sonja marjanoviæ

Zagreb, lipanj 2012.

kvadrat kruga

sonja marjanoviæ

Konkretna umjetnost Sonje Marjanoviæ

Konkretna umjetnost Sonje Marjanoviæ ‘’Konkrete kunst’’ (‘’Art Concrete’’ ili hrvatski, ‘’Konkretna umjetnost’’) jedna je od velikih tema moderne umjetnosti 20. stoljeæa. Nizozemski avangardni umjetnik Theo van Doesburg (1883. - 1931.) razišao se sa svo-jim kolegom i prijateljem Pietom Mondrianom. Godine 1911., njih su dvojica osnovali grupu ‘’De Stijl’’ i manifestno propagirali geometrijsku apstrakciju, koju su imenovali neoplasticizmom. Mondrian je inzistirao na rigidnim horizontalama i vertikalama, i matematiËki izraËunatim ravnotežama obojanih polja Ëistih, pretežno osnovnih boja, unutar slikarske površine. Van Doesburg je slikao dijagonalno, premda su i njegovi oblici bile linije, trokuti i kvadrati, kao i u Mondriana. Mondrian se uvrijedio, i dija-gonalu smatrao izdajniËkom, i prekinuo suradnju i prijateljstvo s van Doesburgom. Ovaj je, nakon što mu je dozlogrdio zadrti Mondrianov stav prema umjetnosti, i prema apstrakciji poglavito, godine 1924. skovao sintagmu ‘’Konkrete Kunst’’, koja se razvija 20. - tih godina 20. stoljeæa, razvijajuæi se i šireæi u svojevrsnoj opoziciji apstraktnoj umjetnosti. I ‘’konkretna umjetnost’’ formalno, likovno i vizualno jest apstraktna umjetnost. Usporedba obaju apstraktnih formi, pobuuje revolucionarne i radikalne zahtjeve za novom umjetnošæu, za avangardnim tendencijama. Konkretna umjetnost izvodi se iz apstraktne i pikturalne umjetnosti sâme, i derivacija je geometrijske apstraktne umjetnosti. No, razlika je u tome što dotadašnja, prošla, apstrakcija, jest na svoj naËin bila umjetnost odreenoga objekta, i na taj naËin ima referencije u materi-jalnom svijetu, dok pretežno geometrijska apstrakcija ‘’konkretne umjetnosti’’ potpuno raskida veze i gubi referencije s materijalnim svijetom, jer je utemeljena na sasvim neobjektnim umjetniËkim postulatima. Njezin se smisao usredotoËuje na uglove, linije i jasno definirana geometrijska polja boje, koji se referiraju sami na sebe, što znaËi da stvaraju vlastitu umjetniËku stvarnost, svojstvenu i bitnu za slikarstvo. K tome, po velikom filozofu klasiËnog njemaËkog idealizma, Georgu Wilhelmu Friedrichu Hegelu - koji je iznio sumnju u moguænost razvoja umjetnosti, te godine 1952. proglasio umjetnost mrtvom, no svrstao ju je dakako u zonu apsolutnoga duha - duhovni Ëin u procesu stvaranja umjetniËkog djela, daje vizualnu ekspresiju u jasno strukturiranome djelu. Konkretna umjetnost inzistira upravo na hegelijanskoj ideji da je umjetniËko stvaranje duhovni proces. U jednom jedinom broju Ëasopisa ‘’ Art Concrete’’ koji izlazi u Parizu 1930. godine, van Doesburg objavljuje manifest ‘’konkretne umjetnosti’’, u kojemu objavljuje da pikturalni element nema bitno znaËenje izvan sebe i da time slikarstvo takoer nema izvanjsko znaËenje onkraj sebe samoga. Ujedno ‘’konkretnu umjetnost’’ mora karakterizirati ideja da je umjetnost voena zakonima logike, te da je utemeljena na racionalnim principima.

Theo van Doesburg 1930. godine u Parizu osniva ‘’Art Concrete Group’’ kojoj su pristupili Marcel Wantz, Leon Tutundjian i Jean Hélion. Godinu dana kasnije, 1931., takoer u Parizu, van Doesburg s Jean Hélionom, Georgesom Vantongerloom i Augustom Herbinom osniva grupu ‘’Apstraction-Création’’ i istoimeni Ëasopis s pod-naslovom: ‘’L’art non-figuratif’’, koji svojim izlaženjem od 1932. do 1936. vrši znatan utjecaj na meunarodno širenje apstrakcije, a zapravo kao opozicijsko drugaËije mišljenje u odnosu na ondašnju apsolutnu dominaciju nadrealizma u Parizu. Grupi ‘’Apstraction-Création’’ pridružuju se: Piet Mondrian (pomirio se s van Doesburgom, sve

radi kontriranja nadrealizmu), Vasilij Kandinsky, Albert Gleizes, Nizozemci Bart van der Leck i Theo Kerg, Švicarac Hans Erni, Englezi Marlow Moss, John Wardell Power (koji apstrakciju prenosi u Australiju gdje se seli), Paule Vezelay, Ben Nicholson i supruga mu kiparica Barbara Hepworth, Nijemac dadaist Kurt Schwitters, Alzašanin Hans (Jean) Arp i Japanac Taro Okamoto.

Glavni predstavnici konkretne umjetnosti u 1930-im godinama bile su grupe ‘’Art Concrete’’ i ‘’Apstraction-Création’’. Pionirski impulsi konkretne umjetnosti bili su posebno utjecajni u Švicarskoj, gdje su je prakticirale grupe poput ‘’Zürich Concretists’’ i ‘’Allianz Group’’. Najvažniji švicarski konkretni umjetnici bili su Max Bill, Camille Graeser i Richard Paul Lohse. Apstrakcija je takoer plodno tlo našla u Italiji, gdje su osnovane dvije grupe: grupa ‘’Million’’ (Giuseppe Ghiringhelli, Mauro Reggiani i Oreste Bogliardi) i grupa ‘’Comasco’’ (Atanasio Soldati, Bruno Munari, Carla Badiali, Luigi Veronesi, Manlio Rho i Mario Radice).

Poslije Drugoga svjetskog rata umjetnici konkretne umjetnosti kljuËni su utjecaj ostavili na cijelu generaciju slikara ‘’Njujorške škole’’, osobito onih usmjerenih prema slikarstvu ‘’Hard Edgea’’ (Elsworth Kelly i Kenneth Noland) i ‘’Colour Field Paintinga’’ (Mark Rothko, Ad Reinhardt, Adolph Gottlieb, Frank Stella, Barnett Newmann, Al Held, Alfred Jansen i Theodoros Stamos).

Hrvatska moderna umjetnost nije imala izravnog pripadnika neke od grupa konkret-ne umjetnosti, kao ni apstraktne slikare vezane za meunarodnu scenu. Tek kasnije, iza Drugoga svjetskog rata pojavilo se mnogo apstraktnih umjetnika i u Hrvatskoj. Sada, krajem prošlog stoljeæa i tisuæljeæa pojavila se grupacija novih geometriËara (neo-geo), kao dalekog asocijativnog odjeka na tendencije konkretne umjetnosti iz prve polovice 20. stoljeæa. ZagrebaËka dizajnerica i slikarica Sonja Marjanoviæ izra-van je sljedbenik postulata konkretne umjetnosti, Ëak bi se moglo reæi da je jedina hrvatska slikarica mlae generacije koja slika apstraktno slikarstvo na tragu konkretne umjetnosti. Nakon nekoliko dosadašnjih uspješnih izložaba, daljnjim je neumornim slikanjem u posljednje vrijeme stvorila ciklus koji je nazvala Kvadratura kruga. Ciklus Kvadratura kruga - dio kojega sada izlaže u prostorima Privredne banke Zagreb - nastavlja se na njezina preispitivanja vlastitih doživljaja boja i svjetlosti.

U ranijim stvaralaËkim godinama Sonja Marjanoviæ slikala je koloristiËki sugestivne krajolike. No, to nisu bili realistiËki krajolici, “prepisani” iz promatranoga u prirodi na platno. Slikala je svoje doživljaje prirode. Uspostavila je lirsko - poetiËan diskurs slikanja krajolika, koji je uostalom, bio krajolikom bez topografije, ili bolje, krajolikom njezinih unutarnjih stanja i shvaæanja prirode. Veæ su tada ovi krajolici bili na granici figuracije i apstrakcije, slikani iznimno otvorenom i toplom koloristiËkom skalom. Doimali su se poput nadrealnih vizija. Smisao i osjeæaj za boje, slikanje sa znatnim emotivnim uplivom i unošenje senzualnosti, ostao je prisutan i u posve plošnim slika-ma koje radi i danas. Tek je racionalizirala potez, jer novo joj slikarstvo zahtjeva punu izvoaËku koncentraciju i strpljenje, s voljom da stabilizira jednu novu vrst higijene vizije i novu tipologiju slike.

Sonja Marjanoviæ u svojemu slikarstvu postavlja svoj temeljni strukturirajuËi ele-ment: traku, liniju i/ili prugu, i kombinira je sa simetriËnim geometrijskim likovima,

kvadratom, pravokutnikom i krugom, katkada i trokutom. Vizualna struktura joj je jako važna. U vodoravnoj, okomitoj ili dijagonalnoj traci te u geometrijskim likovima, Sonja istodobno cijeni strukturalnu strogost i potencijalno joj bogatstvo. Ovi cjeloviti jednostavni oblici takoer predstavljaju fragmente kada se upotrijebe u seriji; ponav-ljanje motiva ujedinjuje oslikanu površinu, a istodobno stvara isprekidanost pravilne kvadratne kompozicijske cjeline. Kada bismo kvalificirali ovo slikarstvo, rekli bismo da elementarnom podjelom formata postaje blisko minimalizmu, ali s obzirom na kolo-ristiËka ulanËavanja pripada osobnom i osebujnom tipu geometrijske apstrakcije, na tragu konkretne umjetnosti. Dakle, u znaËajnome pojednostavljenju svojega vokabula-ra, Sonje koristi geometrijsku strukturu, tvoreæi simetriËna polja s pravilnim rubovima. Nastoji da svaki element saËuva svoj znaËaj i svoju samostalnost, ostajuæi ipak tijesno povezan s ostalima. Ta se težnja konkretizirala preispitivanjem naËela plošnosti slike. Plošnost je apsolutizirana: slikarica prekriva površinu all over. Apsolutizirana plošnost logiËno, negira i najmanji trag volumena, a time i najmanji trag sugestije prostora. Ujedno, volumen nestaje izbrisan stalnim ponavljanjem naslikanih geometrijskih elemenata: razliËite se strane vide kao jedna velika obojana površina. Oslikana je površina ujedno i iskaz perfekcionistiËke težnje, kako u tehniËkome i zanatskom, tako i u optiËkom smislu. Ako je savršeno pravilna podjela formata na simetriËne trake ili geometrijske likove jedan od imperativa Sonjine estetike, drugi joj je impe-rativ - boja. Kao i u mnogih drugih dobrih slikara, i kod Sonje je boja više mjesto duhovnosti i meditacije nego prazna formalna sastavnica. Više od bilo kojega drugog elementa, boja daje ljudsku dimenziju ovome slikarstvu; ona je mjera proživljenosti geometrijskog motiva, izraz njegova vitalizma. Boje daju aromu i osjetilno-osjeæajnu ugoajnost, koja sjajno korespondira s perceptivnom autoriËinom oštrinom, uvjerljivo prenesenom na promatraËe njezinih djela. Drugim rijeËima, boje nanesene na geome-trijske plohe, i svojim izborom i svojim djelovanjem, imaju moæ transkripcije jednoga osjeæaja, nekoga svijetla, sjeæanja na kakvu dragu osobu, ili osobito, na doživljaje akumulirane u nutrini biæa. Žuta, oker i smea u nekoliko varijanti Ëesto dominiraju u Sonjinim slikama, jer su reminiscencije na boju pustinjskoga pijeska, na boju Afrike. Uz to, boje kojim premazuje svoje trake, ili svoje kvadrate, pravokutnike, trokute i krugove - koje takoer varira u svojim kompozicijskim strukturama - uvijek su Ëiste u gami, jer nikada ne slika tonskim nijansiranjem. Prevlast toplih boja oznaËava toplinu osjeæaja. Na taj naËin funkcionira i koloristiËka heraldika: upravo æe žuta, naranËasta, oker i crvena predstavljati boje jakih osjeæaja, dok æe plava biti ambijentalna asocija-cija na dnevno ili veËernje nebo. Kao da njezine boje nose u sebi nekakvu nostalgiËnu težinu. »ak i kada upotrebljava bijelu, sivu i crnu neboju, Sonja ih senzibilizira u neznatnim varijacijama. Dakle, premda je nasljednica i sljedbenica serijalne estetike, nazoËne i u konkretnoj umjetnosti, slikarica sve više odbacuje Ëisti formalizam, i traži naËine kako humanizirati geometrijsko apstraktnu umjetnost, udahnjujuæi joj svojevr-snu Ëuvstvenu kakvoæu.

Za shvaæanje ovih slika, važan je osvrt na ritmiziranje pojedinih površina. Sonjina likovna djela progovaraju uvijek novim ritmom postavljenih traka, ritmom okomica, vodoravnica i dijagonala, kao da žele svjedoËiti o neiscrpnosti umjetniËke kreacije unutar zadanoga modela. RitmiËke varijacije opstoje u upotrebljenim bojama, u gustoæi rasporeda linija, i u debljini i duljini linija.

Privid programiranoga rada, savršenoga geometrijskog spoja od jednostavnih i monotonih multipliciranih jedinica obojanih traka ili geometrijski podijeljenih ploha u jednostavno optiËko polje, navodi nas na pomisao o diskretnoj dekorativnoj prirodi Sonjina umjetniËkog proizvoda. Da bi svojim plastiËkim istraživanjima dala snažniji izraz, svodi ih na profinjene kromatske registre. Proces slikanja joj je takav da zato-mljuje rukopis do glatke, sjajne fakture, što dodatno naglašava završeno umjetniËko djelo kao samostalnu vizualnu plastiËku Ëinjenicu.

Koristeæi iskustva avangardnih stilskih formacija koje svoj likovni izriËaj i umjet-niËko djelovanje grade na transformiranju umjetniËke zbilje u samosvojne duhovne posljedice, Sonja Marjanoviæ problematizira odnose optiËke iluzije u zakletoj shemi dvodimenzionalne, plošne konkretnosti. Iz nje je posve eliminiran i najmanji trag predmetne zbilje, ne bi li se uspostavio potpuno apstraktni prócédée.

Njezino se slikarstvo može upisati u veliku postmodernistiËku obitelj, upravo zato što predstavlja specifiËni i osobni stilski idiom neo - geo poetike, derivirane iz povijesne avangarde ‘’Konkrete Kunsta’’ te se smješta u sinkretiËno polje hrvatske, ali i planetarne suvremene umjetnosti. Istodobno geometrijsko i senzualno, njezino je slikarstvo sinteza minimal - arta i geometrijsko apstraktne tradicije sa suvremenim slikarskim istraživanjima.

U Zagrebu, travnja mjeseca 2012.Enes Quien

Concrete Art of Sonja Marjanoviæ

‘’Konkrete kunst’’ (‘’Art Concrete’’ or in Croatian, ‘’Konkretna umjetnost’’) happens to be one of the great themes of the contemporary 20th century art. Theo van Doesburg (1883 - 1931),Dutch avant-garde artist parted ways with his colleague and friend Piet Mondrian. In 1911 the two of them founded ‘’De Stijl’’ group and in manifestoes they propagated geometric abstraction which they named neoplasticism. Mondrian insisted on rigid horizontal and vertical lines and on mathematically calculated bal-ances of fields filled with pure, primarily basic colours, within the painting’s surface. Van Doesburg was painting diagonally, but still, just like Mondrian, relied on lines, triangles and squares. Mondrian took offense, considered diagonal painting to be a betrayal and ended both his cooperation and friendship with Theo van Doesburg. The latter, having been fed up with Mondrian’s close-minded attitude towards art and especially towards abstraction, in 1924 coined a phrase ‘’Konkrete Kunst’’, which developed and expanded in the 1920s as a sort of opposition to abstract art. In terms of form, painting and visual experience, Concrete Art is abstract art. A comparison of both abstract forms incites revolutionary and radical demands for new art, for avant-garde tendencies. Concrete Art has originated from the very abstract and pictorial art and represents a derived geometric abstract art. However, the difference lies within the fact that the past abstraction at that time was art of a certain object in its own way, consequently reflected in the material world, whereas the prevailing geometrical abstraction used in Concrete Art completely severs ties and loses any touch with the material world, given that it is founded on fully object-free artistic postulates. Its purpose is to focus on angles, lines and clearly defined geometrical colour fields which bear their own reference, which means that they create their own artistic reality, inherent and relevant to painting. In addition, according to the great philosopher of the classic German idealism, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, who voiced a suspicion of the possibility of development of art and in 1952 declared art dead, yet naturally clas-sified art into the zone of absolute spirit - a spiritual act while a work of art is being created, gives a visual expression in a clearly structured work. Concrete Art precisely insists on Hegelian concept that artistic creation happens to be a spiritual process. In a single edition of the magazine ‘’Art Concrete’’ issued in Paris in 1930, van Doesburg published a manifesto of Concrete Art where he stated that the pictorial element bore no relevant external meaning and by extension, that painting had no purpose other than itself. Furthermore, Concrete Art should be characterised by the concept that art relies on the laws of logic and that it is based on rational principles.

In 1930 in Paris Theo van Doesburg established the ‘’Art Concrete Group’’ to which Marcel Wantz, Leon Tutundjian and Jean Hélion joined. A year later, in 1931 and in Paris once again, van Doesburg together with Jean Hélion, Georges Vantongerloo and Auguste Herbin founded agroup called ‘’Apstraction-Création’’ and a magazine under the same name and subtitled: ‘’L’art non-figuratif’’, which for the duration of its life, i.e. from 1932 and 1936, had a profound impact on dissemination of the idea of abstraction on the international level, but actually as an opposed and a different opinion compared to the then prevailing domination of surrealism in Paris. The group ‘’Apstraction-Création’’ grew: Piet Mondrian (he and van Doesburg had made up by

then, mostly united in their opposition to surrealism), Vasilij Kandinsky, Albert Gleizes, the Dutch Bart van der Leck and Theo Kerg, the Swiss Hans Erni, the English Marlow Moss, John Wardell Power (who brought abstraction with him to Australia when he moved), Paule Vezelay, Ben Nicholson and his wife sculptor Barbara Hepworth, German dadaist Kurt Schwitters, Hans (Jean) Arp from Alsaceand Taro Okamoto from Japan all joined in.

The main representatives of the Concrete Art movement in the 1930s were the groups ‘’Art Concrete’’ and ‘’Apstraction-Création’’. Pioneer impulses of Concrete Art exerted special influence in Switzerland, where they are reflected in the works of the groups such as ‘’Zürich Concretists’’ and ‘’Allianz Group’’. The most important repre-sentatives of the Concrete Art movement in Switzerland were Max Bill, Camille Graeser and Richard Paul Lohse. Abstract art also found favourable climate in Italy where two groups were established: ‘’Million’’ (Giuseppe Ghiringhelli, Mauro Reggiani and Oreste Bogliardi) and group ‘’Comasco’’ (Atanasio Soldati, Bruno Munari, Carla Badiali, Luigi Veronesi, Manlio Rho and Mario Radice).

After the World War II, the artists of the Concrete Art movement left a lasting impression on an entire generation of painters of the New York School, in particular on the ones guided by Hard Edge painting (Elsworth Kelly and Kenneth Noland) and Colour Field painting (Mark Rothko, Ad Reinhardt, Adolph Gottlieb, Frank Stella, Barnett Newmann, Al Held, Alfred Jansen and Theodoros Stamos).

Croatian contemporary art did not have a direct member in any of the Concrete Art groups, or any abstract painters on the international scene. It was only later, when the Word War II had already ended that many abstract painters appeared also in Croatia. At the end of the last century and millennium a group of new geometric artists (neo-geo) emerged in a remote response to the tendencies of the Concrete Art in the first half of the 20th century. Sonja Marjanoviæ, designer and painter from Zagreb, happens to be a direct follower of the Concrete Art postulate; one could even say she is the only Croatian younger generation painter whose works show abstract art with elements of Concrete Art. She had a couple of successful exhibitions so far, yet she remains relentless in her painting and has only recently created a cycle titled Kvadratura kruga (Square Rectangularity). The cycle Kvadratura kruga - parts of which are presently exhibited on the premises of Privredna banka Zagreb - builds onto her queries of own experiences of colours and light.

In her early works, Sonja Marjanoviæ was painting landscapes in suggestive colours. However, these were not realistic landscapes, „copied“ from the nature onto to the canvas. What she painted was how she experienced nature. She established a lyrical-poetic discourse of landscape art, which was actually a landscape without topographi-cal features, or better said, a landscape of her own inner states and understanding of nature. Already then these landscapes were on the verge between figurative and abstract, painted in an exceptionally open and warm colour scale. They seemed posi-tively surreal. Her colour sense and instinct, her works that introduced so many of her emotions and sensuality, may even be seen in fully flat works that she even paints nowadays. Her brush strokes have only been made „rational“, as this new way of

painting requires both full concentration in performance and patience, with a will to stabilize a new kind of hygiene of vision and new painting typology.

The basic structural elements in her works are: band, line and/or track, which she combines with symmetrical geometrical forms, square, rectangle, and sometimes even triangle. Visual structure is very important to her. Sonja values both the austerity of structure and the abundance that lies beyond in a horizontal, vertical or diagonal bands and geometric forms. These complete simple forms also represent fragments, once added in a sequence; repeating a motif brings the painted surface into unison, while simultaneously breaking the perfect whole of a regular square composition. If we were to categorize this kind of painting, we would say that it is close to minimalism with its elementary division of forms; however, given the colour sequences, we would say that it belongs to a personal and rather particular type of geometric abstraction with traces of concrete art. Therefore, in what is a significant simplification of her vocabulary, Sonja uses the geometric structure by creating symmetrical fields with regular edges. She tries for each element to maintain its features and independence, while remaining closely linked to others. This ambition of hers has manifested in bring-ing the principles of painting flatness into question. The flatness is made absolute: the painter covers the surface all over. In a logical string of thought, the absolute flatness denies the least trace of volume and in the process also the least trace of a suggestion of elements. At the same time, the volume disappears through constant repetition of painted geometrical forms: different sides come together as a large painted surface. A painted surface also comes as an expression of aspirations for perfection, in terms of technique and craft but also from the optical point of view. If one of the imperatives of the aesthetics of Sonja happens to be a perfect division of forms into symmetrical bands or geometrical forms, another would be - the colour. As seen often with many other fine painters, Sonja uses colour more for the sake of spirituality rather than merely using it as a technical element. More than any other element, colour gives this kind of painting a human dimension; it stands for the measure of an experienced geo-metrical motif, an expression of its zest. Colours are what give an aroma and palpably-sentimental gratification which beautifully corresponds with the obvious clarity of the author, which is transferred to the admirers of her works. To put it differently, the colours laid on geometrical surfaces, how they were chosen and with their effect, are able to transcribe a feeling, a light, a memory of a loved one, or in particular, experiences accumulated within one’s self. Several shades of yellow, ochre and brown often dominate Sonja’s paintings, given that they are reminiscent of the colour of desert sand, of Africa. In addition, the colours applied to all of her bands or squares, rectangles, triangles or circles - are clear; she never paints in shades. The prevailing warm colours translate into warmth of feelings. This is how colour heraldic also works: yellow, orange, ochre and red stand for strong emotions, whereas blue will be a more ambience association of day or night sky. It is as if her colours carry within a sort of a nostalgic heaviness. Even when she uses white, grey and black, which are non-colours, Sonja gives them an emotional touch with negligible variations. Therefore, although she is the descendent and follower of serial aesthetics, seen also in the concrete art,

the painter has been ever so more discarding pure formalism and searching for ways to humanize geometric-abstract art, breathing into it a kind of sentimental quality.

In order to understand these paintings, we have to see the rhythm of individual surfaces. Sonja’s works of art always change rhythmically in how the bands, vertical lines, horizontal and diagonal lines are placed, as if they wish to testify to the inex-haustible artistic creation within a set model. Rhythmic variations are brought to life in the colours she uses, the density of the lines as well as in the thickness and length of the lines.

A sense of programmed work, perfect geometrical bond of simple and monotonous multiplied units of painted bands or geometrically divided areas into a simple optical field, gets us thinking about the discrete decorative nature of Sonja’s artistic product. In order to give a stronger statement to her plastic research, she diminishes them to sophisticated chromatic registers. The painting process is such that it silences the handwriting up to a smooth, shiny facture, which additionally accentuates a finished work of art as an independent visual plastic fact.

Relying on the experiences of avant-garde style formations that build their artistic expression and effect on the transformation of artistic reality into personal spiritual effects, Sonja Marjanoviæ confronts the optical illusion relationship in what is a sworn two-dimensional flat concrete work of art. Such concreteness fully eliminates the least trace of reality in order to provide a fully abstract prócédée.

Her works of art may be included into the large post-modern family, precisely because they represent a specific and personal stylistic idiom of neo-geo poetics, which derives from the historical avant-garde of „Konkrete Kunst“ and happens to belong to Croatia, but also into the planetary contemporary art. While at the same time geometric and sensual, her paintings come into a synthesis of the minimal art and geometric-abstract tradition with contemporary painting explorations.

In Zagreb, April 2012Enes Quien

ružiËasta zona, 2007, ulje na platnu, 72x72x7cmpink zone, 2007, oil on canvas, 72x72x7cm

ledeni sjaj, 2007, ulje na platnu, 100x100x7cmicy shine, 2007, ulje na platnu, 100x100x7cm

veliki plavi val, 2007, ulje na platnu, 72x72x7cmgreat blue wave, 2007, oil on canvas, 72x72x7cm

veliki ružiËasti val, 2007, ulje na platnu, 72x72x7cmgreat pink wave, 2007, oil on canvas, 72x72x7cm

funky valovi 3, 2007, ulje na platnu, 100x100x3cmfunky vawes 3, 2007, oil on canvas, 100x100x3cm

funky valovi 5, 2007, ulje na platnu, 100x100x3cmfunky vawes 5, 2007, oil on canvas, 100x100x3cm

funky valovi 1, 2007, ulje na platnu, 100x120x3cmfunky vawes 1, 2007, oil on canvas, 100x120x3cm

defile, 2007, ulje na platnu, 100x120x3cmdéfilé, 2007, oil on canvas, 100x120x3cm

na raskršæu, 2012, ulje na platnu, 100x100x3cmon the crossroad, 2012, oil on canvas, 100x100x3cm

bez šeæera, 2012, ulje na platnu 100x100x3cmsugar free, 2012, oil on canvas, 100x100x3cm

tropska vruæina, 2012, ulje na platnu, 100x120x3cmtropical heat, 2012, oil on canvas, 100x120x3cm

do jutra, 2012, ulje na platnu, 100x120x3cmuntil the morning, 2012, oil on canvas, 100x120x3cm

na zlatnoj plaži, 2012, ulje na platnu, 100x120x3cmon the golden beach, 2012, oil on canvas, 100x120x3cm

parobrod niz rijeku, 2012, ulje na platnu, 100x120x3cmsteamboat down the river, 2012, oil on canvas, 100x120x3cm

rijeËni kamen, 2012, ulje na platnu, 100x100x3cmriver stone, 2012, oil on canvas, 100x100x3cm

staklena kuæa, 2012, ulje na platnu, 100x100x3cmglass house, 2012, oil on canvas, 100x100x3cm

dugo ljeto, 2012, ulje na platnu, 90x116x3cmlong summer, 2012, oil on canvas, 90x116x3cm

Ëudesno jezero, 2012, ulje na platnu, 100x100x3cmwonder lake, 2012, oil on canvas, 100x100x3cm

Was born 23 July 1970 in Zagreb, Croatia. She finished Art Design School iz Zagreb. In 1989 she enrolled in the Study of Design course at the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Zagreb and successfully completed it in 1994. In 1999 she finished the Post Diploma Study in Business Marketing at the University of Zagreb, Faculty of Economics. For the past ten years she has been creating and designing sculptures in ceramics and painting oil on canvas.

Sonja MarjanoviæRoðena je 23. srpnja 1970. u Zagrebu. Nakon završene Škole za primjenjenu umjetnost i dizajn u Zagrebu, 1989. godine upisala je Studij dizajna na Arhitektonskom fakultetu Sveuèilišta u Zagrebu. 1997. godine upisala je poslijediplomski studij Upravljanja poslovnim marketingom na Ekonomskom fakultetu Sveuèilišta u Zagrebu te uspješno magistrirala 1999. godine. Izradom i dizajniranjem skulptura i satova od keramike te slikanjem bavi se veæ više od petnaest godina.

Sonja Marjanoviæ, F. Fuisa 6, 10000 Zagreb;www.sonja-mar.com; sonja_marjanovic@yahoo.com