Ivan Balažević – A Marvelous Painting or the Painting of All Marvels

Publisher's Review

Art Monograph

Ivan Balažević – A Marvelous Painting or the Painting of All Marvels

Text Author: Berislav Valušek

The monograph on the painterly oeuvre of Ivan Balažević follows a series of substantial publications that Balažević himself has already published over his prolific, decades-long artistic career. Over these many decades, one can trace the development, shifts, and artistic explorations within an oeuvre that appears remarkably complete and coherent. Still, this extended period also reveals inevitable and necessary changes and digressions, which will, as presented in this monograph, outline the full diversity of his body of work.

Ivan Balažević, originally from Vojvodina and a coastal resident by choice, began in the 1970s with watercolors and gouaches, but was later wholly captivated by pastels. He painted with a technique that even among “classical” painters no longer has many adherents. Balažević's persistent use of pastel already makes him unique within contemporary Croatian painting. I do not highlight his technique accidentally – the softness of pastel seems to harmonize with Balažević's character and the artistic poetics that naturally imposed themselves early in his artistic development. This highlights Balažević’s uniqueness and the individuality of his path, which was primarily fueled by absorbing surrounding influences – first local, from Vojvodina, then Mediterranean, followed by war and religious themes.

Balažević's particular stylization and sublimation of everything he touches (dried red peppers, “cake women,” portraits of famous artists, Mediterranean skies with seagulls, fruit trees…) lend his paintings a certain magical and surreal quality.

Deep societal upheavals – the collapse of the socialist world, wartime tragedies, a return to bourgeois society and the embrace of faith – inspired a series of paintings and cycles through which Balažević sought to contribute to a new era. Aesthetic impulses merged with ethical ones, and alongside eros and sensuality, and the enjoyment of nature and the body, spirituality and religiosity began to emerge from his paintings. Universal symbols of war and suffering (Paintings of War and Memory, 1991–1994), faith and hope, connect with local, Vojvodinian, and coastal motifs.

Eventually, this persistent painter of a realistic world cloaked in wonder and surrealism became an abstract painter, and has long since introduced acrylic into his practice – which he now often prefers over pastel.

The Todos artista desperados cycle (2004–2009) is a complete departure, something that seems as if it could never happen. Yet Balažević still appears optimistic and cheerful—at least judging by his paintings. Even his war-themed works are not repellent or terrifying, just as his religious ones do not convey ecstasy or fanaticism. The “desperate artist” is not hopeless and does not paint hopeless pictures—only “decomposed” objects, broken down into distinct forms. Perhaps they are merely unrecognizable fragments of reality, still not entirely unreality.

This monograph is the first comprehensive, critical overview of his oeuvre. Berislav Valušek is the most suitable writer and editor of the monograph, the best connoisseur of Balažević’s work, whom he has followed for more than forty years. He has written numerous critical reviews since he began regularly covering visual arts events in Novi list and other publications in the early 1980s, penned several introductions to Balažević’s catalogs, and collaborated on many of his exhibitions.

As Valušek states at the beginning of the monograph: “Approach is the foundation of everything.” There are always different possibilities, but in this monograph, he chose to use his existing texts, not reworking them but quoting them verbatim, arranging them chronologically, and adding only interpretations of the most recent phase of Balažević’s oeuvre. His deep familiarity with the painter’s work ensures the reliability of a writer whose expertise has long been affirmed by the numerous artistic monographs he has prepared and authored. Valušek’s approach and writing style, in addition to his expertise, offer an added dimension – clarity, dynamism, and freshness – in short, ensuring the text’s appeal and readability, unlike the dense texts of most art monographs.

As a long-time art critic – chronicler and sharp polemicist, curator and director of the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rijeka, and professor of art history at the Academy of Applied Arts – Valušek has curated many notable exhibitions, served as the “national selector,” and authored Croatia’s representation at the Venice Biennale and other significant international exhibitions. In his decades-long work, he has more often associated with entirely different artists, those inclined toward new media, conceptualism, and performance art – the “rigid line” of contemporary art. Therefore, for the informed reader who reaches for this monograph, reading the text will be as stimulating as viewing Balažević’s paintings.

His commitment to the intimate line in Balažević’s painting undoubtedly draws increased attention. While maintaining a firm narrative line, Valušek occasionally reaches into memories and recollections, literary flourishes, “high style” of critical phraseology, quotes from other critics who wrote about Balažević, or even statistics – systematizing Balažević’s artistic lexicon based on a wealth of critical writings (intimistic, magical, material, metaphysical, dreamlike…). Yet he never loses sight of Balažević and never betrays his work, offering firm positions and clear insights.

For all these reasons, I recommend this book for publication.

Rijeka, October 4, 2023

Ervin Dubrović