Abstract Consisensses of Gašparić
The exhibition of the works of Vladimir Gasparic Gapa presents about thirty-five sculptures made in the period between 1988 and 1998. In this period of intensive work Gasparic showed that, in the context of the recent Croatian art, numerous earlier analyses of his work as extremely vital and perennial were justified and he proved that his maturity and the original quality of all of each of his works have now appeared as clear and abstract conciseness. Having retained his characteristic and distinctive expression, the author goes further into a new analysis of the visual form - exploring it, he doesn't get into routine but completely sets free and gets closer to the basic clarity and order. His observations, in comparison with his earlier expressionist and ecstatic style (his horses, ballet dancers and angels), may seem revitalised because he secluded himself into his atelier (the future International Sculptor's School) in Varazdin.
Female act, 1992.
painted wood, 70 x 21 x 7 cm
His earlier obviously baroque-based tradition has turned into a new revelation of the form of extreme simplicity which, through the author's rigid self-discipline, speaks in the words of poetry arising from the composition of the work itself and from the form shaped with a particular subtlety. Thus shaped, that form has retained the romantic element of Gapa's expression present also in his earlier works. The horse as a motif might have influenced the artist's need for a firm composition and has conditioned the changes of the form. Today, Gapa seems to be more interested in form than motif, being fascinated with shaping in black Swedish granite and wood and drawing from these materials the magical effect of a clean surface which, by a perfectly fashioned form, conveys the message of man's universal feelings and strivings.
Act, 1990.
swedish granite, 166 x 29 x 9 cm
Combined with light, these sculptures, with their small surfaces taken individually, reveal unity and compositional structure of the work as a whole. With their effect of calmness, bigger surfaces point out the smaller and more dynamic ones which communicate with the environment more loudly and, combined with the form, display an elegant harmony. Sensitively realised details reflect concentration, concise thoughts, the combination of the artist's external and internal monologue, boldness and surprise. Today we can also follow one of his constant features characteristic of his whole opus: the use of indigo blue to highlight the simple harmony of composition. The works of Gasparic exhibit a visionary and prophetic aspect of a man's pursuit, a constant overpowering of our human aspirations. Living an intensive and interesting life, he releases a great energy of senses necessary to achieve originality. Now that Gapa has started making sculptures in a sheer abstract form, it has become evident that he has developed a distinct style even within his own work, always giving a new light to it. This is the continuous overpowering of our human aspirations, which finds the expression of our time in the hardness of the Swedish granite.
Mirjana Dučakijević
Bust - portrait, 1991.
swedish granite, 57 x 24 x 4 cm
Gapa's Sculptures - Present in the Future
Thirteen years ago, when Vladimir Gasparic Gapa as the youngest artist in the history of the Umietnicki pavilion (The Art Pavflfion) exhibited his works there, he astonished not only the art critic but also a wider audience. Those were the sculptures made in wood, with an extremely expressionist force, rough and almost rustic in shape and ot a very impressive style. This opus contained his famous and memorable sculptures of blue, white and green horses with or without riders, sculptures of ballet dancers, heads of bulls etc. Discrete and peculiar, as a young artist (born in 1951) Gapa managed to shake the whole artistic scene of the 1980's and, on one side, continued with our expressionist tradition in making sculptures (like tvlestrovic, Radaus, Michieli), and on the other followed the European achievements of Marin Marini.
Bird, 1991.
swedish granite, 150 x 26 x 21 cm
His works exhibited in the Umjetnicki paviljon (The Art Pavillion) was praised enthusiastically as an "authentic discovery", "a great spectacle" and as an "art outside its generation's circle" and the newspaper "Vecernji list" wrote about him as of "the greatest discovery in sculpture recently" and as of "the most impressive artist in the art of the North-western Croatia". At the same time, the newspaper "Vjesnik" called him "a brilliant animalier".
Cathedral, 1992.
painted wood, 22 x 8 x 5,5 cm
In 1987 his monograph was published by Graficki Zavod Hrvatske, "Prizma" edition, written by Ive Simat Banov. Both the exhibition and the monograph gave a detailed interpretation and analysis of Gapa's work of the 1980's. They proved (even to the author himself) that Gapa had managed to create an articulated whole, obviously thoroughly completed. The artist, therefore, had to ask himself where and how to start anew, While in doubt, Gapa received an invitation from Sweden and went to Stockholm where he discovered a completely new material -black Swedish granite. That unexpected invitation spontaneously drew him away from the material and the way he had used in shaping his earlier works exhibited in the Pavillion and it changed and directed his further artistic expression. In the beginning of the 1990's, his formerly prominent expressionist form changed to a reduced one due to the use of a new material and the once "unleashed" expression settled down into a more rigid geometrical form, while the painted wood turned into a monochromatic and flawless black polish.
Portret, 1995.
swedish grainte, 127 x 70 x 9 cm
Unlike the sculptures from the earlier phase, the new ones seemed - because of the characteristics of the black granite, its hardness and its monumental expression - archetypal, as if passing a message from a distant galaxy. In 1990, Giorgio Segato, an Italian writer and the author of the introduction to the catalogue of Gapa's exhibition in Gallery Forum, well remarked that his sculptures seemed "spiritually clean and mystical like totems". The name of the exhibition, "The Return of the Totem" draws our attention to the elements of magic, which lead us to the discovery of the mythical in Gapa's work, some of the elements being created by the use of material and tools, but primarily springing from the artist's own expression.
Swedish form, 1993.
swedish granite, 139 x 46 x 18 cm
The expression of the artist, who stands between his perceiving pulse and his ability to create and sustain myths, is the talent which enables him to turn the myth into the language of reality - into sculptures is still a lot to say about Gapa's work but the question is how pecasey words can convey the message of a work tit art-Only te visual image and visual world is true and wads are cflen inappropriate in describing it.
o conclude, I might just add that the art is an expression of the faeft belongs to. It is eternal and it connects various ctvfea-icns. To lustrate this statement we may say that Gapa's scuip-taes possess that kind of imagination which can connect ttie art of a prehistoric man of Mamira with our computer age and tagger they are heading towards the "cosmic future".
Jasminka Prizmic
Hommage M. Stančiću, 1989.
swedish granite, 115 x 55 x 20 cm
Sculptor Vladimir Gasparic Gapa
You were born and lived your early childhood in a picturesque place of Hodosani in Metfimurje. You spent your teenage years in Varazdin and you moved to Zagreb to study sculpture, having settled there for the following 18 years. Nevertheless, it seems that you haven't lost your connections with your hometown Varazdin because it has become synonymous with your own name.
Yes, I was a child when my family moved from Hodosani to Varazdin, so ! gained my earliest experiences there and that's why I've been so closely connected with that baroque town.
Your father has a reputation of a distinguished stonemason and owns a reputed stonemason's workshop in Varazdin. So, you've always been surrounded by stone, wood and all sorts of machines used for the shaping of these materials. Your decision to study sculpture seems to have been logical.
Our family tradition of shaping the stone certainly had a great influence on me when I was young and decided to get involved with sculpture but it seems to me that the city of Varazdin itself played even a greater part in my decision because of the facades and portals of its baroque oalaces, churches and theatres.
Music instrument, 1994.
swedish granite, 153 x 42 x 15 cm
!n the 80's, you used to make sculptures in wood and in 1985 you had an exhibition in Umjetnicki pavilion (The Art Pavillion). At 35, you were the youngest artist who had his solo exhibition there. Can we say that it was your major opportunity for entering Croatian artistic scene?
You see, we've always been a hard working family so, at 35, it didn't seem to be a problem for me to have made such a great opus of sculptures in wood. Fortunately, that opus was very well acclaimed both from the public, so that's why I could say that rt was my major opportunity for entering Croatian artistic scene. But after that ex-hfcftkxi I had to ask mysetf how to keep tp the good quality and go on.
That exhibition was followed by a mono-graph by Ive Simat Banov, published by Graficki Zavod Hrvatske, "Prizma" edition. It completed a whole cycle of your works. After that you started to work in black Swedish granite. Did you consciously choose to start working in a different material?
Portrait of a man, 1989.
gray marble, 78 x 15 x 16 cm
After the monograph was published, I went to Sweden to study. In Sibhultt I joined the International Sculptor's Atelier. That's where I started to work in black Swedish granite, although I had previously had that experience in our family stonemason's workshop. There, however, it was a completely different thing. In Sweden I used to work with German and Japanese sculptors and architects. That was some kind of competition where I happened to end up as a "winner" because Mr. Bertill Nordenhacke bought a whole opus of my granite sculptures, more precisely, thirty-two of them, to fulfil his collection.
is there a difference between working in granite and working in wood while fashioning the sculpture? Is the approach different? Is the shaping of a piece of granite a particular challenge to an artist due to dust, for example, which is dispersed while working in it, or due to the noise from machines etc?
Yes, there is a difference between wood and granite and the main difference is that granite cannot bear the detail and the motif. Expression in granite demands clarity and pungency. Hardness of granite is another great problem.
Can you concentrate on your work in such circumstances?
It is true that there is a great noise and lots of dust while working in granite but it is not a problem when you know what you want to do, such an effort is, in fact, stimulating in reaching your goal, in making a good sculpture. That exhibition was followed by a mono-graph by Ive Simat Banov, published by Graficki Zavod Hrvatske, "Prizma" edition. It completed a whole cycle of your works. After that you started to work in black Swedish granite. Did you consciously choose to start working in a different material?
Act, 1989.
painted gray marble, 153 x 12 x 12 cm
After the monograph was published, I went to Sweden to study. In Sibhultt I joined the International Sculptor's Atelier. That's where I started to work in black Swedish granite, although I had previously had that experience in our family stonemason's workshop. There, however, it was a completely different thing. In Sweden I used to work with German and Japanese sculptors and architects. That was some kind of competition where I happened to end up as a "winner" because Mr. Bertill Nordenhacke bought a whole opus of my granite sculptures, more precisely, thirty-two of them, to fulfil his collection.
is there a difference between working in granite and working in wood while fashioning the sculpture? Is the approach different? Is the shaping of a piece of granite a particular challenge to an artist due to dust, for example, which is dispersed while working in it, or due to the noise from machines etc?
Yes, there is a difference between wood and granite and the main difference is that granite cannot bear the detail and the motif. Expression in granite demands clarity and pungency. Hardness of granite is another great problem.
Black from of movement, 1990.
swedish graanite, 63 x 39 x 10 cm
Can you concentrate on your work in such circumstances?
It is true that there is a great noise and lots of dust while working in granite but it is not a problem when you know what you want to do, such an effort is, in fact, stimulating in reaching your goal, in making a good sculpture.
You used to paint your early sculptures in wood. Do you miss that element today? How does black Swedish granite differ from wood?
You made a good remark by saying that I iike to paint my sculptures. I used to paint my wooden sculptures and I also do that with my sculptures in black granite. When granite is polished, it has the ability to absorb the paint from the environment in which the sculpture is situated, which gives it an entirely new dimension.
Your sculptures in granite seem very stable, firm and solid. Also, as opposed to your earlier work in wood, the form of your sculptures is now reduced. Are these changes due to the media itself or to something else?
There are several reasons that brought about these changes in expression. Ma¬terial itself played an important part. If used correctly, the form has to be reduced to a greater extent of simplicity and it takes a greater experience, which I have already gained, to achieve that. Experience is a crucial and important factor of a mature work of art, especially when working in granite.
Most of your recent sculptures look quite archetypal, one could say, almost mystical. Do you agree if I say that artists have the privilege to create myths through their work?
I agree with you when you say that most of my sculptures look archetypal, almost mystical. Granite itself is a material which implies that. It is a connection between the earliest beginnings of civilisation, the modern world and even the future. Some artists really have the ability to create myths by using their imagination. The role of sculpture hasn't changed a lot since prehistoric times.
The audience has got to know your work through your figurative sculptures of the horse and the rider, roughly shaped and made in wood, which you were exhibiting in various galleries in the 80's, as well as through sculptures you've been making in black Swedish granite since the beginning of the 90's. If compared, it seems that you gave up the animal form and that the human body has also undergone a certain evolution. Did it hap-pen due to the choice of a different material or...?
These are only formal changes. As earlier, i still keep on speaking about life, only that the form has become more reduced now. The motif itself doesn't seem to matter any longer, life is what matters, and the liveliness of the sculpture.
Is there anything provocative in your sculptures and what role does erotica play in your work?
In my work there is everything that's connected with life, and so are, among other things, provocation, erotica, continuity and eternity. All of these are contained in black Swedish granite.
What is your approach to work like? Do you start with a sketch, a model or right from the idea that you have in mind?
I start from the idea that I've been contemplating about for quite a while, then I make a model of the sculpture and then the sculpture itself, in the most appropriate dimension.. Some of the sculptures stay as they were made initially, as models, but 1 don't consider them to be just models. On the contrary, those small sculptures can often be better than the bigger ones.
Where do you get your granite?
I get the black granite from Sweden and other sorts of stone I get wherever I can.
Granite is a very expensive material. How do you manage with it?
Unless commissioned, it is very expensive to work in it, not only because the material is expensive but also because diamonds are necessary in shaping it, as well as special machines, so places bigger than ordinary ateliers are necessary for those who work in granite.
You made sculptures in a classical sculptor's material - wood. Do you think you were a classical sculptor then? In other words, today you work in a different material - black Swedish granite. Is this necessary to become a contemporary sculptor?
The use of a particular material does not make you a contemporary artist. A good material is still not a guaranty for a good sculpture. Granite as a material helps you with your basic idea, and that is life, durability and eternity.
Mr. Gapa, what is the essence and the meaning of sculpture?
For me, the sculpture must be the embodiment of the out-of-time and out-of-space imagination of creation and existence: in one word, it has to reflect life.
Is there anything you want to achieve by making sculptures?
If we take the sculpture as a reflection of life, then it is life itself. I want to achieve life, the life of the sculpture.
What are the features that determine the quality of sculpture?
If it attracts our attention, if it doesn't leave us indifferent, if it is enriching, then it is, in my opinion, a good sculpture and these would be its main features.
Mr. Gapa, how would you define the work of a sculptor?
If you ask me if the artist's need for creating is powerful enough to make sculptures, I would say it's not. Through his work, the artist has to communicate with other people, he has to have an influence on them and he even has to educate them. If there's no communication, the work of a sculptor is not socially efficient.
Do you think that a sculptor makes his sculptures at his own risk?
If you don't have any background, you work at your won risk, which is the worst option, both for an artist and for the whole society that those sculptures are dedicated to.
What about the commissioned sculptures? Who are the clients who commission them today in Croatia?
Those who would have to, don't commission either sculptures or any other contemporary works of art. There are few rich and well off people who have the strength and courage to buy modern Croatian sculpture. There are really few of them. Those are the people who don't care about historical greatness and i think that they are ready to make art history on their own. Unfortunately, there are really very, very few of them.
Do you have a chance to work with architects?
I worked with them very successfully, but unfortunately, there were few of them who wanted collaboration. The same is with the architects who are afraid of sculptures or are afraid of the contemporary and the contemporary art expression. Urban planners failed as well and their work on urban set-up is not worth mentioning.
Mr. Gapa, what do you think about the approaches and analyses of the art critics in evaluating your work? In other words, have you come across some contradictory interpretations of your work during your long career? Can you tell us something about that?
In my opinion, the relationship between the art-critic and the artist and vice versa has never been disputable. Art critics have been mainly positive about my work -both abroad and here. I think that the art critic should educate more responsible people in order to start exhibiting sculptures in public places throughout Croatia. As the years are passing, our cities look poorer and poorer.
In one of your earlier interviews you mentioned that you want to organise a post-diploma study of sculpture in Varazdin.. Do you still have the same wish and have you been working on its realisation?
The construction of my atelier is coming to an end and the project is to be realised soon but the people who are supposed to support me, still can't see the importance of it. I don't think it would be very appropriate if I carried on the whole realisation of the project myself because this would mean that I'm taking the responsibility of other people and other experts to myself. Such a project should involve s greater involvement of various professionals which Croatia seems to lack, at for the time being.
Are there good sculptors in Croatia?
There are and there will be, as many as we need them. If Croatia keeps on ignoring them, the situation will remain the same as it is today and the fact is that the artists in Croatia today are on the .srge of existence. The need for sculpture should involve a greater action and not just individual efforts of the artists.
Mr. Gapa, can you tell us who were the sculptors who influenced you in the be¬ginning of your studies and your career, and who are they today?
In the beginning of my career there were several of them and they were M. Marini, G. Manzu and Giacornetti, and today I get inspiration from my own works.
You've made a considerable number of sculptures up to now. Are there any you're not happy with?
Those I wouldn‘ t be happy with, I would never make!
When is a sculpture finished, in your opinion?
That's a good question. There are sculptures i didn't even started to make and they were already made and it seems to me that those are my best ones so I keep them only to myself and I use them as an inspiration in further work. For me, a sculpture is finished when it serves its purpose, when it is set among people and lives with them.
Do you think that your first sculptures are as good as your recent ones?
It's rather a question of maturity than of quality.
I travel, but not very often. As an art, making sculptures is a slow process and it does not change very often, so I may say I know what's going on. It seems to me that it is becoming more than an experiment.
Are you going to continue to work in black granite or can we expect a new Gapa?
"Everything is always changing." You can certainly expect a new Gapa but I'd rather keep it a secret.
Jasminka Prizmić, Varaždin, 7 July 1998
DRAMATIC MYSTERY OF GAPA’S SCULPTURE
When I came in Varaždin with photographer Damir Fabijanić fourteen years ago, the main purpose of my arrival was to record Gapa's sculpture's for retrospective for which I was the author in Gallery „Klovičevi dvori“, I had no idea that one historical sentence of Humphrey Bogart at the end of Casablonce – „…I think this is the beginning of one beautiful friendship“, will be applied to me and Gapa. Of course, it really was the beginning of one friendship, a great friendship, so much greater that it also „infected my children, so Diandra also has this honor that such famous sculptor is our family friend“, as well as Luka, who finds Gapa's studio and garden that surrounds it, a very interesting and inexhaustible space for his research, which he would visit as often as possible.
With such assumptions, there could be expected many euologies on the account of Vladimir Gašparić. So, here is a really nice question, how we could write a bad reviews of good friend and his masterpieces? Frankly, if I believe that it should be reviled, I wouldn't hesitate it at all. Of course, Gapa knows that I'm sharp on the keyboard when I should be, but luckly, on the account of the acts of this cute citizen of Varaždin with „tiny“ laugh, there could be imposed only praises. Of course, I must to highlight that I'm not alone in all those praises, because, there were also many prominent critics of Gapa's sculptures before me, who were writing about them really positively.
When we talked about the concept of the exhibition at the Gallery “Kortil”, Gapa wanted a smaller exhibition which would include only a few of works, mostly those recent. I personally was for a mini retrospective, because the last larger exhibition was that one, mentioned before in Gallery of “Klovičevi dvori” in 1998.
Gapa does not exhibit his works often, as well as his annual production isn’t big so much. Specifically, he maybe realizes two or three sculptures in one year period, but sometimes not even so much. The main reason for this is Gapa’s great commitment to the restoration of various religious and secular objects, which perhaps takes him quite some time. In this context, it seemed to me that is better that Gapa represent himself in front of an audience of Rijeka with mini retrospective of his works from the period since 1999. by 2009. The number of works is limited by gallery space, but all the important works from sculptor’s portfolio is on exhibition. In the meantime, some of the author’s works were moved from his studio to refined private collection, what especially pleases the sculptor and me as critic, because it confirms the quality of those works. But when we talk about quality, we should remember some of the now distant years.
With Gapa’s sculptures, I met for the first time in 1985. in the Art Pavilion in Zagreb, Croatia. Those pavilion spaces were then led by Mrs. Lea Ukraincik who was known as person with really good image. That pavilion was a home to many first class exhibitions and many artists should wait long time to get an appointment for their own exhibition, since a lot of them wanted to exhibit there. With that realization, I was very surprised with Gapa’s exhibition in those spaces, because he was the youngest artist-presenter in the history of the Art Pavilion. Moreover, the artist succeeded to fill out the entire exhibition space with all of his sculptures. That exhibition in the Art Pavilion was a great success of the young sculptor and is certainly well deserved. Even today, many of visitors remember his horses, which has then surprised the profession and the public, as well as his colleagues.
Blue, white and green horses with or without riders, ballerinas, bulls heads, all made of wood, with expressive charge, rough and almost rustic finish. These are sculptures that continued to the line of Croatian expressionistic sculptural tradition from Meštrović, Radaus to Michieli, but also in them could be recognized the sculptor’s fascination of celebrate Marino Marini. In that time, young Gašparić was a sort of discovery and one press also called him “the most striking phenomena in the northwestern Croatian art” (Večernji list). Two years later, he released a monograph published by the Croatian Institute of Graphic Library “Prizma” by author Ivo Simat Ban. Gapa then was thirty-six years old. He had behind him a brilliant exhibition and, what’s more important, personal monograph, and he hasn’t even turned forty. I wonder, if this is, perhaps, too early for young artists? Because Gapa, I would say, very quickly circled and closed one unit and to everyone's surprise began creating sculptures not only in an entirely different material, but also his former ,,dissolved" figuration gives a way to an entirely reduced form, substantially stricter geometries.
One random meeting (if the randomness really exists?) completely spontaneously and forever moved Vladimir Gašparić away from the wood or his former method of work, which has set him a completely new sculptural future. It was the meeting with the Swedish black granite in the early 90’s. Swedish black granit is material completely different from wood. It is a material that requires different approach, a different processing technology and different forms. Of course, the history of art abounds in examples of which testify about changes or stages in the work of individual artists. They are often drastic, but as long as changes were possible, we're always surprised when they happen in our neighborhood, especially when it comes to an artist whose roots are firmly ingrained in the tradition of Baroque climate from which it came.
Specifically, the new Gapa’s works with its simplicity represent a counterpoint to baroque tradition. One completely new poetic was born – simple to an extreme limit, but still filled with strong emotions. In such context, a new sculptures of seamless processing were born characterized with perfectly smooth surface, at the same time strict, but peaceful and proud forms. Is it strange to say that the sculpture is a proud form? I don’t know, but in my opinion Gapa’s sculptures are very proud, each one is being for itself, each one has its own character and its own personality. These are not works made of stone (granite), it is a stone to whom sculptor gave a new life, to whom sculptor gave a form with which we can communicate. I must here to confess myself and to the public, that after so many years, during my first meeting with “Black form of movement” (1990., private collection), I remained fascinated by watching it for a long time and caught by unusual energy. That sculpture stood in the shadows of gallery space, radiacting with mystical, mysterious and dramatic power that literally hypnotized me. It was impossible to me to take my eyes off it, I couldn’t move and I just stood in front of it and watched it silently. “The point of sculpture is that it reflects life”, as Gapa personally told me recently adding “black granite allows me to achieve mystique and mystery, communicaton with the sculptures of ancient Egypt, but also with those that will arise for a hundred or a thousand years.” Without a doubt, the sculptor finds its inspiration in the ancient past filled with totems and myths, and this he confirmed by an exhibition at the Gallery Forum held in 1990. and entitled “Return of the totem”.
From the Forum till today nothing essential has changed in the poetics of this sculptor. He still creates myths – with material and tools, but above all with his talent and emotion, which allows him to translate that myth to sculptures and reality. Today, Gašparić still remains faithful to black Swedish granite which occasionally colors with indigo blue color, which is a constant of his entire portfolio, from wooden to stone sculptures.
I should point out that to me as a curator and art critic, is very glad that Gapa is still real sculptor (in the true sense of the word) that creates three-dimensional works, which remained in the original expression, and what is, taken as a whole, continuator of the Croatian sculptor tradition. When I say "continuator of tradition of Croatian sculptor," I think on the material in which he is expressed (granite), but that he is still a free thinker of his own poetics, with no curry favor to the current trends in the field of contemporary sculpture under what is today, we are witnessing, it all comes down and everything. For a long time, namely, sculpture involves new materials, new media, and the conception of itself is pretty new and different. In the catalog of the exhibition “Contemporary Croatian Sculpture”, where I was the selector, and which under the auspices of Croatian Ministry of Culture traveled through seven countries of the European Union, I wrote “…Sculpture today can become anything. And freshly excavated clump of grass relocated to the gallery, and halved cow, and skull decked with diamonds and lighted cleaner can be considered sculpture.” It is still the case, and I'm not against it, I am certainly for pluralism in expression, so let it be that free artists use the new media, and new materials in sculpture, but despite this expanded notion of sculpture, I think it is equally important that the Croatian sculptor scene continues with sculptors such as Vladimir Gašparić - Gapa, who remained loyal to traditional materials and traditional approach to making sculpture, and to the traditional notion that sculpture must meet all the sculptural and artistic value. It is important to point out that these sculptures are nothing less contemporary as often lately is trying to be presented.
At the present time of pluralistic options, everything is possible and there is room for everyone, so Gapa’s concern with not accepting the new definition almost stubbornly follow its own path and its own philosophy of life which should be respected. We should not look at any price abdication of traditional sculpture – because with it we also can be very modern.
The sculpture is of all other branches of art the most exposed to the public. Maybe it's because it is often commented, which was recently spoken about the crisis of sculpture? Is sculpture really in crisis? We evidence by various examining in the domain of sculpture, research, and proving modernity. Is it modern someone who expose lighted cleaner and declare it as a sculpture or someone who makes the granite stone that is in itself strange?
About this issue we could talk (severe, I guess), but I think there is no need to talk about a crisis of some kind of sculpture or return of the sculpture. What return? Sculpture, as it is known, has for centuries been woven into the Croatian Fine tradition, it is an important part of our fine art, one without which it would be difficult to sublimate national past. Therefore - following the famous sculptor of our builders (Nicholas of Florence, John Duknović, Juraj, ...) as well as to all those who worked after them until today, especially those belonging to the so-called “Middle generation” (Gapa, Drinković Bogdanić, Barišić, ...) - no doubt it can be argued that there is no fear of failure or crisis sculptures.
Of course, I must not forget in this place on the younger generation, which currently stature on the Croatian sculptor scene, which, I must say a very dedicated, taught just some of the middle generation sculptors, among them and Vladimir Gašparić Gapa.
Jasminka Poklečki Stošić
In Zagreb, October 2011.