For long decades, withdrawn from everyday routine
and dedicated to the quest for beauty, the Kroples Art Collection has been coming into being.
The selection comprises sixty-six artworks by thirty Slovenian artists
who were active in the second half of the nineteenth century and in the
twentieth. One work is by painter Berta Zois Moro of Austrian Carinthia,
likewise from the second half of the nineteenth century.
The
exhibition is arranged chronologically and according to individual
content-related groups, which compose a coherent narrative and direct visitors
to follow the course of the exhibition tour. The progression flow runs from the
Biedermaier and bourgeois landscape deep into the twentieth century.
Interrelatedness of the artworks and their iconography were taken into account,
such as landscape scenes, ethnographic motifs, figures at intimate actions,
still lifes, works containing elements of Symbolism, Expressionism and the New
Objectivity, and those of “moderate modernism”.
Painters Marko Pernhart and Anton Karinger depicted mountain landscapes
rendered in late-Romantic spirit, frozen lakes, realistic panoramic views from
Mt. Dobratsch, the magnificent alpine landscape with Mt. Triglav, the
symbol of the Slovenianhood, and the like. Slovenian customs, scenes from
everyday life of simple people or from folk tales were popular with Ivana Kobilca, Ivan Grohar, Maksim Gaspari,
Gvidon Birolla, Hinko Smrekar, and Tone Kralj.
The
only classical motif in the exhibition is by Henrika Langus. Displayed are also
a number of paintings of fashionable, sophisticated salon women, represented sitting in armchairs,
strolling on promenades or along banks by solitary waters, performing everyday
or most intimate actions; they were created by painters, such as Ferdo Vesel,
Matej Sternen, Rihard Jakopič, Fran Tratnik and Veno Pilon.
Still lifes, popular over long centuries and offering various challenges
to artists, are shown, among others, also in paintings by Matija Jama and
Gojmir Anton Kos.
Presented extensively are a variety of works by the members of the Independent Slovenian Artists’ Club (The Independents), such as Maksim Sedej, Nikolaj Omersa, Marij
Pregelj, Stane Kregar, France Pavlovec, and Zoran Mušič; displayed by the
latter are works from his early period. In addition to paintings of their
contemporaries, there are also works by sculptors Lojze Dolinar, France Gorše,
France Kralj and Frančišek Smerdu. Painter Metka Krašovec is the youngest
artist in the exhibition.
The Kroples Art Collection excels
in outstanding quality, exquisite taste, and authorial conception. The visual
excellence of the artworks promises aesthetic pleasure, whereas the originality
of the project is evident from the methodically gathered self-portraits of
artists Maksim Gaspari, Gojmir Anton Kos, Maksim Sedeja Nikolaj Omersa, and
Zoran Mušič.