Jernej Kožar
Bogdan Borčić: The Paintings
Contents
Introduction
Neo-Expressionism and Minimalist Art
Triangles
Doors
Studios
Introduction
1
The painting
oeuvre of Bogdan Borčić must be considered in three phases at the least:
post-academy works up to 1970 with engraving and painting in oils equally
present; the period between 1970 and 1980 devoted exclusively to engraving,
i.e. the shell motif in the techniques of etching and aquatint; and his works
after 1980 when engraving and painting were again equally in focus, only with the
latter in the technique of acrylic on canvas.
Since completing
his education, Borčić has constantly been present in the area of Slovenia and
former Yugoslavia. He regularly took part in group exhibitions that presented
the state of modern art and repeatedly aroused the interest of critics.
Borčić introduced
Mediterranean motifs into the visual arts in Slovenia. His father, Jakov
Borčić, was from Komiža on the island of Vis, Croatia, where Borčić spent his
holidays as a young man. The Mediterranean ambience marked him indelibly with
traces clearly discernible in his paintings and engravings from the 1950s and
1960s. His childhood experiences were certainly integrated in his subsequent
interest in natural forms in a magnificent series of engravings from the 1970s,
when Borčić devoted an entire decade exclusively to the shell motif.
When studying the
art of Borčić, some key texts written on the occasion of his exhibitions cannot
be avoided. Let me enumerate the outstanding ones: "Borčić: Between
Etching and Painting" by Ivan Sedej1, Borčić and the Dilemmas of Modernism by Jure Mikuž,2
"Continuity of Modernism"3 and Paintings of Space – The
Spaces of a Painting by Ješa Denegri,4 Bogdan Borčić and Contemporary Abstract Painting by Tomaž Brejc5
and, last but not least, the monograph on his etching oeuvre written by his
daughter Barbara Borčić, Bogdan Borčić:
Etchings.6 The books present an entire range of analyses of the
aesthetic structure of Borčić. The present essay is greatly indebted to the
above-mentioned texts, yet it deals with its theme from a slightly different
approach in an attempt to present the art of Borčić as a whole dependent on
contemporary events and stylistic trends that is conditioned by the place and,
last but not least, connected with the biography of the artist. The purpose of
the present text is to survey these elements, to shed light on each of them
individually and to combine them in a logical entity.
The text is
divided into two parts. The first is devoted to the historical and cultural
circumstances in which the artistic works of the painter were created. The
second part is dedicated to an analysis of individual paintings in an attempt
to integrate them into linear progression. The chapters can be read separately
with the omission of some more demanding parts according to the wishes of the
reader without impairing the reading process.
The present text
is the first to deal with an entire overview of the painting oeuvre by Borčić
and is intended as a complement to the monograph on his etching.
2
Bogdan Borčić was
born on 26 September 1926 in Ljubljana, Slovenia (part of the then Yugoslavia).
His father and mother, both with Master's degrees in pharmacy, ran a medicinal
pharmacy in Ljubljana. Borčić as a young man often visited Komiža on the island
Vis, Croatia, his father's birthplace, in the 1950s. The motifs of his early
paintings testify to this Mediterranean period: a fishing portal, fishing
tackle, a fishing sign, a pub, etc. His mother loved the arts and invited
numerous artists to her home and visited their studios with him.
As a teenager
during the Second World War, Bogdan Borčić developed his painting talent first
in the artistic school of Matej Sternen and subsequently under the tutorship of
France Gorše, both famous Slovene painters. He was imprisoned by the Germans
and sent to Dachau in 1944. The terrible experience of the concentration camp
marked the young artist for life, yet was never explicitly expressed in his
paintings and etchings the way it was with another artist, Zoran Mušič, his
fellow prisoner. The only exceptions are some rare works from the 1960s, e.g.
the significant "Gas Cell II" ("Brausenbad", 1962; Fig. 8).
The
horrors of the war produced general anxiety and fear that were expressed in art
as the so-called Art Informel (Ger. 'informal') in Europe and Abstract
Expressionism in America. That was the period of existentialism, severe anguish
of people and especially artists who produced difficult and sombre pictures
without discernible motifs in an attempt to avoid the demolished reality. The
utter destruction of the Second World War, when the basic motif itself
collapsed in front of the artist, was followed by the dreadful tension of the
Cold War that brought only new oppression instead of the anticipated victory
and relief. Abstract Expressionism and Art Informel came into existence as a
consequence of such circumstances. In Slovenia, Art Informel was not adopted by
artists, with the exception of the oeuvre of Rudolf Kotnik and some works by
Janez Bernik from the early 1960s. It seems that all the external influences in
Slovenia were filtered by the great artist Gabrijel Stupica, a teacher and
friend of Borčić and others.
Borčić entered the
Academy of Fine Arts in Ljubljana in 1946 and studied there with the painter
Gojmir Anton Kos. He intended to take a postgraduate specialist course in
painting with Gabrijel Stupica, yet interrupted his studies after the first
term; in his opinion, the influence of the teacher was too overwhelming. The
influence can actually be discerned in the method of painting: translucent
layers of paint and the selection of motifs. Stupica was a great master of
still life and (self-)portraits. However, it is not the motif that is
important, but the way in which it is presented, the way the artist expresses
his own vision of the world by means of common iconographic types. Translucent
layers of paint and often scratched or even haggard surfaces render the basic
character of the paintings. Another typical feature of Stupica is elongated
figures twisted in an expressionist manner, devoid of everything physical,
tangible, material, typical of life. These are only the signs that keep his
pictures on this side of abstraction.
At the beginning
of his career, Borčić often painted his self-portraits as if seeking his own
expression – as if attempting to find himself in the multitude of various
techniques available to him (Fig. 3). Apart from the influence of Stupica that
was indirect and discernible in the details, e.g. the style of painting and the
choice of motifs, influences of other contemporary Slovene painters can be
discerned in his work as well: those of Marko Šušteršič, Marij Pregl and
others.
On account of
their sensitivity, the artists who had experienced the terrible slaughter of
the Second World War could not adopt the so-called realistic art demanded by
the new regime in Yugoslavia. Apart from it being an entirely inappropriate and
coerced trend, it could not withstand any serious criticism, a fact probably
best illustrated by art historian Luc Menaše in his comparison of the attempt
at Realism introduced by the communist regime with similar requirements of the
Nazis in Germany in the 1930s. The refusal of Modern abstract art in Slovenia
was initiated by art historian Izidor Cankar as early as 1912 when there were
still no abstract paintings in Slovenia.7 The most influential
post-war critic of abstract art in Slovenia was Josip Vidmar. His critique of
the exhibition of abstract paintings by Stane Kregar is famous for its attack
on the exhibited works of art and abstract painting in general.8 A
decade later his famous interview with Josip Broz (Tito) was published
in the newspaper Delo.9
The final famous critique against abstract paintings was written by Ivan Sedej
targeting the exhibition of pictures by Gustav Gnamuš in The Small Gallery in
Ljubljana in 1977, published in the newspaper Communist.10
As to the
controversy on Realism and abstract art, the following question could be asked:
How is it possible that a realistic (illusionistic) painting is considered a
more authentic representation of reality than a flat coloured (abstract)
painting? The aim of the former is to deceive the viewer on purpose by its
appearance. The question is therefore no longer an aesthetic one; the dilemma
between abstract art and Realism is a moral one.
Although the
official cultural policy of the former Yugoslavia attempted to distance itself
from the current live arts, there was no direct damage afflicted by it to the
Modern artists. They were actually not hindered in their artistic creation;
moreover, several of them were granted scholarships to study abroad. Together
with Janez Bernik, Bogdan Borčić was thus a student in residence in the studio
of Johnny Friedlaender in Paris where he could learn not only the techniques of
engraving but also become acquainted with the current artistic production of
that time. He was particularly attracted by masters of Modern art, primarily
Braque and Matisse.
3
Abstract
Expressionism, Art Informel and geometric abstraction were the trends
significant for the development of Borčić's painting. However, the influences
were concealed in the background and guided his creativity as a kind of
subterranean motivation.
Art Informel was
significant in his painting since it encouraged him to contemplate the
representational function of the painting and its constituent material: the
paint, canvas, paste-like layers and the use of other, non-painting materials.
In some paintings, Borčić occasionally mixed plaster with oil or elsewhere
added fine sand to oil paints thus creating spatial paintings of an otherwise
entirely two-dimensional motif.
Art Informel and
abstract painting removed the characteristics of a two-dimensional surface from
the painting, the features it acquired from Modernism. This characteristic,
i.e. that it is primarily a two-dimensional surface as expressed by Maurice
Denis, was probably influenced by the technology of painting – by oil paints.
Artists used them to make the canvas coated with ground entirely smooth, with
no visible irregularities on the surface.
In contrast to
paintings created before the second half of the 20th century, informeskal
informel or an abstract expressionistic painting was sculptural, with
paste-like application of paint and discernible brushwork. The picture was thus
transformed into an artefact in which the third dimension can no longer be
disregarded. The painting is no longer just a representation o reality, just a
sign, but an artefact.
The painting is
transformed into a three-dimensional artefact, which it always has been, yet
the technology of painting – even layers of paint and a regular monotone
surface – encourages people to recognize the third dimension (i.e. an illusion)
and disregard reality.
4
The development of
Modernist painting can be traced in Borčić's oeuvre as the development of a
motif from Realism to abstract art. The period up to 1970 was a time of
painting in oils, a time of Art Informel and Abstract Expressionism as well as
subsequent Minimal and Pop art. Borčić developed his compositional layout in
this period, the one he was to return to over and over again and to complement
in the future (Figs. 4–6 & 9). The typical motifs of this period are a
shooting gallery, fishing portals and doors ("Red Door", 1963; Fig.
75) that marked the beginning of a huge series of paintings with the theme of
doors 30 years later.
Borčić applies
paints in translucent layers: the background colour penetrates the upper layers
and renders a gauzy, immaterial effect to the painting. The effect is known
from the painting entitled "Night Watch" by Gabrijel Stupica from
1953, a programme painting of a kind that had determined the development of
Slovene painting for a decade or more. Borčić followed Stupica and developed an
idiosyncratic method of painting and his own compositional layout. He likewise
makes use of everyday artefacts that surround us, e.g. a table as an easel and
as a surface, and complements them with fishing and other objects typical of
his work. These artefacts mark his world, therefore his paintings can be
described as intimate. Towards the middle of the 1960s, the artefacts painted
in an illusionistic manner faded in the background and merged with it, as in
"Shooting Gallery", until they reappeared at the turn of the decade
as newly stylized elements in "Fishing Sign III" (Figs. 5 & 14).
Most of the
paintings are first painted in black by Borčić. That is the ground on which the
rest of the paints are applied in layers of varying thickness. The dark colour
of the ground penetrates the lighter layers.
The painting
remains entirely black only at the beginning of the 1980s when Borčić takes up
painting again, after his long involvement with engraving. The first paintings
after 1980 are initially single-coloured: black and white as well as grey and
red. In the subsequent cycle entitled "Sketch - Painting" (Figs. 50,
51, 54 & 55), only a part of the ground is painted while the rest is
divided by lines.
Art Informel, the
European variety of Abstract Expressionism, played an important role in the
development of Borčić's painting. In comparison to the American style, it was a
somewhat suppressed, less direct or even introverted, yet no less expressive,
type of painting. In Yugoslavia, Art Informel was first adopted in Belgrade,
Serbia, and Zagreb, Croatia, and met with a negative attitude of the ruling
elite as expressed in the above-mentioned interview with Josip Broz (Tito) in
1963. Although the works by Borčić from the 1950s and 1960 cannot be regarded
as belonging to Art Informel, there are some influences of this style. The
connections are primarily discernible in the treatment of colour when it is
transformed into painting material, thus losing its mimetic quality (Figs. 4–7,
9–11).
In his second
period between 1970 and 1980, Borčić abandoned painting completely and devoted
himself exclusively to engraving: to etching and aquatint. It was in this
period that he produced his magnificent series of engravings with the basic
motif of shells in innumerable variations.
After 1980, he
abandoned the illusionistic manner of representation and replaced oil paints
with acrylic ones that facilitated more rapid painting. This was the beginning
of his abstract painting, Minimal art and Abstract Expressionism after the
model of Mark Rothko in the 1980s and subsequently his associative abstraction.
Paintings up to 1970
1
Our overview of
the painting oeuvre by Bogdan Borčić begins with his self-portrait from 1949.
The painting was created at the end of his course at the Academy of Fine Arts
in Ljubljana. The influence of his teacher t at that time, Gojmir Anton
Kos, can be discerned in the style of painting.
The self-portrait
represents young Borčić in a three-quarter turn gazing inquisitively at the
world in front of him; lying ahead is the yet untrodden path of the artist that
we intend to get to know. He depicted himself as a bust on a dark background.
In contrast to the
above-mentioned picture, the self-portrait from 1954 is half-length to his
waist and painted on a light background. The artist holds a painting charcoal
in his hand. Greenish shades are applied in translucent layers on a light
ground. Such a style of painting is a common trait of Borčić's creativity.
In the period
between 1952 and 1957, Borčić taught drawing and the history of art at the
grammar school in Novo Mesto. A small painting entitled "Mojca"
(1955), a portrait of his first daughter, originates from this period. The
painting depicts the child in knee-length, with her hands in her lap and a
pensive look on the face. The portrait of the daughter was also a common theme
of Gabrijel Stupica, the teacher and subsequent friend of Borčić.
The background on
the portrait is interesting: a dark ground coated with a lighter colour except
for the bottom edge of the painting. A brown rectangle was painted on the
background serving as a support for the girl. Such a visual division of the
picture into individual rectangular fields has been used by Borčić constantly
henceforth and has entirely predominated in his painting after 1980.
In 1956 Borčić saw
the exhibition of Mark Rothko in Venice, which impressed him greatly. There was
no direct influence, however, yet the artists were interested in similar
artistic problems. They both divide the pictorial plane in a similar way. By
that time, Mark Rothko had already abandoned Realism and discernible motifs
entirely. Only rectangles were left in his paintings painted with various
softly iridescent colours.
The top half of
"Light Red over Black",11 the painting by Mark Rothko, is
very similar to the background of the painting "Mojca" by Borčić as
to its composition. In Rothko's painting, the edges of the central plane blend
softly into the background, the dark-light contrast renders the impression that
the dark plane is once in front of the red one and next time behind it, which
creates the effect of space and movement of the planes in the painting. Similar
effects were also created by Borčić, as we shall see.
The first period
of Borčić's painting can be divided into several phases: the post-academy phase
lasting up to 1956, the phase of shooting galleries and fishing portals up to
1963, and the final phase with a strongly present reduction of the motif on the
basis of an artistic component lasting up to the end of the 1960s. The
influences of Gabrijel Stupica and Mark Rothko were most directly discernible
in the first two phases. Borčić combined them in a fortunate synthesis: he
adopted the typical Expressionist atmosphere, void and some motifs from Stupica
and primarily the compositional layout from Rothko.
"The Komiža
Studio", 1956, oil on masonite, depicts his artistic studio in Komiža on
the island of Vis, his holiday destination since an early age. Borčić often
returned there in the 1950s as well. The place provided him with tranquillity
to create and the Mediterranean motifs he was so fond of. The painting features
an easel, some chairs, a stand for paints, several sketches hanging on the
walls and paintings stacked in the corner in front of us. The chairs are
painted in a disfigured perspective and the floor rises irregularly. The
endeavour to abandon realistic details is discernible in the painting as if
Borčić were aware of the insincerity of illusionistic representation.
The painting of
the studio is a symbolic self-portrait of a kind. The studio is a special
intimate room, a study where the artist fights himself, the reality that
surrounds him and the paint he applies on canvas.
"The Komiža
Studio" by Borčić is reminiscent of the painting "Red Studio" by
Matisse,12 with a distinction that the latter abandoned almost all
realistic details. Borčić painted his studio from a similar perspective to
Matisse. There is a door on the left-hand side instead of a window, the surface
of the floor rises similarly (creating the effect of depth), paintings are
stacked in the left-hand corner and there is a window in the top right-hand
part of the Komiža studio instead of a painting in the studio by Matisse.
Studios reappear
in Borčić's painting at the end of the 1980s when a cycle with that motif is
created, yet with entirely different accents and approaches (Figs. 59–62). A
comparison of the Komiža studio with subsequent ones indicates the development
of Borčić's painting over four decades, from an apparently realistic
representation to the reduction of the motif on the basis of colour and
surface. It indicates a long struggle with the illusionistic manner of
representation, with Realism and perspective.
The light ground
of the painting "Fishmonger's Shop" (1956; Fig. 2) is painted with
darker shades and only the bottom edge in a brownish shade representing the
floor on which fishermen stand. A dark surface of the counter with fish and
crabs arranged on it looms in front of the three men. The dark surface runs
over their legs and creates the illusion of space. However, the space is
shallow, too shallow for the three fishermen standing between a table and a
wall. The intention of Borčić was evidently to demonstrate that he could depict
a motif faithfully, without an illusionistic perspective. The desired effect is
achieved by colour and the arrangement of coloured fields over the surface of
the canvas.
The horizontal
bands of colour are covered with vertical figures of fishermen. Borčić combines
here for the first time horizontal and vertical fields that will become his
basic motif in the 1990s, in the paintings "Division of Cobalt
Fields", "Blue Door", "Sketch - Painting", "Three
Blue Pictorial Fields", "Sinji Vrh III" (Figs. 37, 51–53), etc.
Scales hang in front
of fishermen hovering in the air like small boats. The figures of fishermen are
painted in perspective; except for their feet, the illusion of space in which
they stand is created by means of shortened table legs. The colours are applied
in translucent layers on a light ground shining through the darker layers.
2
By the end of the
1950s, Borčić was an established painter. He had two independent exhibitions in
The Small Gallery and the Cultural Workers' Club in Ljubljana in 1958. Two
motifs appeared in his work that would mark the following decade of his
creativity: a shooting gallery and a fishing portal. Shooting galleries are
stands in amusement parks offering rewards to people for their precision in
shooting and hitting targets (i.e. various objects) arranged on shelves on the
back wall of the stand with balls. Fishing portals were observed by the artist
in Dalmatia, Croatia, and especially in Komiža on the island of Vis. A fishing
portal is a stone relief fastened on the walls of the houses of fishermen.
Fishing tackle is depicted on it. The fishing portal motif was decisive for the
development of Borčić's painting since it introduced the flatness so typical of
his subsequent work. The consequence of the flatness of this motif is also the
subsequent increasing one two-dimensionality of shooting galleries.
Borčić's decision
for a shooting gallery as a modification of the still life motif seems logical
since it introduced the flat plane on a neutral background with only the edges
remaining as the basic motif; a clear plane of the painting with colours
arranged in a certain order: "what a picture initially is, before it
becomes a nude woman, landscape or still life," as Maurice Denis put it.
These planes of various colours interact in a specific way creating the effect
of a somewhat vibrant surface. That was the goal of the artist, as it turned
out in the following years when discernible motifs disappeared from his
paintings and such effects of the coloured surface became the desired condition
of paintings.
The shooting
gallery motif was depicted by Borčić several times in the following decade. One
of the earliest paintings is the so-called "Red Shooting Gallery"
from 1956 (Fig. 1). It is entitled "red" since the painting is
dominated by the red background featuring two stands and some chairs, a ladder
and a cart painted in a disfigured perspective similar to "The Komiža
Studio" in front of them. The development of the shooting gallery motif is
traced here in the sense of abandoning illusionistic space and approaching
Modernist painting. The early paintings still feature a lot of empty
"space", while the background subsequently disappears with only a
thin band remaining. The back wall of the stand on which the objects are
arranged on the shelves expands over the entire painting (Figs. 4 & 5) and
a composition similar to the "Fishing Portal" paintings is created
(Figs. 6 & 9). As to its metaphysical atmosphere and red colour, "Red
Shooting Gallery" is reminiscent of the contemporary works by Mark
Šušteršič.
Shooting galleries
and other still lifes by Borčić are part of the rich tradition of the European
still life. In the Netherlands, the development of still life as an independent
motif can be traced since the 17th century. Still life was also very popular in
Spain where painters added objects with symbolic significance to such
paintings. They were called vanitas
and they often bore the inscription Sic
periit gloria mundi.
The painting
"Self-portrait" by Borčić from 1958 (Fig. 3) is interesting from that
aspect: it features a sand-glass and a cube on the table in front of the artist
while he holds a card in his hand that used to be the Queen of Hearts. He
painted it over subsequently on account of its too overt symbolic significance.
Borčić was always interested primarily in the artistic appearance of objects.
Although the symbolic significance, whether intended by the artist or not, can
never be entirely disregarded, no special attention will be paid to it here.
The painting
"Self-portrait" (Fig. 3) is part of the shooting gallery cycle.
Borčić painted himself half-length and frontal, leaning against the stand of
the shooting gallery. Three quarters of the background are covered in red,
while the bottom quarter of the counter is brown-grey. Two objects feature in
the centre of this surface – a sand-glass and a cube – pushing away the space
of the otherwise flat painting that connects it with the work by Stupica or
even further back with the Spanish and Dutch tradition of still lifes – vanitas. The toys are somewhat modified
by Borčić in order to create the desired geometrical forms. They are again
reminiscent of the painting by Stupica, while the geometrical forms lead
further to the 1990s, to the cycle of triangles. Borčić rounded his figures
somewhat, yet the background remained flat.
If the figure and
some objects are ignored, what remains is an entirely Rothkonian painting as to
its composition anticipating "Large Shooting Gallery", "Large
Pub" and the paintings created 25 years hence (Figs. 4, 10 & 19). The
background is divided approximately according to the golden section into a
larger rectangle at the top and a smaller one at the bottom.
In
the 1960s, the still life on a table is replaced by shooting galleries.
Although still life has not been shown in perspective creating the illusion of
space for a long time (Fig. 7), the transition from the vertical wall of the
shooting gallery to a more or less even, rectangular plane in the painting is
somewhat more natural and less disturbing for the spectator, nonetheless, who
has less difficulty in grasping a frontal vertical plane than a table in an
inverted perspective. This holds true especially for a classical painting like
the one by Borčić created on an easel and hanging on a wall, and not produced
on the floor (as was currently done by Jackson Pollock) or as the result of
other procedures (e.g. by Yves Klein). Shooting galleries enable Borčić to
avoid the illusionistic method of representation without any special reductions
to abandon all illusionistic aids and, in fact, to paint an entirely abstract
painting. In the shooting gallery paintings, the plane is vertical, which is
discernible from the arrangement of the artefacts on the shelves. Yet the wall
is set in the foreground so that any indicator of space is lost (Figs. 4 &
5).
The painting
"Large Shooting Gallery" (1960; Fig. 4) features the back wall of the
stall divided into horizontal bands. The darker top part of the painting is
divided into four bands. There is a thin border between the darker top and the
lighter bottom band, the same as on the external side of the painting. The
lower band represents the stall counter, on which Borčić leaned in his
"Self-portrait" (Fig. 3) and there are some artefacts arranged on it
here as well. The counter will subsequently be transformed into a table in
"Still Life with Fishhooks: White Table" (1961; Fig. 7), as we shall
see.
Individual
figures and other artefacts are discernible in the darker top rectangle. Borčić
has already abandoned the illusionistic representation of space in this
painting so that it can only be suspected on account of colours. The
recognition of the motif is facilitated by the title. However, Borčić is not
interested in it from the aspect of its faithful representation; his aim is
rather to present a feeling or a state of mind.
As to its
composition, the painting is reminiscent of Rothko's solutions. The division
into horizontal bands anticipates the paintings "Porte Fenetre: Hommage a Henri Matisse", "Red
Dominant", "Horizontal Red Line" and "Blue Door"
(Figs. 33–35, 37 & 42).
The painting
"Shooting Gallery" from 1960 (Fig. 5) ought to be compared to the
first "Shooting Gallery" from 1956 and "Large Shooting
Gallery" from 1960 (Figs. 1 & 4). In comparison to the latter two, the
former features only the remaining back wall of the shooting gallery and the
pictorial field entirely appropriated by it. There are only some details still
discernible in the painting. In comparison with the earlier "Shooting
Gallery" (Fig. 1) where the stalls consisted of two painted rectangles set
in the centre with a lot of "space" around them, the present painting
is dominated by the back wall of the stall that is extended almost to the edge.
The dark red, in some places entirely black colour is trimmed only with a thin
band of greyish white that will reoccur occasionally in the future. Individual
motifs on the dark rectangle have almost entirely merged with the background.
Influences of Art Informel are discernible in this painting, primarily in the
paste-like application of paint on the light edge of the painting and the dark
central field. The composition with a rectangular plane on the background is
similar to the paintings "White Painting: Homage to Gabrijel Stupica"
and "Large Ultramarine" (Figs. 57 & 58).
3
Fishing portals
were impressed on Borčić's memory for several reasons: their unusual function,
their flatness and the method of presentation. By painting fishing portals
Borčić represents the already represented, reinterprets the already interpreted
and depicts the already represented reality. Such an approach indicates the
tendency towards a clear artistic composition that was realized for a moment in
the paintings "Obituary" and "Fishing Sign III" (Fig. 14)
at the turn of the 1960s.
It seems that
Borčić cannot overstep the threshold of Modernist painting. His painting at
that time was still a representation of the actual world, regardless of how
discernible it was in it. This is the basic distinction that divides these
paintings from the abstract Modernist painting presenting nothing that is only
the expression of the emotions and experiences of the artist and is an
auto-referential object.
The painting
"Fishing Portal" from 1960 (Fig. 6) was created in the same year as
both "Shooting Gallery" paintings (Figs. 4 & 5). The border of
the painting – the wall on which the portal is fastened – is painted in a dull
white colour. The objects painted in "Fishing Portal" are larger and
therefore more discernible while the shades are lighter. The edges of the painted
forms pass over in a Rothkonian manner and it is this detail that anticipates
the paintings of the following decades where the edges of rectangular planes
will pass over in a similarly soft way (Figs. 76 & 22). Details typical of
Art Informel can also be found in the painting: plaster is added to the white
oil paint, which renders a spatial dimension to the painting, elsewhere fine
sand is mixed with paint. A similar detail can be found in "White
Painting" (1991; Fig. 21). Subsequently, Borčić mixed fine sand with
acrylic as well – in "Black Door" (Fig. 39).
The painting
"Fishing Portal" is painted on a large canvas, which obliterates the
illusion of space. These paintings can be regarded in the sense of abandoning
illusionism and approaching abstract painting. However, Borčić achieved that at
the turn of the 1970s, when he radically transformed his attitude to painting.
The painting
"Still Life with Fishhooks: White Table" (1961; Fig. 7) came into
existence in this phase of his creativity. The table motif was derived from
"Large Shooting Gallery" (Fig. 4): the bottom part of the painting –
the counter – is depicted independently and thus a white rectangle is created
on which the artefacts are arranged: fishing tackle, a fish and others. A smaller
rectangle is added on the left-hand side of the painting in similar shades as
the central field in "Shooting Gallery" and functions only as a
compositional aid. It is this detail that reveals how close to abstract
painting Borčić is here. The painting is held on this side of Realism by
discernible objects on the table and by its legs. The fact that the white
rectangle is actually a table is evident from the four lines of legs that are
painted in a disfigured perspective beneath it.
Of all the works
by Borčić, this painting is most indebted to Stupica, namely on account of the
table motif and the still life on it, the colour (light colour for the void)
and another detail that should be pointed out – the table legs. They are too
thin to support it, yet that is not the reason for their presence: their
function is to keep the painting on this side of pure abstract art. The legs
are thin and curved, similar to the figures from the paintings by Stupica. Expressive
lines reminiscent of drypoint in engraving shall reappear in the middle of the
1990s in the paintings from the door cycle (Figs. 36 & 40) and especially
in the painting "White Table with Naca's Box" (Fig. 74). The table
motif reappears at the turn of the 1990s in the studio cycle (Figs. 73 &
74).
A vital element of
the still life is the plane of the table on which the artefacts are arranged.
Since the Renaissance, the plane of the table has been an aid to artists in
creating the illusion of depth in painting. In the 20th century the plane
changed. Artists avoided the Renaissance perspective and illusionism caused by
it and devoted themselves to the elements of the table and still life that
define it even on this side of the actual, unequivocally perceivable world.
The plane of the
table was bordered by Borčić with straight lines: thus the illusion of space
created by a curved line was avoided, a unified shade was rendered to the
background and a colour perspective avoided as well. Although the objects in
the painting "Still Life with Fishhooks: White Table" (1961; Fig. 7)
might be painted in a shortened and shaded manner, the spectator is no longer
certain of facing a table. And a pure plane is no longer far from this point.
4
Our regular course
of describing the development of motifs by Borčić and his gradual approach to
abstract painting ought to be interrupted here and our attention devoted to his
painting "Gas Cell II" ("Brausenbad",
1962; Fig. 8). A head is depicted in the bottom part of the painting on an
entirely dark background – typical of Art Informel – and there is a shower
above it. These lines render a distinctly expressive tone to the painting
(Figs. 7, 40 & 74). The face of the internee is pale and emaciated and two
bloodshot eyes gaze at us from the skull. It is similar to the faces in the
painting "Fishmonger's Shop" (1956; Fig. 2). "Gas Cell II" continues
the tradition of figural painting by Borčić – self-portraits. However, it is a
symbolic self-portrait in this case. Borčić was imprisoned in Dachau
concentration camp during the final year of the Second World War. When the
internees were brought to the camp by Germans, they were first stripped of
their clothes and then packed into special huts where they had to wash. Some of
them were aware that was also a way of poisoning people. When they were ordered
to go and wash, gas poured out of the showers instead of water. The title of
the painting is therefore "Gas Cell" since Borčić, according to his
words, did not know what would come out of the showers in the critical moment
depicted here. That feeling of anxiety is represented here, of human helplessness
and resignation to their fate.
The painting
"Gas Cell II" with the shower motif is an expressive image of facing
death and is a forerunner of the new Expressionism of the 1980s in that
respect.
5
The paintings
after 1963 bear witness to an ever increasing stylization of the motif and
supplanting of all realistic details. The painting "Red Door" (1963;
Fig. 75) is almost entirely abstract. There is a red plane extended almost over
the entire surface of the painting, with only two borders remaining in similar
tones as in the "Shooting Gallery" paintings and "Still Life
with Fishhooks: White Table" (Figs. 4, 5 & 7). The red paint is
applied in translucent layers so that the darker shade of the background shines
through the top layers. The plane of the door is only artistically significant:
it is trimmed with a dark border rendering voluminosity to the door, yet
simultaneously reducing the sharpness of the transition between the door and
the wall. There is a thin line meandering through the centre of the red plane
dividing the door panels.
The painting
"Red Door" is an example where the motif is still discernible due to
the associative title. There are only some dots, a line indicating the door
panels and a plate featuring two fish and two stylized tridents, for the plate
being uncertain whether it is part of the door or is added subsequently. The
grey border on the side of the red door is a wall of the house. Borčić is
interested here primarily in the plane and colour. The red colour is applied on
a black ground. Thus a dull effect is created, a suppressed scream of a kind
(Bacon), which is certainly immanent to painting where a scream cannot be
represented: the only thing required is to select the right moment (Laocoon)
and in this case the right light bestowing colour. This is the first time that
Borčić struggled with red in large dimensions. Subsequently, as we shall see,
he painted several red paintings in acrylic. This is the first in the door
cycle that he created after 1990.
At this stage,
Borčić was entirely familiar with the effects of the line, expressive as well
as associative. The painting "Red Door" was an exception among the
paintings of that period; it was the most abstract of them all and anticipated
the paintings of the 1990s when Borčić took up that motif again, yet from
entirely different starting-points, and investigated it in numerous paintings:
first in "Blue Door" and subsequently in paintings with similar
titles, where he reinterpreted the basic motif (Figs. 37, 38, 40–41). He approached
"Red Door" to the greatest extent by "Red Door" from 2001
(Fig. 40).
The door motif
plays an important role in Borčić's painting. Rather than in its symbolic
significance – a door is always seen as closed; it may open, but it does not,
without revealing what is on the other side – Borčić was interested in the
motif itself: a vertical slab transformed into a two-dimensional plane without
interference. Simultaneously a door is artistically interesting as a surface
for various inscriptions and drawings. "Red Door" (Fig. 75) is the
most significant painting in the oeuvre by Borčić precisely on account of the
fact that numerous paintings created in the 1990s originated directly from it.
6
The painting
"Fishing Portal" from 1963 (Fig. 11) is associated with
"Shooting Gallery" and the "Fishing Portal" paintings
(Figs. 5 & 6) as to its format and approach to the motif. "Fishing
Portal" is depicted in such a manner that in comparison to the previous
one from 1960 (Fig. 6) there is no light border beneath it, yet it is extended
on the other three sides. The border is painted in a paste-like technique
reminiscent of the Informel method of painting. Fishing tridents are
discernible on the darker, red central plane. A smaller rectangle on the
left-hand side appears in this painting as well, this time in ultramarine blue
functioning as a compositional aid. A similar form with the same function was
encountered in the paintings Figures 6 and 7. The ultramarine colour will
prevail in the painting "Large Ultramarine" (Fig. 58). It will appear
as a small detail in "White Painting: Homage to Gabrijel Stupica" and
"The Studio of My Teacher" (Figs. 57 & 60).
Apart from
"Fishing Portal" (1960; Fig. 6), "Small Pub" (1964) is the
most Informel painting among all the paintings by Borčić. Three rectangles are
arranged on a white background: the largest in ultramarine, a smaller one in
red shades and the other smaller one on the left-hand side in a vertical
position consisting of three squares. A spiral has appeared in the top rectangle
for the first time, the main motif-to-be of his engravings for the next decade.
The paint is applied in several layers and assumes an entirely independent
role. The artistic rules have predominated for the first time over the
illusionistic method of painting objects that have melted with the expressively
scratched background. The arrangement of colour caught in geometrical forms on
the surface of the painting is reminiscent of the method Borčić shall use
eventually in his paintings of studios and meanders (Figs. 56, 59–62). The two
rectangles in the painting "Small Pub", particularly the left-hand
one divided into three squares and the top one featuring a spiral, evoke in our
memories the shell cycle of engravings where Borčić shall make use of a similar
geometrically analytical method for sketching shells.
Similarly to the
painting "Self-portrait" (Fig. 3), "Large Pub" (Fig. 10) is
divided according to an approximate golden section. Such a method of dividing
the pictorial surface shall appear again, yet with the transitions between the
two coloured fields softened by another colour, usually that of the ground
(Figs. 22 & 76). Some objects depicted in an illusionistic manner are
discernible in the top square painted in ochre-red, including a spiral and fishing
tackle. These artefacts keep the painting within Realism; without them it is
utterly abstract like the paintings to follow. However, Borčić abandoned all
Realism in the bottom grey part of the painting by enscribing the number 64 as
the date of origin of the painting. The effect thus achieved was that it
removed all the depth of the background and transformed it into a flat ground.
The painting
"Large Pub" (1964; Fig. 11) is associated with "Fishing
Portal" from 1963 and "Dark Shooting Gallery" (Figs. 5 & 9)
with the bottom third of the painting added to it. The format of the painting
is divided into a square and a rectangle band beneath it, an approach already
seen in "Large Pub" and "Self-portrait" (Fig. 3 & 10),
to be followed subsequently by several other paintings (Figs. 22 & 76). The
painting features a red rectangular plane in the upper square bordered by a
lighter white of the background. The red plane is bordered with a dark colour
that reduces the sharpness of the transition and renders a sculptural character
to the red plane. The darker bottom third is divided by vertical lines (Figs.
2, 7 & 20). The fishing tackle is even more stylized and another number
appears, this time the Roman one that removes any spatial illusion from the
painting and gradually moves it to the other side of Realistic painting.
Borčić oscillates
between a narrative style and abstraction in the mid-1960s. He retains the
painting on the other side of abstraction by artefacts added to a
compositionally independent background. Sometimes they are joined by a number
assuming a different role than characters in the paintings by his fellow
artist, Janez Bernik.13 They function as narrative elements there,
whereas here they remove any illusion of the depth from the background.
Number five
appeared in the centre of the painting "Grate" from 1965 and
disappeared from it a few years later when Borčić painted it over. In his
opinion, the number has no particular symbolic significance. However, two
statements must be discussed here. The first was made by Ivan Sedej in
Synthesis1514 in 1968 stating that the number
removed the symbolic, metaphysical function of things or notions from the
objects, the way they functioned in the paintings by Gabrijel Stupica, and
materialized them, transforming them into retail merchandise. The fact that
Borčić was imprisoned in a concentration camp where numbers were tattooed on
people cannot be disregarded. People as sensitive, symbolic beings were
transformed into things, into objects marked with numbers or even price tags.
The
paint in the painting "Fishing Sign" (1965; Fig. 13) is applied in
thick layers and is again reminiscent of the Informel method of painting. This
time a light rectangle is painted on a dark background. Tiny objects painted on
a light ground are only symbolic additions on the background and function as
compositional aids. The line interrupting the lighter internal field of the
painting somewhere in the middle is reminiscent of the line dividing the door
panels in the painting "Red Door" (Figs. 36, 40 & 75). As to its
standing format, the painting is otherwise associated through "Shooting
Gallery" and "Large Pub" with the monumental solutions of that
compositional layout: "White Painting: Homage to Gabrijel Stupica"
and "Large Ultramarine" (Figs. 5, 11, 57 & 58).
7
Let us have a look
now at the painting "Fishing Line" from 1968. It features five fish
heads hanging off hooks on a dark background. The top borders of the painting
are blue or rather grey. They are painted in translucent layers over a dark
background and enclose the painting at the top and bottom. A surrealistic
effect is created by the position of the fishing line, a motif reminiscent of
Spanish still lifes from the 17th century, especially the still life by Juan
Sanches Cotán15 featuring a head of cabbage and an apple hanging on
a string.
The strings on
which the hooks hang are once again depicted by thin lines penetrating the
horizontal fields of colour. On account of the horizontal division of the
pictorial field, the painting can be listed in the cycle initiated by
"Large Shooting Gallery" and continued by "Porte Fenetre: Hommage a Henri Matisse",
"Red Dominant" and "Horizontal Red Line" (Figs. 4, 33–35).
Only the black
background has remained in the painting "Fishing Line", the borders
have fallen off. Two squares on the black background are composed into a
rectangle positioned in the centre of the painting and touching its bottom. The
bottom square is painted in blue shades; the top one is darker and there are
nine fish heads regularly arranged in it.
The painting is
significant since its schematization or use of a Realistic motif for entirely
decorative purposes anticipates the final phase of the shell series by Borčić
in the second half of the 1970, directly before he took up painting again. The
schematization of the motif has finally led Borčić to abandon realistic
representation and to embrace abstract art.
8
Let us conclude
the overview of this period of creation by Borčić with his paintings
"Obituary" (1968) and "Fishing Sign III" (Fig. 14). The
former features rectangular fields of colour that have covered the entire
painting using so many pure colours for the first time: white, ultramarine
blue, red and grey. The top border of the painting in grey-white is penetrated
by verticals, the top and bottom parts are divided by a central red field while
the bottom part is white. Blue rectangles are painted on this white background
surrounding the white field trimmed with a black edge – the obituary. The edge
of the second rectangle is discernible in the extreme right-hand part of the
painting, similarly as in "Fishing Portal" (Fig. 9). The painting
"Obituary" with its density of fields rendering the impression of
space introduces the engravings of the 1970s that shall make use of such
compositional solutions more often. The composition is divided into three
horizontal bands in a standing format.
There are no
discernible motifs left in this painting except the obituary without any text
on it, which is only indicated as such by the title. Borčić has thus begun to
make use of planes and lines for other purposes with the intention of creating
a new, metaphysical space.
The horizontal
application of coloured bands has already appeared in several paintings (Figs.
5 & 6) and is to occur in some further ones, i.e. Figures 33–35. The
rectangles in ultramarine are reminiscent of the one in the painting
"Small Pub" (1964). The top rectangle with lines is also interesting
(Figs. 7, 40 & 74). The semi-circular curve in a reverted position shall be
used by Borčić again in the "Door of Saltwork Warehouse II–IV" cycle
(Figs. 44–46).
Observing a
straight line usually creates the effect of the horizon with the line
indicating the point where the Earth and Sky are joined. Thus a plane turns
into a square or a rectangle creating the effect of depth with a slight slant.
Borčić began to make such use even of other artistic elements, especially in
the 1970s. He employed lines and planes to create a new, painted space that was
not an illusion of real space but was created anew.
The painting
"Fishing Sign III" (Fig. 14) is divided into three vertical fields,
the lateral ones being painted in white-grey. This painting is again founded
with black shining through the translucent layers of white. The technique
creates the effect of a void and of anxious silence penetrated by suppressed
screams.
The central band
is divided by two thirds. The centre of the upper part features a trident and
two fish in a vertical series painted on a yellowish ground and trimmed with
black that removes any realistic effects. The bottom third is painted in red
and is reminiscent of "Red Door" (1963; Fig. 75). The red
plane is cut in the middle by a thin line and dots arranged along it. Borčić
shall use dots again after 1980 as substitutes for shells. In contrast to
"Small Pub", the rectangular fields featured in the "Fishing
Sign III" are arranged evenly and divided by a thick black line. The
technique of painting is withdrawing from the Informel manner of applying
paste-like layers. The pictorial field is covered by a uniform application of
paint with only the borders becoming thinner, thus creating softer transitions
between the coloured fields.
When all the signs
denoting unequivocally a certain state are removed from the painting, the
artist is faced with the choice of whether to admit the basic symbolic
significance of the artistic signs (i.e. the colour and the line) that cannot
be avoided and to exploit them for his benefit or attempt to avoid them and
reduce their immanent function, which is doomed to fail sooner or later. At
this stage of the development of his motif, Borčić employed the colour and the
line to create a new space by dispossessing them of their direct denominating
functions and using them for the construction of the new, metaphysical space.
In the 1970s,
Borčić abandoned painting and devoted himself to engraving exclusively,
primarily the etching and aquatint techniques. With incredible persistence and
rarely given continuity, he developed the shell motif from precise
representation, usually in the etching technique, to an entirely abstract sign
at the turn of the 1980s.
Neo-Expressionism and Minimalist Art
1
The effect of
Borčić's studying the line for several years is discernible in the paintings
created after 1980. Their compositions consist of horizontal and vertical
bands. After 1990, straight lines are joined by an oblique line that normally
creates the illusion of space. Borčić is well aware of that effect and
therefore avoids it by connecting the oblique lines into a triangle (Figs.
23–31). It is only after 1994 that he begins combining the horizontal and
vertical bands of colour in such a way that the horizontal band is divided into
several vertical fields (Figs. 50–55), which leads to the coloured fields being
dispersed over the surface of the painting (Figs. 59–62) and reassembled into
discernible motifs again: a chair, table, an easel.
After 1980 Borčić
began using acrylic paints. Acrylic dries more rapidly than oil, thus
permitting faster painting; the artist can observe the results directly in
contrast to oils or the engraving techniques of etching and aquatint.
The painting
"Triptych" (1985) is entirely black with only the lateral side fields
intertwined with horizontal lines. Borčić created them by applying thick layers
of paint making the lines protrude sculpturally. A similar relief is created by
the horizontal lines as formerly by dots. The painting therefore cannot be
defined as Minimalist in an off-hand manner. These straight sculptural lines
can be perceived as a distant echo of Art Informel. Lines have already appeared
in the painting Figure 11 and are to occur again and again:
"Removals" (Fig. 20) and again after 1994 when the "Sketch -
Paintings" are created (Figs. 55, 51, 54 & 55). The horizontal
division of the lateral fields anticipates the subsequent similar divisions in
the paintings Figures 33–35.
2
A new style can be
defined in Europe and America in the 1980s: Postmodernism. Two trends are
significant for the art of painting: Trans-Avantgarde and New Expressionism,
primarily with the Neue Wilde group in Germany. It is interesting that in this
period Borčić is faced anew with abstract Expressionism of the Rothkonian type
that becomes very topical within the new Expressionism. "Grey
Painting" from 1985 is a case in point. It is akin to the final paintings
by Mark Rothko created directly before his tragic death.
The painting was
divided by Borčić approximately according to the golden section into a top and
bottom rectangle – almost a square. The same tendency to divide the background
has already appeared in the paintings "Self-portrait", "Large
Pub" and "Obituary" (Figs. 3, 10 & 11) where the golden
section was not perfect, thus rendering a certain volatility to the paintings.
The basic colour of the painting is black, while the top part is painted in
white. Such a method of painting appears very often (Figs. 50, 51, 54 &
55). The top part reveals traces of brushwork and the ground shines through the
top layer of paint, in contrast to the bottom part that is painted regularly,
without any discernible brushwork. Both the fields are stuck in the border of
the painting, with only the top one somewhat softened along the edges where the
secondary layer of white is not so intense. Borčić even signs his name in the
centre of the top part.
With
respect to its composition, the painting corresponds to "Large Pub"
(Fig. 10), yet with all the realistic details omitted and only the colour and
division of the pictorial fields into two rectangles remaining, one of them
being almost a square. Mark Rothko created a spiritual depth of a kind in his
paintings that should have been encountered by the spectator. Borčić, on the
other hand, obliterated any illusion of space by his clearly discernible
signature. It is positioned in a similar way as the objects drawn in
"Large Pub" (Fig. 10). The signature removes the depth of the
background and transforms it into a flat two-dimensional ground.
3
In 1986 Borčić had
an anthological exhibition of his paintings and engravings in the Museum of
Modern Art in Ljubljana. Jure Mikuž wrote in the catalogue to the exhibition:
"The main
feature in [Minimalist] painting is an almost complete omission of illusionism,
to which it has inclined for a long time already, but due to the trompe l'oeil nature of gesture it has
never attained such results, as well as an equalization between the represented
and the means of representation. A painting is a painted object, a
self-referential object where the figure and the ground equal, because their
separation would allow illusionism. This is the only way to achieve what is
immanent in a painting as a two-dimensional object – a total flattening: the
pictorial support, the surface and the field non-illusionary virtually become
one. The author starts the painting with an idea, precisely prepared and
conceived in advance, where each plastic element remains only related to the
pictorial field, thus being non-referential to anything outside itself."16
The paintings
"Black Quadrant", "Triptych", "White T",
"Unified Space of Shade Contrast", "Umbra - Umbra",
"Grey Painting II", "Red Painting", "Removals",
"White Painting" and "Division of the White Field" (Figs.
15–21) belong to Minimal art of the Barnett Newman type – proto-Minimal art –
or actually to abstract Expressionism from which pure Minimal art was derived
that abandoned any illusionistic detail, e.g. discernible brushwork, irregularly
applied paints or associative colour planes. Only the paintings "Unified
Space of Shade Contrast", "Umbra, Umbra" and "Grey Painting
II" (Figs. 16–18) are actually Minimalist in this sense, while the
remaining ones do not belong to pure Minimal art as we shall see later. There
is always something in the painting, discernible brushwork, an interrupted
line, a detail undermining the pattern, on account of which these paintings are
closer to abstract Expressionism of the Barnett Newman type, especially to his
earlier works.
The painting
"White T" (1985; Fig. 15) features a square divided in the middle by
a dark line with shaded edges consisting of unpainted ground, similarly as in
"Red Door" (1963; Fig. 75). The white colour is applied on a
dark ground. This is not the whiteness of canvas from the paintings by Cy
Twobly where the blinding Mediterranean light is rendered. This whiteness is
somewhat greyish and suppressed – still reminiscent of Stupica. Two bands of
white paint mixed with fine sand in the bottom part of the painting are applied
with a spatula, thus creating an additional sculptural effect. A line that is
not painted on white but consists of unpainted ground constitutes an
Expressionist element in the painting. The whiteness around it does not end
sharply, its intensity fades gradually until it is transformed into black. The
expressively interrupted line is in sharp contrast to the remaining surface of
the painting covered by a monotonous colour reminiscent of lines created by
drypoint, a technique occasionally employed by Borčić in combination with
etching.
The spatial
dimension rendered by the application of paint is not to be disregarded.
Abstract Expressionism and Art Informel have again transformed the painting
into a three-dimensional object, which it actually is. The common third
dimension created by the structure of paint and ground is usually disregarded
and the painting considered as a two-dimensional surface, which it actually is
not. A similar process takes place daily in our describing of the world:
although there are ten dimensions, only four of them are actually used by us in
everyday life as well. The remaining six are disregarded since they are so
small that their effects go unnoticed.
The painting
"Unified Space of Shade Contrast" (1986; Fig. 16) is divided slightly
above the centre by a broad band of ultramarine extended to the left and right
along the borders of the painting. The ultramarine limits the two grey fields.
This is the most Minimalist painting of all by Borčić in the sense of
abandoning any illusionism and gesture of brushwork. It is not painted
according to geometric but rather to artistic rules; the bottom half is
somewhat broader. The geometric and artistic idioms are not the same; each has
rules of its own. Although the artistic idiom can make use of the elements of
the geometric idiom, it employs them according to its own rules.
The painting
"Umbra - Umbra" (1986; Fig. 17) is close to the former painting. It
is also divided into two halves with the bottom one being somewhat broader. Two
shades of umbra mixed with white were used here by Borčić: the darker shade for
the bottom part and the lighter for the top one. The fields are joined
directly; there are no bands in the painting to separate them or soften the
transition between the painting and its border, neither a "zip"
typical of Newman. The paint is applied very regularly and smoothly, without
any brushwork gestures. Only the paint is illusionistic as far as the depth is
rendered by it.
4
The above-mentioned
paintings as well as "Grey Painting II" (Fig. 18) are the most
Minimalist paintings by Borčić. The remaining ones, as we shall see, are
indebted to abstract Expressionism as much as Minimal art. Before 1970 the
influence of Gabrijel Stupica was combined with that of Mark Rothko to be
joined by that of Barnett Newman after 1980. An idiosyncratic combination of
all three influences was thus created. The influence of Rothko is discernible
in the division of the pictorial field, in the composition and the
Expressionist use of paint: the bottom layers (usually black) shine through the
translucent top layers of paint. The influence of Barnett Newman, on the other
hand, is discernible in the division of the pictorial field by individual lines
into horizontal or vertical coloured fields. The line in the painting by Borčić
is never the "zip" by Newman but has the function of describing
geometrical bodies as bearers of colour. After 1990 this influence faded and
Borčić created an entirely new type of abstract painting.
"Red Painting"
(1986; Fig. 19) is similar to "Grey Painting" from 1985. It is
divided into two rectangles by a dark line created by the unpainted ground of
the painting. The larger field is not a square, which renders a certain hidden
volatility to the painting. The painting is not divided according to the golden
section, although it does come close to it. The red colour in the bottom part
is applied in the "Minimalist" style, i.e. regularly and smoothly,
while it is somewhat darker at the top with the black ground penetrating
through it along the edges. The blackness in combination with red renders an
Expressionist significance to the painting and causes the red field to expand
like a pillow. As to its composition, the painting is Rothkonian, yet likewise
close to the paintings by Barnett Newman on account of the Expressionist
details.
The triptych
"Removals" (1988; Fig. 20) consists of three square fields. The
entire length of the painting exceeding four metres is divided into vertical
bands, a few centimetres wide, separated by a rope painted black and glued to
the painting. The same Informel feature can be spotted on "Triptych"
from 1985.
Bands of various
shades of blue follow each other on the left-hand panel of the triptych
"Removals" turning grey-brown on the central panel, with only the one
shifted from the centre painted in ultramarine. The following bands to the
right are only distinguished by a shade. The right-hand panel of the triptych
is darker and almost entirely single-coloured and the division into bands fades
somewhere in the two thirds of the painting.
In "Grey
Painting II" (1990; Fig. 18), the top part is broader and again a shade
lighter than the bottom one. Both parts are covered by the same grey with only
the bottom part wrapped by a gauze causing the light to be refracted in a
different way and thus creating a different shade of grey. This fabric actually
exempts the painting from the cycle of Minimalist paintings by Borčić since the
ground becomes more rough, which is rather an Informel feature – the third
dimension can no longer be disregarded.
A surface coated
regularly by a single colour does not yield any information. However, a
perfectly single-coloured surface is impossible to accomplish: there are always
irregularities discernible in it or the interaction with the surrounding will
lead to new associations at the least. There are no perfectly single-coloured
paintings created by the use of spray in the oeuvre by Borčić. "Grey
Painting II" (Fig. 58) comes closest to a pure monochrome painting.
However, this is not a perfectly regular surface either. The ground, the
canvas, plays an important role since it is very rough, thus creating an
interesting play of tiny shades on the surface of the painting.
"White
Painting" (1991; Fig. 21) is created by charcoal applied to the ground and
polished by cloth, which achieves a dull white effect. The central field of
"White Painting: Homage to Gabrijel Stupica" (Fig. 57) is created in
a similar way. The procedure is reminiscent of the graphic technique of etching
where the printing colour is applied to the bitten plate and subsequently wiped
off. The colour remains in bitten holes, from where it is absorbed by the
paper. The signature of Borčić is again discernible in the paintings after
1985.17 The white in his paintings can be regarded as a homage of a
kind to Gabrijel Stupica. White is the colour of emptiness and peacefulness. As
to its composition, the painting is similar to "White Table with Naca's
Box" (Fig. 74).
The Minimalist
period of the oeuvre by Borčić is concluded with "White Painting".
From here his path leads to new dimensions of painting. In contrast to his
great models: Rothko, who concluded his artistic development with a black
painting, or Newman, who ended his oeuvre in a single-coloured surface, Borčić
begins to build the next period of his painting creativity on these very
results. Perhaps the fundamental quality of Borčić lies in his development
since his concluded oeuvre offers the spectator a view of the entire evolution
of Modernist painting and further to Postmodernism: from Realism to a
single-coloured painting and on to dismembering the single-coloured pictorial
field into a new, secondary abstract pictorial space and into new dimensions of
abstract painting.
5
The painting
"Division of the White Field" (1992) is divided in the middle by a
black line of the ground. The classicism of Minimal art gives way to the
Baroque of Expressionism: brushwork is discernible again. And once again, the
signature appears in the centre of the bottom field obliterating its unified
colour and thus adding a new, Expressionist component to the painting. The top
field seems larger than it actually is due to the picturesque method of
painting.
Apart from the
painting "Approaching Rothko" (Fig. 76), "Cobalt and
Ultramarine" (1991; Fig. 22) is perhaps the most Rothkonian of all the
paintings by Borčić. The composition is a repetition of "Large Pub"
and "Large Shooting Gallery" (Figs. 4, 10 & 11) with only its
format being bigger. The painting is also associated with "Unified Space
of Shade Contrast" (Fig. 16), yet featuring a bottom rectangle distinctly
larger from the top one and the edges of the ultramarine and cobalt concluded
in the black ground being soft, gauzy, hazy, even Baroque. Borčić is interested
in contrasts of colours exclusively, the effects of colours with regard to the
size of the coloured field and contrasts with the adjacent colours. Both
coloured fields are trimmed with black, which renders them a background and
elevates them into the virtual space of the surface between the painting and
the spectator.
The painting
"Approaching Rothko" (1992; Fig. 76) was a tribute by Borčić to his
great model, Mark Rothko. The painting represents the conclusion of a
significant period of his creation, in which he investigated abstract
Expressionism by Rothko and Minimal art by Barnett Newman. The period lasted
from the turn of the 1950s at the least being less overt and more suppressed at
that time through a caesura of the 1970s until it erupted with a fresh power in
the 1980s. Borčić paid tribute to his model at the very end of his period, as
if wishing to master the Rothko manner to perfection, in acrylic paints as
well. The painting comes close to those by Rothko as to its composition and
primarily the orange colour, the layers of paint and the gently iridescent
shades of orange. Borčić used that colour several times subsequently and it can
always be regarded as a reminiscence of the painting by Rothko (Figs. 35, 46,
66 & 68).
The painting is
the second in the homage cycle. It was preceded by "Porte Fenetre: Hommage a Henri Matisse",
to be followed by those dedicated to Gabrijel Stupica, Mića Popović, Jože
Tisnikar and Gustav Gnamuš (Figs. 32, 33, 57, 60, 61 & 71).
Triangles
1
In
1991 Borčić reintroduces the diagonal that he used in his engravings to a large
degree in the 1970s when he represented metaphysical space. The oblique line
marks the space; oblique lines are used by artists when they intend to render
the illusion of space on a two-dimensional surface. Borčić was well aware of
that after his many years of analytical research of the artistic idiom. In
order to avoid that effect, he therefore joined the oblique line into a
triangle. Thus the triangle cycle was created. Borčić's painting remained
strictly analytical with the symbols having no meanings except for their
artistic significance. Triangles are devoid even of the religious sense of the
trinity or any other meaning. They are only a compositional solution in a
purely artistic idiom.
The paintings are
discussed here in a single chapter since they all feature the same motif.
However, the cycle was not created concurrently: it developed gradually like
other cycles and in interchange with paintings of other motifs as well as
engravings.
The
painting "Blue Triangle" from 1992 is a small format painting
featuring a picturesque triangle painted with discernible brushwork. The black
ground shines occasionally through the top layer of ultramarine and the white
canvas is also discernible through the black ground, which renders a certain
pathos to the painting. This artistic element was used by Borčić only
occasionally and it achieved the most magnificent effect in "Blue Triangle"
(Fig. 31).
The painting
"Red Triangle" (1992; Fig. 23) is a painting with an oblong format.
The black ground is coated with red, similarly as in "Red Door"
(1963; Fig. 75). The dark ground in the centre of the painting is coated in
grey first to be followed by a layer of red, thus achieving a particular glow.
Two oblique grey lines joined above the edge of the painting, thus marking a
triangle, are in contrast with red that surrounds them causing the colour of
the painting to flare up. The two oblique lines open up the painting and render
it dynamic.
2
Although less than
a year had passed from the final "Minimalist" painting by Borčić,
"White Painting" (Fig. 21), there was nothing left of Minimal art in
his oeuvre except for the large surface of colour. However, that was no longer
as monotonous as before: in was penetrated by black or the whiteness of canvas
along the entire surface. Expressionism, always close to Borčić, prevailed once
again. The details indicating that these paintings can be classified as Expressionist
are: suppressed colours, translucent layers of paint and straight, yet
interrupted lines. Such a red colour shall appear in "Red Door" (Fig.
40) again.
"Blue
Triangle" (1992; Fig. 24) is a more dynamic painting. The top half is
artistically colourful featuring only five triangles. The ground is retained in
black while the triangles are removed to the top part of the painting. The
triangle is composed of two rectangles with the right-hand one being blue. A
blue band marks two sides of the right-hand one and five drops of paint drip
from the bottom side of it. Three further triangles are created in the corners
of the top part and are covered by white that is again applied in a picturesque
manner rendering the painting dynamic. The bottom part is somewhat narrower and
is retained in black. All these elements break up the otherwise serene
composition and render a certain Baroque vivacity to it.
The painting
"Black Triangle" (1993; Fig. 26) is interesting since it is the first
painting after the "Removals" (Fig. 20) that features an artefact.
That used to be a coloured rope functioning as a sculptural line; here it is a
ruler coated in black dividing the almost equilateral triangle into two
rectangles along the middle.
The painting
"Grey Triangle" (1994; Fig. 27) is criss-crossed with lines dividing
the monotonous fields into geometrical forms: triangles and rectangles. A grey
triangle blending into the lighter shade of the background is created out of
the lines in the centre of the painting. The coloured fields are painted right
to the edge. The painting was created when Borčić had already taken up the
other great theme of the 1990s: the "Sketch - Painting" cycle (Figs.
50, 51, 54 & 55). The sharp contours of the geometrical forms are softened
by the colours. The above-mentioned levitation disappears due to the lines. In
contrast to these paintings, the lines in "Sketch - Paintings" mark
geometrical forms that come into existence as a result of the sketched lines.
The painting
"Grey Triangle" (1994; Fig. 28) is more picturesque than the former
one by the same name. The basic dark plane of the painting is divided into
three thirds. The top two thirds are painted with different shades of grey and
the bottom one is in the colour of the triangle. It rises to the top third of
the painting marked with a white line running across the top field dividing it
into the top and bottom parts. The title of the painting is certainly of
secondary importance since Borčić is concerned primarily with the colour
composition. The borders of the coloured fields or geometrical forms are
accentuated with lines. In the case of triangles, these fields are painted in
another colour while they are left empty in "Sketch - Paintings".
Borčić developed such a geometrical grid in the 1970s when he studied the
shell.
A signature marked
with a black plus sign appears towards the centre of the top band and, once
again, obliterates the illusion of depth created by the colour (Figs. 21 &
60). The blue triangle at the top of the large grey one is reminiscent of
Gabrijel Stupica (Figs. 6, 9, 57, 60 & 74).
3
The painting
"Blue Triangle" (1996; Fig. 31) is an utter exception in the oeuvre
by Borčić and comes closest to the paintings by Cy Twobly on account of its
unpainted white surface of the canvas. "Blue Triangle" is the only
painting where Borčić combines the emptiness of the white canvas with an
impulsive gesture. This is the most Expressionist of all his paintings, the
most Twoblyan one occupying a special place in his oeuvre. It anticipates the
subsequent paintings, e.g. the palette in "The Studio of Tisnikar",
some chairs from the studio cycle (Figs. 61, 64, 65, 69 & 70) and certainly
the most picturesque of all the paintings by Borčić: "Large
Ultramarine" (Fig. 58).
The painting is
distinguished from the others by the fact that it is painted on a light ground.
The strokes are traces of oil paints applied by the artist directly with tubes
and with both hands at once. The triangle is made of acrylic paint on a dark
ground like most of the paintings by Borčić. The expressive quality of the
stroke reached its pinnacle here. On account of the method of painting, it can
be associated with echoes of Abstract Expressionism – action painting. The
greatest attraction of the painting lies in the fact that it seems unfinished.
The background is transformed into a veritable storm of strokes conveying
incredible energy and covering the triangle at the top. An illusion of space is
created by them while the colour perspective causes the triangle to slant into
the space of the painting with the colour hovering above it like a Baroque
cloud.
"Sketch -
Painting III" (Fig. 55) was made in 1996. Borčić created the illusion of
space in it by means of an oblique line. It seems that he mastered the idiom of
abstract painting to perfection at that time and therefore ventured a new
investigation: the creation of illusionistic space in abstract painting.
The painting
"Where are You, Gvozden?" (1999; Fig. 32) repeats the compositional
layout of the painting by Mića Popović entitled "Gvozden Crossed the
Zebra" from 1973 kept in the Art Gallery in Slovenj Gradec,18
where Borčić can scrutinize it often. He attached a wooden pole painted in blue
and white into the juncture of both the right-angled triangles as an intrusion
of reality, certainly reminiscent of the traffic sign pole fixed in the
painting by Popović. The two right-angled triangles on the left and right-hand
sides of the painting reach from its top to the bottom. The two central
right-angled triangles, the left one being black and the right one grey, make
up an equilateral triangle. The black background is painted white in a very
picturesque manner.
Mića Popović was
one of the main representatives of Art Informel in Belgrade. However, he
abandoned the style completely in the 1960s and took up (hyper)realistic
painting of people and space in a Pop art manner. The painting entitled
"Gvozden Crossed the Zebra" originates from that period. Borčić
likewise succeeded in avoiding the traps of the hermetically closed system of
abstraction and Art Informel before it. "Where are You, Gvozden?" is
one of the paintings dedicated to different artists.
Doors
1
The paintings
discussed in this chapter indicate the way Borčić tackled the new division of
the pictorial field into horizontal and/or vertical bands. Such a division of
composition had appeared in the painting "Large Shooting Gallery"
(Fig. 4) for the first time and subsequently in "Fishing Line"
(1968).
The painting
"Red Door" (1963; Fig. 75) was the first in which the division into
vertical bands prevailed. Although the painting was an instigation for the
others created at that time, the motif disappeared from them. The painting was
entitled "Door" only due to variations of the original compositional
layout.
The paintings
"Porte Fenetre: Hommage a Henri
Matisse", "Red Dominant" and "Horizontal Red
Line" are listed in the door cycle since the compositional layout of
"Red Door" (Figs. 33–35 & 75) is repeated in them, with only the
bands of colour being horizontal.
In the painting
"Porte Fenetre: Hommage a Henri
Matisse" (1988; Fig. 33), Borčić embarked on the theme of the
French window as was done by Henri Matisse in 1914 in his painting "French
Window on at Collioure".19 In contrast to Matisse,
Borčić positioned the painting with the bands running horizontally, which
indicated that he utterly abandoned the illusionistic method of representation
and devoted himself to the compositional elements and colour exclusively.
Although the painting is considerably indebted to "French Window" by
Matisse, it is still an independent work of art, partly because Borčić
abandoned the oblique line used by Matisse to describe the space. The oblique
line creates the illusion of space. Such a method of painting was self-evident
for Matisse, while Borčić, on the other hand, had already excluded it from his
artistic world.
The painting is
dominated by a broad black band occupying an equal surface as the remaining
three together. There is a band of ultramarine above it while the bottom part
features two blue-green bands divided by a black line of the ground.
The painting
"Red Dominant" (1993; Fig. 34) was created seven years after "Porte Fenetre: Hommage a Henri Matisse"
(Fig. 33). The basis of the composition is the same: the painting is divided
into five approximately equal, coloured horizontal bands on a black ground in
the following colours: ultramarine, brown, red, red coated with brown and grey.
The top layer of colour is somewhat contracted, two are made out of the middle
one while the bottom two are expanded. The painting is also associated with
"Large Shooting Gallery" (1960; Fig. 4). The orange ground in the middle
band was first coated with red and subsequently additionally with brown. A
trace of the orange is discernible in a narrow picturesque line. The central
band is red, hence the title "Red Dominant", and the two bands from
the top and bottom are coated with brown with the red ground shining through
it.
The painting "Horizontal Red Line" (1993;
Fig. 35) is associated with the two paintings mentioned above (Figs. 33 &
34). It features five horizontal bands on a dark ground divided by blue lines
with the ones between the top bands being orange. These lines anticipate the
"Sketch - Paintings" cycle, the first of which were created in 1994
(Figs. 50, 51, 54 & 55). The orange colour can be once again perceived as a
reminiscence of Rothko.
2
The painting
"Red Door" from 1993 (Fig. 36) is associated directly with "Red
Door" from 1963 and the above-mentioned paintings (Figs. 33, 34 & 75)
with only the coloured fields positioned vertically. The painting is the first
in a series of variations on the door theme. In comparison with the first one –
"Red Door" (Fig. 75) – all realistic details have vanished from the
painting. The central red field is similar in both paintings. The black of the
ground shines through the red here as well and the field is divided in the middle
by a curved line consisting of the unpainted ground. The light band on the
right is very similar to the wall from 1963. The division of the composition
into vertical bands is reminiscent of the paintings by Barnett Newman, with the
exception that Borčić uses more colours applied in translucent layers and not
in a monotonous way.
Having reached the
zenith of Abstract Expressionism with Minimal art, Borčić returned to
discernible representation. However, his representations discussed here are
only associative. It is only by learning the title of a work that the spectator
discerns the motif present by means of the artist's suggestion.
The painting
"Blue Door" (Fig. 37) is associated with the above painting only as
to the combination of horizontal and vertical coloured fields used for the
first time. The tendency to divide the pictorial field in such a way was
discernible even in the painting "Obituary" (1968).
The painting
"Blue Door" marks a new watershed in Borčić's creation. His artistic
path shall lead him from there to combinations of vertical and horizontal
coloured fields first joined into a new motif – meander (Fig. 56), to be
followed by their arrangement across the plane of the painting in such a way as
to combine with the floor plan of a studio and subsequently to be joined again,
to become even diagonal and be finally transformed into the profiles of
discernible artefacts: a chair, table or an easel.
The central field
of the blue door is divided into horizontal bands of various widths painted in
blue shades changing from dark blue in the centre to lighter shades at the top
and bottom. The illusion of coloured perspective is obliterated by such gradation
as well as by discernible borders between individual shades. Both side edges
were extended. The black ground shines through the top layers, thus rendering
an effect of monumentality to the painting. Borčić varied the compositional
solutions of earlier paintings in this one, namely those of "Large
Shooting Gallery" and "Red Door" (Figs 4 & 75).
The painting
"Red Door" from 1995 (Fig. 38) is associated with "Red
Door" from 1963 (Fig. 75). The red of the door is extended to the borders
of the painting. The composition is divided only into horizontal bands, the top
red one into three bands distinguished only by their shades of colour while the
bottom features two bands of blue and grey. The ultramarine band is trimmed
with the black of the ground. In contrast to the former paintings of doors
(Figs. 36, 37 & 75) this painting features only horizontal bands, a trait
that associates it with "Porte
Fenetre: Hommage a Henri Matisse", "Red Dominant" and
"Horizontal Red Line" (Figs. 33–35), with only its format being
standing.
The top part of
the painting is designed according to Minimalist principles. This basic
tendency is undermined by the bottom bands of paint applied in a very
picturesque manner: the dark ground shines through the top layers, thus
rendering an impressionist character to the painting once again.
3
The painting
"Black Door" (1998; Fig. 39) consists of two panels of equal size
each of them featuring two vertical bands of equal width: a blue and black one
on the left and a black and grey one on the right. The grey field on the
right-hand side is painted with fine sand added to the paint. The painting is
undoubtedly associated with the first door by Borčić from 1963 – "Red
Door" – and those created thirty years hence (Figs. 36, 37 & 75).
The field of the
door is black in this case. Each of the two fields is divided into four
rectangles by means of three horizontal lines. Sculptural lines are created by
fine sand added to the acrylic paint. In contrast to these lines, those in the
paintings "Triptych" from 1985 and "Removals" (Fig. 20)
were created by means of rope and paint. However, the painting "Black
Door" does not have much in common with the door motif as represented by
Borčić for the first time 35 years ago: it is only a variation of a similar
compositional layout.
A rapid reduction
of the motif can be witnessed at this stage of development of Borčić's
painting. Borčić excels as a great master of the artistic idiom since the motif
was developed by him from being entirely realistic to entirely artistic in only
a few paintings and a few years. It took him years to accomplish the same
development several decades ago.
Borčić has
returned to the door motif once again after 1998: "Black Door" (Fig.
39). The painting "Red Door" from 2001 (Fig. 40) is again associated
with that from 1963 (Fig. 75). On account of the effect of red paint applied to
a black ground shining through it and opening up in the centre in the form of a
wide black rift, this door is closer to the first painting in this extensive
series. The cleft is interrupted and shaded, thus creating an expressive
effect. It renders a sculptural character to the painting and creates space.
This is also the most erotic of all the paintings by Borčić.
By 2001 Borčić had
been creating the studio cycle for three years in which he approached, as we
shall see, the "secondary Realism" – associative abstraction.
4
The "Doors of
Salt-work Warehouses II–IV" cycle (2002; Figs. 43–46) defines the door
motif in a new way that was very topical with Borčić at that time: that of
secondary illusionism. The painting "Door of Salt-work Warehouse I"
is picturesquely dynamic with a remnant of the wall discernible along the
edges. "Door of Salt-work Warehouse II" introduces a semi-circular
curve reminiscent of "Obituary" (1968) with only the parabola being
upturned here, representing the door-post.
The paintings
inspired by the doors of salt-work warehouses along the artist's favourite walk
in Portorož reintroduced the Mediterranean motif in the oeuvre by Borčić.
"Door of Salt-work Warehouse III" features somewhat more details, yet
transformed by the artist into rectangular fields on the surface of the
painting, an effect reminiscent of similar coloured fields arranged in a
similar way in the paintings from the studio cycle created at that time (Figs.
59–62). "Door of Salt-work Warehouse IV" again features relief dots
on the monotonous blue background and orange colour that is perceived here as a
reminiscence of Mark Rothko (Figs. 35, 66, 68 & 76). The bottom part of the
painting is very artistic and reminiscent of the palette by Tisnikar from the
painting "Studio of Tisnikar: Homage to Tisnikar" (Fig. 61).
The "Memory
of Mankind I–III" cycle (2002; Figs. 47–49) introduces very Minimalist
paintings once again. The central single-coloured rectangle in grey or brown is
limited at the top and bottom by a black line of the ground followed by a
colour lighter or darker by a shade. Borčić has thus returned to the Minimalist
concepts of the 1980s varying the theme of "Porte Fenetre: Hommage a Henri Matisse" and the paintings
associated with it (Figs. 33–35). The painting features only horizontal bands
once again.
Sketch - Painting
The black ground
in "Sketch - Paintings" is divided by straight white lines into
geometrical forms. The tendency of combining various forms has already been
perceived in "Obituary" (1968) and "Blue Door" (Fig. 37).
The paintings "Division of Cobalt Fields", "Meander II",
"Sinji Vrh III", "Large Meander", "White Painting:
Homage to Gabrijel Stupica" and "Large Ultramarine", (Figs. 52,
56–58) do not belong to this cycle strictly speaking, yet are discussed here
due to their time of creation and similar compositional solutions as witnessed
in the "Sketch - Paintings" cycle. Some of them are also derived
directly from the findings acquired by Borčić from "Sketch -
Paintings". The former are associated with the latter and are often
distinguished only as to their colour. Even the title "Sketch - Paintings"
is only descriptive referring to the state of the artistic elements in
paintings.
"Sketch -
Painting" from 1994 (Fig. 51) introduces entirely new compositional
solutions, such as were indicated by "Blue Door" and the former
"Sketch - Painting" (Figs. 37 & 50). The painting is still
designed according to a common principle similar to paintings Figures 33–35: a
division into horizontal bands, yet with only three of them remaining. These
are created as before: the black ground is coated with another colour, in this
case white. Grey is added to it in order to create colder shades and ochre in
other places to create warmer ones. The central band delineated from the top
and bottom ones by a thin white line and divided vertically in addition to it
is a novelty in the painting. The rectangles created in this way are shifted
gradually towards the top and bottom. Such a division with horizontal and
vertical lines has already been perceived in "Blue Door" (1993; Fig.
37). However, in this case the division is more prominent, thus anticipating
the undermining of the pictorial field as witnessed in the studio cycle at the
turn of the decade (Figs. 59–62).
The composition of
"Sketch - Painting" from 1995 is utterly simple, reminiscent of that
in "Grey Painting" (1985), only with two straight white lines
appearing in the bottom black band. The black field is divided into two halves
by the white line with the other dividing the top third of the painting coated
with a white translucent layer from the bottom part. The division of the painting
into horizontal fields is associated with the paintings Figures 33–35.
The division of
the pictorial field into a broader bottom and a narrower top part is repeated
in the painting "Division of Cobalt Fields" (1995) (Fig. 50).24
Three small boards are attached
to the bottom cobalt field dividing it into five vertical coloured fields. The
top band is narrower in this case and coated with white, while the bottom one
is blue and divided into five further vertical bands. Each of them is painted
in a different shade of blue, similarly as in "Blue Door" (Fig. 37).
Borčić thus returned once again to the motif delineated by "Porte Fenetre: Hommage a Henri Matisse"
(Fig. 33), where each coloured field is different colour and not only limited
by a white line, similarly as in the "Sketch - Paintings"
cycle. At the bottom cobalt field boards of the same colour are attached.
The painting
"Sinji vrh III" (1995; Fig. 52) is one of the three paintings by the
same title in which Borčić investigated a motif similar to that mentioned
above, yet in blue and grey once again. The standing format of the painting is
divided into three horizontal fields and the central band additionally into
three vertical ones. The coloured fields created thus are shifted gradually as
in "Sketch - Painting" (Fig. 51). The top and middle bands are
painted in the same shade of grey while the central fields are blue. They are
trimmed with a thin white line as in the "Sketch - Paintings" cycle,
yet with the white lines coated with another shade of grey. "Sinji Vrh
III" (52) can be classified into the "Sketch - Paintings" cycle
(Figs. 50, 51, 54 & 55) on account of its similar composition and primarily
the line used by Borčić for accentuating the contours of geometrical forms.
The painting
"Three Blue Pictorial Fields" (1996; 53) is associated with the
former one (Fig. 52) with only the format being oblong. The painting is
monumental in size (205 x 270 cm) and is thus associated with "Large
Ultramarine" (Fig. 58), primarily with its first phase when the central
field of the ultramarine was shifted gradually in a similar way. The black
ground in the top and bottom bands is coated with a translucent layer of white
with discernible traces of brushwork as well as the colour of the ground. The
central band is divided into three blue fields shifted gradually towards the
bottom and top of the painting, similarly as in "Sketch - Painting"
and "Sinji Vrh III" (Figs. 51 & 52).
The central band
in "Sketch - Painting III" from 1996 (Fig. 55) is positioned vertically,
thus dividing the painting into three vertical bands. The two side ones are
painted in brown-grey while the central band is divided by white lines into
three rectangles with the bottom and top ones reaching over the central one.
After "Fishing Line" (1968), where the fish heads are painted in a
voluminous way, and after the engravings of the 1970s where the shells are
located in an unreal, metaphysical space, Borčić depicted here the illusion of
space once again. The space is created by a simple trick, i.e. by one line
covering the other. One of the fields apparently covers the other one, thus
creating the illusion of space.
The tendency of
undermining the vertical and horizontal coloured fields and combining them is
realized in an entirely new approach as witnessed in the painting "Large
Meander" from 1996 (Fig. 56) from the cycle entitled "Meander".
The regular division of the painting into horizontal and/or vertical bands has
disappeared. The horizontal and vertical bands are combined, thus creating regular
rectangles joined into a band of rectangles.20 The composition is
vertically divided into four apparent bands while its length consists of six
bands. The monotonous rigidity of the austere geometrical composition is
undermined by Borčić with the picturesque application of paint, thus rendering
a new dimension to the painting.
The austere
geometrical composition is undermined by the line as an illusionistic aid and
by combining geometrical forms. This method brought Borčić to entirely new
motifs and even new space, a new Realism, in the studio cycle at the turn of
the 1990s.
"White
Painting: Homage to Gabrijel Stupica" (1996; Fig. 57) does not belong
directly into the "Sketch - Paintings" cycle. As to its composition,
the painting goes back more than three decades (Figs. 4, 5, 7 & 9).
However, in this case the central plane that used to represent a fishing portal
or the stall in a shooting gallery is entirely white now. All the details are
lost in this emptiness, with only a small blue triangle remaining – homage to
Stupica.
The large white
plane was painted by the application of charcoal on a white ground and by
removing it with a cloth subsequently, thus creating a dull white effect. The
white and blue triangles are reminiscent of Gabrijel Stupica. "White
Painting" (Fig. 21) was created in the same way.
"Sketch -
Painting VIII: Breakthrough into Space" from 1998 is of a smaller format
and among the last of the cycle. The illusion of space was created in it by an
oblique line.
The return to
space has already been indicated by Borčić in "Sketch - Painting III"
(Fig. 55). From hence forward, artistic elements that Borčić has investigated
for the last two decades shall appear on the pure abstract ground of the
painting in entirely new groups, not like two geometrical forms (the rectangle
and triangle) that used to be combined into a meander, but as a discernible
motif (profile of a chair, table and an easel) reduced to its basic structural
parts.
The painting is
associated with "French Window on Collioure" by Henri Matisse from
1914, yet in a different way to the painting "Porte Fenetre: Hommage a Henri Matisse" (Fig. 33). The
oblique line at the bottom of the otherwise abstract painting by Matisse
divided into six vertical bands creates the illusion of space. A similar trick
was employed by Borčić in his respective painting when he joined the oblique
line with the vertical one.
The painting
"Large Ultramarine" (1999–2003; Fig. 58) is the most picturesque of
all the paintings by Borčić and is associated with "Blue Triangle"
(Fig. 31) as to that characteristic. The brushwork is discernible, rendering a
special energy to the painting. The black ground is coated with white mixed
with some blue along the edges. The black ground of the central field is coated
with ultramarine. The central field, as discernible today, is associated with
the "White Painting: Homage to Gabrijel Stupica" (Fig. 57). Its
composition actually consists of a picture within a picture, with the internal one
being entirely abstract. The clear colour of ultramarine blue is reminiscent of
some works by Anish Kapoor and Yves Klein on account of the illusion of depth
rendered by the ultramarine.
Initially the
central field of ultramarine blue was divided into three parts, similarly as in
the painting "Three Blue Pictorial Fields" (Fig. 53). Borčić
subsequently equalled the lighter narrow band with the edges of the remaining
two rectangles, thus creating a more serene composition.
"Large
Ultramarine" is a monumental abstract painting, the final in the series of
entirely abstract paintings by Borčić. It came into existence at the time when
the paintings of the studio cycle were created. The entire field of ultramarine
seems sunk in the whiteness of the background, or vice versa, hovering above
it, which all contributes to the effect of mysterious pulsation of the large
ultramarine. In this painting, Borčić has investigated the illusion of space
created by colour, similarly as he had done with the oblique line before.
Studios
A new studio cycle
was initiated by Borčić in 1998. The motifs for the paintings and subsequently
even engravings originated from his working environment. Similarly to Gabrijel
Stupica, he was symbolically imprisoned in his studio and began to chart it.
The abstract geometrical forms attained in his two decade long investigation of
the pictorial surface, which is an exceptional Odyssey's quest in the Slovene
arts, were combined into a discernible, "realistic motif". Some of
these elements could be combined in a new way when he analysed the artistic
composition of his paintings, the elements of his artistic idiom, into its
basic components.
Borčić had
struggled with a realistic representation for a long time until he abandoned it
entirely at the turn of the 1970s after some experiments in the 1960s. Realism
as witnessed in recent years is not realism in the illusionistic sense; it
could rather be defined as associative abstraction or secondary realism. It
originates from abstraction and was created after the artist passed the
evolution of the realistic motif into an abstract one.
A similar
occurrence took place in the 1970s when Borčić created a new illusionistic
space on the basis of the Renaissance perspective, one that had nothing in
common with the actual space except that it represented it in the same way. The
realistic motif was created in these paintings in the same manner: it was created
out of the elements of the artistic idiom studied by Borčić for the last two
decades. Rectangles, squares and triangles are combined in such a way that
profiles of a chair, table, an easel or a ruler can be discerned in their
combination. Although all this is represented by these paintings, they are
basically still abstract compositions of artistic signs in the pictorial field,
yet with their combination into a discernible composition.
The illusion of
space created by means of the colour and oblique lines reappears in the studio
cycle after 1975. Such an effect is immanent to the colour and line: it is not
something Borčić would strive to accomplish. When it appeared in his paintings,
it was left there and used by him in his further work as an artistic sign equal
to others. Such an approach distinguishes Borčić from e.g. Gustav Gnamuš, who
excludes all narrative signs from his paintings on purpose. Borčić painted his
studio for the first time back in 1956 in "The Komiža Studio" and
made a woodcut with the same motif a year later.
The studio of an
artist is a kind of hortus conclusus,
an enclosed garden, a sacred area regulated by special rules. All the
idiosyncrasies are carefully protected by the artist in order to maintain the
arrangement of artefacts that is a kind of reflection of his thoughts. The
studio is like a presbytery in a church, the area where people come closest to
God. The studio is like the burning bush (Moses in front of the burning bush)
and hortus conclusus in Christian
mythology.
Apart from the
entity of his studio, its details attract the attention of Borčić: a chair,
table and an easel. The painting used to be reserved for geometrical forms,
shells and fishing tackle, but now they are joined by everyday artefacts. Thus
the artist returns to the beginnings of his creation when he painted marginal
motifs of shooting galleries and fishing portals. He is directed into such
retrospective contemplation first by a retrospective exhibition of his
engravings in the Art Gallery in Slovenj Gradec in 1998, secondly by the
publication of the monograph on his engravings in 2001, and thirdly by an
anthological exhibition of his recent paintings (1980–2002), likewise in the
Art Gallery in Slovenj Gradec in 2002.
Various
projections are combined in the painting "Blue Studio" (1998; Fig.
59). The painting is divided into two halves with the central band in grey in
both cases. The borders are painted in different shades of blue and divided
into the top and bottom parts with the greyness of the central part continued
in the left-hand one. The composition is derived from the painting discussed in
the door cycle, yet with some new elements added to it: the border of the door
is expanded and divided. The colour is likewise changed: the "door"
is now grey and the "wall" blue.
The studios by
Borčić that are to follow in the next few years are a distant reminiscence of
"Red Studio" by Matisse from 1911. The space of the studio is
rendered in this painting only by means of rectangles painted on a red ground representing
paintings and furniture.
The background of
"The Studio of My Teacher" (1999; Fig. 60) is light and painted in a
very picturesque way (like the sky in Baroque frescoes) with smaller coloured
fields in white, grey and blue shades attached to it. The centre of the
painting bears the inscription "The Studio of My Teacher". A
newspaper page featuring an article on the exhibition by Gabrijel Stupica and a
reproduction of his self-portrait is attached in the middle of the left-hand
edge of the painting. The text is painted over with only the picture
discernible. The newspaper clipping is an intrusion of reality in the abstract
painting and simultaneously the element, the sign that marks the painting as
the studio of Stupica, apart from the inscription. It was in fact typical of
Stupica to use newspaper clippings in his paintings. He utilized them also on
account of the writing that remained discernible.25 21
As mentioned before, the inscription obliterates the illusion of depth rendered
by the colour.
The blue rectangle
is directly reminiscent of Stupica, who employed oil paints only for cobalt
blue. The intention of Borčić was primarily to approach his teacher, who was a
master of light and white shades, by means of colour: light blue and white
shades and cobalt turning into the ultramarine here.
The bottom
right-hand corner features a rectangle painted with acrylic and fine sand. The
painting thus enters the space and is transformed into a sculpture. The
painting is associated with former works as to this Informel detail (Fig. 6).
"The Studio
of Tisnikar" (1999; Fig. 61) belongs to this cycle as well. Jože Tisnikar
had been a friend and fellow artist of Borčić for the last two decades of his
life. In contrast to the previous painting, this one is painted in darker,
suppressed dark and green shades typical of the paintings by Tisnikar.
Individual coloured fields of irregular forms are positioned on a dark
background. The bottom right-hand corner features a very picturesque palette of
Jože Tisnikar. Such a picturesque manner was also discernible in the paintings
"Blue Triangle" and "Large Ultramarine" (Figs. 31 & 58)
from that period. This painting can also be defined as associative abstraction.
Chair
Borčić was
occupied with individual parts of his studio in the studio cycle: a chair,
table and an easel. The chairs are familiar from "The Komiža Studio"
(1956) and "Red Shooting Gallery" (Fig. 1). These are not actual
depictions of a chair: its image is created by combining the geometrical forms
in the painting. These used to be joined in horizontal or vertical bands
exclusively, but now they are slanted. The composition loosened up in the
"Sketch - Paintings" cycle and further in meanders until the rigid
connection gave way in the studio cycle. In the case of "Chairs", the
geometrical fields are combined in a new, associative way.
The painting
"Chair" (1998) features three larger coloured fields in blue-grey
shades with narrower bands of blue trimmed with a thin black line between them.
The bands are combined in such a way as to create the profile of a chair. The
right-hand side of the painting is once again painted in a picturesque way and
can therefore be classified among those paintings by Borčić associated with
"Blue Triangle" (Figs. 31, 40, 58, 60, 61 & 65).
The painting
"Chair" (1998) is similar to the former painting by the same title as
to its composition, only with the colours changed so that monotonous black and
grey prevail. The narrower bands indicating the profile of the chair are not
painted: the colour is marked by a small rectangle and by its name written
there. The emptiness of the white ground is in sharp contrast with the black
background and the painting seems unfinished. The white of the ground and an
apparently unfinished painting likewise featured in "Blue Triangle"
(Fig. 31).
The composition in
"Chair" (2000; Fig. 64) is equal to that in the paintings above. The
coloured planes are painted in a more picturesque way so that the painting
approaches "Blue Triangle" and "Large Ultramarine" (Figs.
31 & 58 ) with only its shades being brown and grey. The colours pass over
from light to dark shades in a single plane since the black of the ground
penetrates the irregularly thick layers of paint. The chair is of the same
colour and in some places trimmed with the rest of the colours that are no
longer caught in geometrical forms.
The painting
"Chair" (2000; Fig. 65) is close to the painting Figure 64 as to its
shades of colour, yet it is even more picturesque and can therefore be
associated with "Blue Triangle" and "Large Ultramarine"
(Figs. 31 & 58) with regard to its line of development. The silhouette of
the chair merges almost entirely with the background and the colours of the
background blend into one another: from black through grey to white.
The painting "Black Chair" (2000; Fig. 66) is
depicted in a more picturesque way. The central vertical line is interrupted
twice and divides the grey background into two parts. The colours are again not
caught in a grid of geometrical planes. The orange of the bottom part of the
seat associates this chair with the painting "Approaching Rothko"
(Fig. 76).
Only a line has
remained of the chair marking its profile in the painting "Chair"
(2003; Fig. 70). The line is extended into a combination of blue and red
rectangles on the seat. The silhouette of the chair simultaneously divides the
monotonous background of the painting. The painting is close to Figure 66 as to
its motif of an interrupted diagonal and to Figure 65 as to the way the chair
disappears into the background.
Easel
The painting
"The Easel of Gustl" (2001; Fig. 71) is dedicated to Gustav Gnamuš,
the only veritable Slovene Minimalist painter. Gnamuš has never abandoned his
search for an entirely abstract painting with even the tiniest detail marking
anything outside the painting expelled from it.
The painting
belongs to the homage cycle dedicated to Matisse, Rothko, Stupica, Tisnikar and
Popović.
Borčić painted two
parallel vertical bands intersected by a third horizontal one in the middle on
an olive green background, the colour that Gustav Gnamuš excels in. The equal
violet of all the three bands obliterates the illusion of depth that would have
come into existence if the vertical bands had been intersected by a lateral
field of a different colour. This detail can also be perceived as homage to
Gnamuš. However, the violet bands are reminiscent of an easel if viewed
frontally. But, on the other hand, they can only be individual coloured fields.
Borčić intended to approach Gnamuš with his colours as he had done before with
Jože Tisnikar and Gabrijel Stupica (Figs. 57, 60 & 61).26
The painting
"Easel II" ( 2000; Fig. 72) is certainly associated with "The
Easel of Gustl" (Fig. 71). The black ground is coated with red reminiscent
of "Red Door" (Figs. 75 & 40) and "Red Chair" (1999)
while the bands on it are painted in a shade less red. They appear in a
composition similar to that of the top bands, yet they are joined by a shorter
band in the bottom part reaching from the lateral band to the bottom. The bands
are all in the same colour causing obliteration of the illusion of space.
Table
The table motif in
the painting "Table" (2001; Fig. 73) is similar to the easel, yet
with the surface of the table (formerly a crossbar of the easel) being raised
to the top of the painting. The black ground is coated with grey that is concluded
a few centimetres before the blue legs of the table and vibrates there. The
painting "Still Life with Fishhooks: White Table" (1961; Fig. 7)
should be mentioned here since the table motif appears there for the first time
in the oeuvre by Borčić. A comparison reveals how Borčić insisted on realistic
motifs at that time, how he clung to space although he was aware that it would
disappear from his paintings in a while. The painting "Table" from
2001 is entirely independent of the space surrounding it. It is set vehemently
in front of us and does not care if it were miscomprehended as three blue
fields on a grey background.
"White
Table with Naca's Box" (2002; Fig. 74) is a grey painting. The bottom half
features a rectangle painted by a white line: the silhouette of a table. The
white interrupted line functions similarly as the drypoint in etching. A small
blue rectangle is painted in the right-hand top border. On account of the
curved lines representing the legs and the white colour of the table the
painting can be associated with "Still Life with Fishhooks: White
Table" (1961; Fig. 7). As to the small rectangle in ultramarine blue,
however, the painting is associated with "Fishing Portal",
"Small Pub" and subsequently with "Grey Triangle",
"White Painting: Homage to Gabrijel Stupica" and "The Studio of
My Teacher" (Figs. 6, 9, 28, 57 & 60).
At this stage,
Borčić masters his artistic idiom to perfection, which permits him to vary the
artistic signs in a virtuoso manner. Thus, as we have seen, the paintings range
from very impulsive ones like "Blue Triangle" and "Large
Ultramarine" (Figs. 31 & 58) or some chairs and tables from the studio
cycle, to slanting compositions varying the motif of coloured fields and
originating from meanders, and very austere monotonous compositions like the
"Memory of Mankind I–III" cycle (Figs. 47–49), with which Borčić
returns to the time when he began to paint fervently once again: the 1980s.
1Ivan
Sedej, "Borčić – med grafiko in slikarstvom", Sinteza, No. 9, Ljubljana, March 1968.
2Jure
Mikuž, Borčić in dileme modernizma, Moderna galerija, Ljubljana, 1986.
3Ješa
Denegri, "Kontinuitet modernizma", Odjek, No. 1, Sarajevo, 1987, p. 20.
4Ješa
Denegri, Slike prostora – prostori slike, Savremena galerija
Zrenjanin, 1989.
5Tomaž
Brejc, Bogdan Borčić in sodobno
abstraktno slikarstvo, Galerija sodobne umetnosti Celje, Galerija likovnih
umetnosti Slovenj Gradec, 1996.
6Barbara
Borčić, Bogdan Borčić – grafike, Kostanjevica na Krki, 2001.
7Tomaž
Brejc, Temni modernizem, p. 71. Tomaž
Brejc, Bogdan Borčić in sodobno
abstraktno slikarstvo, Galerija sodobne umetnosti Celje, Galerija likovnih
umetnosti Slovenj Gradec, 1996.
8Josip
Vidmar, "Po novi modi", Slovenski
poročevalec, Ljubljana, 13/12/1953, p. 4.
9"Služiti
razvijanju socialističnih odnosov, Josip Broz Tito v razgovoru s predstavniki
Zveze novinarjev Jugoslavije", Delo,
Ljubljana, 14/2/1963, p. 3.
10
Ivan Sedej, "Hlad in praznina", Komunist,
Ljubljana, 11/4/1977, p. 19.
11"Light
Red over Black", 1957, oil on canvas, 230 x 150 cm. Tate modern, London.
12Henry
Matisse, "The Red Studio", 1911, oil on canvas, 191 x 219. The Museum
of Modern Arts, New York, USA.
13Janez
Bernik, Veliko pismo, 1964, mixed technique on canvas, 140 x 201 cm, Moderna
galerija, Ljubljana.
14Ivan
Sedej, "Borčić – med grafiko in slikarstvom", Sinteza, No. 9, Ljubljana, March 1968, p. 13.
15Juan
Sanches Cotán, "Still Life", ca. 1600, oil on canvas, 69 x 85 cm,
Museum of Art, San Diego.
16Jure
Mikuž, Borčić in dileme modernizma,
Moderna galerija, Ljubljana, 1986, p. 8.
17Cf.
"Grey Painting" (1985).
18Mića
Popović, "Gvozden Crossed the Zebra at 15;46", 1973, oil, metal,
canvas, 165 x 165 cm, Art Gallery in Slovenj Gradec.
19 French Window on at Collioure, 1914, oil on canvas, 116.5 x 89
cm, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou.
20Cf.
Fishing Line (1968) and Small Pub (1964).
21Letters
also appeared in other paintings by Borčić (Figs. 10 & 11).