The Ljubljana Graphic School is one
of the most significant pillars of international recognition of visual arts in
the Republic of Slovenia in the 20th century. It is inseparable from the
Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts. Quality and scope of printmaking
production, which has stimulated experimentation with any printmaking technique
one could have thought of, grew simultaneously with the audience, addressed by
the extraordinary printmaking discipline.
Part of this cultural phenomenon was
also the rise of the original greeting card, which can be compared to the
original postcard proliferated at the turn of the 19th into the 20th century.
Intended primarily to the colleagues, but not limited only to the professional
community, the original greeting card is keen to the Ex libris as a species of
small original print.
The collection of the New Year's
greeting cards form the bequest of Marjan and Bogica Pogačnik is perhaps the
largest collection of its kind. Three hundred and thirty original and one
hundred and forty reproduced cards make the basic collection which can be
expanded by further systematic collecting. The most dedicated printmakers have
printed their own greeting cards for decades.
The selection of samples in
exhibition represents symbolically the character of the collection since the
collection itself is limited solely to the fifty colleagues and friends of the
extraordinary printmaker Marjan Pogačnik.
7 December 2023 – 3 January 2024
National Gallery of Slovenia
Prešernova 24
1000 Ljubljana