Religious art
Josip Restek (1915 – 1987) is exceedingly prolific sacral art painter with over 100 religious peaces commissioned around the world.
“Josip Restek’s sacral paintings belong to the anthological art pieces of Croatian sacral art history: Christ / Krist (crucifix / raspeće) …… and 14 stations of the crucifixion (woodcut and aquarelle). The last pieces, made in a memory of Christs suffering, are presented similar as stained glass window painting / vitraj. The illuminating color of Via crucis is full of pictures accurately describing Jesuses suffering through characters and events close to people. The time frame is realistic and the presentation simple and inspirational. The spiritual dimension is powerful.
Without Restek’s stations of the cross …… painted on the trail of expressionism, it is not possible to write the pages of Croatian sacral art history.
It is paramount today that Restek’s sacral art, which was not only the “bright light” but also torture of creation of the author, has to be nowadays thoroughly understood and recognized.”
Prof. Marina Baričević,
Homage à Josip Restek,
catalog of the retrospective exibition in Klovićevi Dvori galery in Zagreb,
2003.,
p. 9 – 10.
