Painter, art theorist and art educator Jurij Selan in the painting cycle Gore unites his two key fields of activity. He created a series that is a homage to the Slovenian alpine landscape, while also being a painterly reflection on the fundamental questions of artistic form.
The cycle Gore is presented at the exhibition in the Glass Atrium of the Town Hall – the installation opens today and will be on view until 10 September.
Jurij Selan, View from Tosc to Vernar and Triglav, acrylic on 600 g watercolor paper, 56 x 76 cm. Photo: Stekleni atrij
Jurij Selan, View from Tosc to Vernar and Triglav, acrylic on 600 g watercolor paper, 56 x 76 cm. Photo: Stekleni atrij
Both fields are essentially the artist’s home terrain. He regularly returns to the mountain world as a passionate hiker and also observer of nature, while he is constantly engaged in dealing with and reflecting on artistic form, especially color as the basic building block of the painting.
As the curator and art historian Bernarda Stenovec writes on the occasion of the exhibition, the exhibited cycle fits into the rich tradition of Slovenian landscape painting, while at the same time enriching it in an original way. As she notes, Selan in his works emphasizes the fundamental artistic fact that abstract and realistic images have the same common starting point, which only manifests itself differently, namely the color plane. "With an aerial view from above, from a mountain peak or ridge, with attentive observation he paints the picturesque views of the Slovenian high mountains with extreme precision. From a distance the scenes appear distinctly realistic, but upon closer inspection they reveal themselves as a network of independent color planes that function as an abstract composition," we read in her text accompanying the exhibition.
In terms of motif, the exhibited paintings are therefore a tribute to the Slovenian alpine world, which he so likes to visit in his free time, while at the same time, as Bernarda Stenovec writes, "a painterly reflection in which the tradition of the landscape motif and the author’s personal experience of space creatively intertwine with his exceptional visual sensibility and fundamental questions of artistic form".
Dr. Jurij Selan graduated in 2005 from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in painting under the mentorship of prof. Herman Gvardjančič, prof. dr. Jožef Muhovič and prof. Branko Suha, and in 2011 also received his doctorate in art theory under Muhovič. Since 2012 he has been teaching art theory at the Department of Art Education of the Faculty of Education, where since 2016 he has also served as vice-dean for quality and artistic activity. Since 2012 he has been the president of the national subject commission for the general matura in art theory.
On Wednesday, 26 August, at 17.00, a round table Art and Mountains on landscape painting will be held in connection with the exhibition, at which Jurij Selan and Bernarda Stenovec will speak.
Source of the news:
https://www.rtvslo.si/kultura/vizualna-umetnost/jurij-selan-poklon-alpski-krajini-ki-odpira-tudi-slikarski-premislek-o-barvi/789964