Permanent Collection

From 1918 onwards

Rihard Jakopič

(Ljubljana, 1869–1943)

The Sava
(1928−1930), oil, plywood, 47 x 68,7 cm
signed lower right: R. JAKOPIČ.

NG S 2029, National Gallery of Slovenia, Ljubljana

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Jakopič’s landscape can be understood as an artistic assignment to use 3 primary tones – green, blue, and yellowish orange – to paint all the features in the work (banks, a dune, trees, water, and the hills), which are only recognizable juxtaposed alongside one another in synthesis, in a relationship of one to the other. The bold hues and barely defined swaths of color border on the abstract, but it remains objectively recognizable as the Sava’s banks near Tacen. Jakopič remains faithful to reality, even if he quite early began injecting it with elements of impressionism and symbolism.

The Sava was an important river for him: he was the founder of the eponymous artistic association (in 1903), and after WWI he made dozens of paintings along its banks. The impression in these works was not a thing of spontaneous whim, but a desired, integral part of his artistic trademark. Sava pri Mednu (The Sava in Medno) was painted by Gojmir Anton Kos, albeit it in a stylistically completely different manner, but as the most talented member of the younger generation, he was certainly worthy of the master’s attention.

Literature: Tomaž Brejc, Jakopičeve Save: impresije in teorije, in: Miloš Bašin (ed.), Rihard Jakopič, Risbe in slike, Sava, Bežigrajska galerija, 25 October – 16 November 2000, p. 37

Exhibition: Rihard Jakopič, Risbe in slike, Sava, Bežigrad Gallery, 25 October – 16 November 2000

ABOUT THE PERIOD

The Third Renaissance in Slovenia

The twentieth century was the third period in history that elevated Ljubljana to an active art centre on the Slovenian ethnic territory. This era is marked by artistic trends that originated in the world art centres, while only rarely symptoms of local tradition and continuity can be traced. Although the Expressionists are usually ranked as belonging to the historical avant-garde, it is necessary to distinguish within their group between continuity and radicalism. The long shadow of Art Nouveau – particularly in the expressionist oeuvres of the brothers Kralj, France and Tone, and some other representatives of this generation who studied in Prague – extends via the expressive pre-WW1 paintings by Fran Tratnik all the way from its hard core with Gustav Klimt and the Wiener Werkstätte of the turn of the century. The artists’ updated formal methods frequently carry on the patterns of allegorical interpretation. Not even Stane Kregar is completely free from it in his Surrealist manner which he adopted in Prague. The dominant line is paralleled by a more promising colour intimism of the older generation with the relationship between the Flowers, Fruit and Jug by Alexey Jawlensky and The Sava by Jakopič.

Colour realism of the 1930s prevailed in the generation or two that came from the Zagreb academy (France Mihelič, Maksim Sedej, early Zoran Mušič, and Gabriel Stupica), and their counterpart Gojmir Anton Kos is an outstanding representative of pure painting which likewise drew on the orthodox premises of Courbet’s and Manet’s realism. Among the sculptors, Frančišek Smerdu belongs to this generation. These representatives, who with authority and teaching zeal settled in the core of the newly established Ljubljana academy, helped to spread modernist trends in the second half of the century, which were all to the end of the 1970s still influenced by the authority of Paris as the principal art centre. Younger artists, such as Marij Pregelj among painters and Jakob Savinšek, Drago Tršar and Stojan Batič among sculptors, belong to this eminent company. Representatives of Italian painting of the 1930s, such as Gino Severini, Giorgio Morandi and Filippo de Pisis, demonstrate that Slovenian art in this century surpassed the limits of regional ambitions as well as achievements.

ARTISTS

Owner	Birth - death
Anonymous	-
Stojan Batič	(Trbovlje, 1925 − Ljubljana, 2015)
Mirsad Begić	(*Glamoč, 1953)
Gvidon Birolla	(Trieste, 1881 − Ljubljana, 1963)
Renato Birolli	(Verona, 1907 – Milan, 1959)
Massimo Campigli	(Berlin, 1895 – Saint-Tropez, 1971)
Filippo De Pisis	(Ferrara, 1896 – Milan, 1956)
Lojze Dolinar	(Ljubljana, 1893 − Ičići, Opatija, 1970)
France Gorše	(Zamostec, Sodražica, 1897 − Golnik, 1986)
Rihard Jakopič	(Ljubljana, 1869–1943)
Matija Jama	(Ljubljana, 1872–1947)
Zdenko Kalin	(Solkan, Gorizia, 1911 − Ljubljana, 1990)
Fran Klemenčič	(Ljubljana, 1880−1961)
Ivana Kobilca	(Ljubljana, 1861–1926)
Gojmir Anton Kos	(Gorizia, 1896 − Ljubljana, 1970)
Tone Kralj	(Zagorica, Dobrepolje, 1900 − Ljubljana, 1975)
France Kralj	(Zagorica, Dobrepolje, 1895 – Ljubljana, 1960)
Stane Kregar	(Zapuže, 1905 − Ljubljana, 1973)
Peter Loboda	(Domžale, 1894 − Ljubljana, 1952)
Filip Andreievich Maliavine	(Orenburg, 1869 – Nice, 1940)
France Mihelič	(Virmaše, Škofja Loka, 1907 − Ljubljana, 1998)
Giorgio Morandi	(Bologna, 1890–1964)
Zoran Mušič	(Bukovica near Gorizia, 1909 – Venice, 2005)
Ivan Napotnik	(Zavodnje, Šoštanj, 1888 − Šoštanj, 1960)
Cipriano Efisio Oppo	(Rome, 1891–1962)
Veno Pilon	(Ajdovščina, 1896−1970)
Marij Pregelj	(Kranj, 1913 − Ljubljana, 1967)
Alojzij Repič	(Vrhpolje, 1866 – Ljubljana, 1941)
Janko Samsa	(Žirje, Sežana)
Jakob Savinšek	(Kamnik, 1922 − Kirchheim, 1961)
Maksim Sedej	(Dobračeva, Žiri, 1909 − Ljubljana, 1974)
Gino Severini	(Cortona, 1883 – Paris, 1966)
Frančišek Smerdu	(Postojna, 1908 − Ljubljana, 1964)
Matej Sternen	(Verd, 1870 – Ljubljana, 1949)
Gabrijel Stupica	(Dražgoše, 1913 – Ljubljana, 1990)
Saša Šantel	(Gorizia, 1883 − Ljubljana, 1945)
Fran Tratnik	(Potok, Nazarje, 1881 − Ljubljana, 1957)
Drago Tršar	(*Planina, Rakek, 1927 – Ljubljana, 2023)
Ivan Vavpotič	(Kamnik, 1877 – Ljubljana, 1943)
Alexej von Jawlensky	(Torzhok, 1864 – Wiesbaden, 1941)