EMERGING PAINTINGS, an exhibition of paintings by Jadran Lenarčič
Galerija Instituta “Jožef Stefan”, Ljubljana, 1999

“Harmony between the aesthetic and expressiveness” – In the Emerging Paintings, all of which were created in the last two years, Jadran Lenarčič describes the landscape that appears and disappears before our eyes as a spiritual oasis of the painter’s past, to which he likes to return again and again, and as a reflection of his current perception of the Mediterranean space from which he originates and belongs to. In search of his own creative path, he is personally and artistically committed to the intersection of the Slovenian and Romanic worlds, which forever marked him with a special feeling.

Even as a painter, Lenarčič is a persistent seeker who is never satisfied with what he has achieved. He finished realistic painting before high school: the pictures that his teachers sent to international competitions around the world were returned with the note that they were the work of an adult painter, and as such, they did not correspond to the tender. After a few successful portraits, he stopped painting for a long period of time, probably also because he was no longer interested in accurate realistic painting – and that was at a time when photorealism was most relevant in our country. The first painting after two decades was an oil painting (Apple) and was created only in 1991.

In the early 1990s, Lenarčič was drawn to cubism, and some paintings were created under the influence of its most important representatives. However, the structure of the compositions of paintings from this period, arranged according to strict geometric principles, did not attract the painter for long: he enthusiastically composed new and new images, in which he always came to his own discoveries in a different way. Thus, he emphasized the discovery of the roundness of the tennis ball with the oil painting Composition with onion and ball (1991), checked the statics and dynamics of the ball in three paintings painted with his fingers (Tennis Delusion, 1991), and with compositions of broken geometric shapes and mismatched colours, as a visionary, he envisioned tension before the collapse in the coming millennium (2001, 1991). The oil painting Rest in Blue (1992) predicts a new cycle of paintings, when he will no longer be interested in portraying concrete everyday life, a time when, as a painter, he will unforcedly and joyfully discover the world of spiritual landscapes, without trying to hide his emotional relationship to the world.

In the most recent cycle of acrylic paintings on canvas and paper, which the author meaningfully titled  Emerging Pictures, Lenarčič subtly expanded the acquired experience with his own ideas. Now, with persistent consistency, he explores the creative possibilities of colour and its expressive and design dimensions. These lyrical and intimate works tend to be an almost abstract language of nature, but they maintain a solid starting point, mainly landscape and figural. In the more or less recognizable figural motifs (mainly from the cycle of small paintings on paper from 1998) there are traces of classic expressionist and analytical cubist patterns, but the human figure in his works is effective in full pulsating sensuality (The woman who carries stones, 1998). It is not possible to read from the painted images in any pre-selected symbolic key, as the painter consciously did not follow the already established classical meanings of the symbols. The allusion is also not literary, nor does it for the most part allude to specific places, events, persons or objects that could be identified as recognizably symbolic.

The painter’s imagination unfolds like a spider’s net. With a predetermined minimum colour palette of two primary colours, he weaves layer after layer without initially predetermining the content and message of the painting. He experiences them on the fly and in the very process of creation he supplements, upgrades and sometimes even changes them until the final form at least temporarily satisfies him. Due to the harmonious whole of lines, shapes and surfaces, the paintings seem to be built quickly, without effort, in a controlled rhythm, but the basic artistic idea of the author gradually but surely leads to the finished derivation in acrylic.

The paintings also attract with their colour originality: in selected colour combinations, which were created from two basic colours for him – white and yellow, the painter sets a series of experiences and images one after the other with enviable persistence and a message (Help me, Leonardo!, 1999). With a palette of bright colours, Lenarčič intensifies the visual effect to such an extent that the more tangible forms of places and figures grow into an effervescence, similar to a musical experience (Detained Joy, 1999). Just as the visual effect is the same as the effect of musical compositions, in Lenarčič’s associatively abstract compositions, a gentle rhythm and intimate numbness can be felt (Calm Joy, 1999). Despite this, the solidity of the compositional construction is not threatened, the painter preserves the basic elements of the compositional skeleton, which even the most daring assembly of parts of the human body and Mediterranean views does not attempt (Woman’s Town, 1999).

The seemingly scattered and exhibited images, both on canvas and on paper, are surrounded by more or less perceptible graphite contours, which fundamentally connect the images into artistic wholes. These in a new relationship – consisting of stylized houses, courtyards, slopes, squares and streets, from blurred lines over the silhouette of Leonardo’s face, barely recognizable hands of Christ, parts of the female body, as well as male limbs, and from metaphorically added individual objects – they act as the painter’s deeply lyrical address about fundamental life questions that end with death but begin with love.

IT IS ALL ONE PAINTING, an exhibition of paintings by Jadran Lenarčič
Galerija Krka Dunajska cesta 65, Ljubljana, 2007

Painter Jadran Lenarčič creates in the silence of his studio, far from the outside glare. His paintings are not mimetic, they do not reflect the real world, they are works that are born exclusively in the relationship of the painter to the painting and in his full experience of the image field. The new compositions are the fruit of the thoughtful investigation, transformation and simplification of forms and technical knowledge, which he enriches with study from cycle to cycle, from exhibition to exhibition. Lenarčič’s large paintings are a reflection of the painter’s experience, heart and spirit, and at the same time, they are imaginative in terms of composition. From the capture of light flickers and glows in nature, a trail of colour is born, with which he vividly imbues the real world, which he has carried inside him since his youth. Very demanding of himself and his works, this time he created a series of large paintings, which are the fruit of his last intimate creation.

In nature, as in the cycle of seasons, certain periods and sequences are repeated again and again, which have influenced human life for thousands of years and are reflected in his actions. It is precisely the eternal cyclicity that is reflected in the works of old masters as well as modern artists, regardless of the method, style and direction of their art. If we understand abstract painting as a way of painting that renounces the imitation of visible reality and uses only painting tools (colours, shapes and lines), then Lenarčič’s paintings are certainly not among them. In his works, images from nature and typical seaside architecture are revealed, intertwined with repeated geometric characters. The symbols discovered in previous cycles (spirals, bird’s wings, eyes, female symbol …) are increasingly stylized by Lenarčič and continue to depict them as such. He is first interested in aesthetic effects, then, as he says, the story always unfolds by itself. The still characteristic seaside landscape is written in a special symbolic language, the spectrum of sunny colours defines the genius loci anchored deep in the painter’s interior, it invites a journey through the labyrinth of stairs, next to which are crowded typical seaside houses, paths, boats, windows, shutters … The painter unconsciously invites you to the archetypal seaside setting, which he captured on canvas – at the same time as symbols and artistic elements. In addition to the vividness of the colour scale, the variety of forms and the eloquence of the random motif world, the painter also ensures the harmony created by the now sun-bright, otherwise pitch-black backgrounds.

At the exhibition of large paintings, Lenarčič presents his latest works created in the last two years, which represent a new challenge in his artistic creation. In the first decades of the 20th century, the first abstract images were created, freed from sense-perceptible reality, and erased the memory of the object, which, despite their apparent abstractness, does not apply to Lenarčič’s paintings. His thematic point of departure remains in reality, but no longer in the initial figurals (nevertheless, he fully preserves female symbols!), but in signs from the environment, which he translates into relatively abstract artistic organisms with basic drawing surface treatment. More and more it comes from nature, especially from panoramic views “from above”, which they simplify and transform all the way to the associatively and symbolically abstract. The inspiration of eroticism is meant as an expression of life’s vitality and creative passion that burns his images with the sustaining power of life. In recent years, his paintings of large dimensions are mostly stretched in width, often as diptychs, but also in height – even three meters up! Along with the vibrancy of the bold colour scale, the variety of forms and the eloquence of the random motif world, the painter also ensures the harmony created by the sun-bright, otherwise pitch-black backgrounds.

Quite large formats with colour vibrancy mainly of basic colours, which either emphasize or blur the lines of diagonals, arcs or swirls, create mostly rather random shapes, which nevertheless have the effect of a complete whole. Light, white or orange surfaces of the backgrounds give greater freedom to the colour and the possibility of breathing to the composition, while dark ones emphasize the deviation, while the darker the more closed vision. The colour contrasts of blue and red were present in the artist’s oeuvre before and also secretly revived the darkness as the glow of passion and dramatic dialogues arising from his subconscious, memories, experiences, thoughts, desires and dreams. Equally intense and interesting works are small paintings on paper that do not want to be (and are not!) sketches for larger works, but instead, represent a break from demanding large compositions. These tiny works on paper, mostly representing birds, live autonomously, independent of other paintings on canvas.

In essence, Jadran Lenarčič is a painter who primarily follows his own rule of creation, subordinated to free creation. Reworked images of real seaside towns, female figures, birds and objects live in his works. The colours in his paintings are vivid and meshed with black, creating depth. Compositions that Lenarčič sees as multidimensional, sometimes modified and emphasized or deconstructed as in the case of expressionist painters, and the mere exploration of colour impressions and the introduction of fine patterns offers an impressive view. The reason may be manifested in his love of colours, in the adoption of a relaxed gesture, which usually does not allow itself to be restricted. Eros in his works, which is characterized by the successive interweaving of symbols from his old paintings, spans the range from purely sensual to purely spiritual sublimation right from the beginning. Thus, the fields of his images painted with acrylic paint burst with a sensual glow, and thus, with the dynamics of their growth and their restlessness, they are synonymous with the source of life. His seascapes are painted as a true expression, imbued with spiritual power and with a peculiar colour glow, and at the same time, his paintings have a characteristic inner light that emanates from them with poetic inspiration. The intense glow is dominated by the dynamism of colour contrasts, which derive their intensity from experiences, although they are non-allusive in themselves, so they live only as a memory or as a distant breath of youth, imbued with the creator’s inner fire. Reborn into a single image. In expressive images with delicately intertwined lines and with colours that generally fill the space in front of the drawing, Lenarčič has created a vivid networked tissue of growth that symbolizes the presence of life, memories and dreams.