bojan Gorenc, Drago Hrvacki, Zdenko Huzjan, Irwin, Božidar Jakac, Danilo Jejčič, Andrej Jemec, Zmago Jeraj, Boris Jesih, Bogoslav Kalaš, Janez Knez, Metka Krašovec, Sonja Lamut, Lojze Logar, Vladimir Makuc, Adriana Maraž, Živko Marušič, France Mihelič, Zoran Mušič, Valentin Oman, Dušan Pirih Hup, Marjan Pogačnik, Marij Pregelj, Jože Slak, Lojze Spacal, Zora Stančič, Gabrijel Stupica, Marko Šuštaršič, Sašo Vrabič, Franco Vecchiet, Marjan Vojska, Edvard Zajec, Karel Zelenko.
Curator: Ješa Denegri.