Matija
Jama, Slovenian impressionist painter most worldly of his generation, was born
a hundred and fifty years ago. So dedicated to landscape and the countryside
has perhaps been only Ivan Grohar, although in a very different manner. The
samples of other genres are rather rare in Jama's oeuvre. They are limited to
the field studies of types (heads or full-scale "studies" of the
shepherds and peasant girls of Bela krajina).The second group consists of
images of people connected with his family. We can safely argue that Jama did not
paint public portraits. An outstanding exception are the unique Portrait of Leo Souvan, 1900, and a
depiction of his sister Portrait of Rozi
Bleiweis with Children, 1901. Both are on view in the permanent collection
of the National Gallery of Slovenia, New Wing. Jama took the commission of his
friend and patron as a professional assignment, cast it into the modernist Art
Nouveau mould and at the same time dignified the image of a self-confident
socialite, a member of the social elite of Ljubljana.
Almost all
other portraits known today remained in the artist's bequest, so they must
certainly be images of his immediate entourage. Among them are also thirteen of
all-together fifteen known self-portraits. In the ACH Collection, today part of
the National Gallery's holdings, there are four female portraits and three
self-portraits that must belong to the "family images". The model in
the portrait of a dark curly-haired young woman has not been identified. Frontal
bust of the girl in a dark dress is executed with the unleashed silhouette and
emancipated brushstroke. The dark tone of her hair and dress extrapolates the
tan of her face and the lowered neckline. The smaller portrait in three-quarter
profile is of painter's elder daughter Madelaine, reunited with her father in
1938. Taken in a close-up with cropped contour is painted in a very different
manner, although probably at the same time. The elongated brushstrokes model
the volumes and extoll the blush of her cheeks, while the whole is tempered in
colour and well balanced in tone. The remaining two portraits perhaps belong to
the same sitter, most likely Agnes, the younger daughter who visited the artist
with her mother in 1939. The sombre and tempered image is articulated with
rather long brushstrokes and dulled palette. As though lacking the depth of
field, the face is sharply defined, while the peripheral areas lend a sense of
incompleteness. Particularly outstanding is the portrait in a white shirt and with
an asymmetrical hairdo. By repetition of the facial outline parallel to the
picture surface, Jama produced an extremely modern painting that in tackling of
painting problems announces the solutions of the second half of the 20th
century.
Jama's
faces seem as specimens under a microscope offered to the mercy of the
painter's gaze, particularly when looking at the self-portraits. All three of
them were included in the 1974 exhibition in the Museum of Modern Art. The dark
bust with a ray of light from the right could be dated to the late 1920s. The
improvised make of the stretcher that holds the board indicates that there was
no definitive purpose to the artist's intentions. It was rather an experiment.
Quite differently touches us the stern face with spectacles. However, the
crudely expanded shoulder line indicates its state of un-finish. The small,
brightly lit image, although described in the 1974 catalogue as unfinished,
touches us vividly and expressively. It manifests a tremendously confident
painting routine, which pulls out the crucial elements of the painter's
physiognomy by suggestive and broad brushstrokes. That paint handling
chronologically corresponds to the actual realisms of the 1930s, while the
gestural laying on of the basic colours that at the same time determine the
light and the shaded areas are appreciated by today's viewers who draw from the
experience of gestural painting of the second half of the 20th century.
Author
Andrej Smrekar
Presented: 6 January 2022, 6 pm.
6 January – 1 February 2022
National Gallery of Slovenia
Prešernova 24
1000 Ljubljana