When
June 26, 2021 12:00 am
July 28, 2021 12:00 am
Where
Baška, Zvonimir Gallery

Josip Restek’s work is determined by the time frame but also by the geographical context in which he was born, where he lived and worked. His art is a reflection of lived experience, impressions caused by direct observation of nature, situations, and objects. He records what he sees and experiences in a distinctive way, creating a distinctive and recognizable visual expression.

In five fruitful decades of artistic activity, he created an oeuvre that includes rounded visual units, characterized by a pronounced individuality that is difficult to classify within the framework of the visual production of his contemporaries. Although Restek created interesting paintings, experimentation with graphic techniques is of particular importance in his work. The exhibition, which presents around twenty paintings and prints from the author’s family legacy, which numbers several hundred works, is just a small reminder of Restek’s presence in Croatian modern art. The works selected are from different phases of his creative work: paintings from the time of Restek’s intensive travels to European cultural centers, works inspired by folklore themes, prints in which traces of innovations in technique can be discerned, and which show hints of an alternative landscape. The exhibited paintings of marine motifs created during the artist’s stay on the coast do not belong to the top of the author’s production in terms of artistic quality, but they have an important emotional place in his work. In the artistic legacy of Josip Restek, the figurative works from the 1950s are interesting. Their content is related to the human figure, individual children’s figures or groups of children depicted at play. Formally, they are compositions of intense color, shapes reduced to basic forms, without insisting on detail or faithful imitation of motifs. They seem somewhat naive, like an inarticulate child’s drawing, in the vein of art brut… It is interesting to mention that these works were created at a time when Restek traveled a lot, visited exhibitions, often stayed in Paris, got to know the local art production, and socialized intensively with contemporaries, artists who introduced him to the Parisian art world. It is difficult to say with certainty what the provenance of these works is, but the topic is all the more intriguing because the simultaneous paintings and graphics inspired by folk and folklore traditions represent similar artistic solutions. The artist’s achievements in the graphic techniques of intaglio, letterpress and flat printing have been valorized on several occasions, presented at retrospective and studio exhibitions, thanks to which Restek has gained a well-deserved place in national graphic production. For this occasion, several abstract motifs were selected, examples of alternative landscapes inspired by individual shapes from nature or images of the vastness of space. A lesser-known line of Restek’s visual art is the one that speaks of his creativity in the island environment: paintings of coastal motifs that he records in a more or less realistic manner. In a climate rich in color, light, a specific atmosphere and way of life, impressions accumulate that are manifested in derivatives of painted landscapes and are outlined in various forms in the author’s countless visual solutions.

Vilma Bartolić Josip Restek – Zvonimir Gallery.pdf