Matija Jama

Matija Jama: Ljubljana Town Hall Square

... The most doctrinaire impressionist among Slovene painters is Matija Jama (1972 -1947). He was also the only one to have used his pen to fight for the reputation and truth of this movement ...

... Jama believed in Impressionism as a necessary stage in the development of art. In 1927 he declared triumphantly in his article On Impressionism and Criticism: "The current of «objective« expressionists is slacking; they are approaching the established old classics and imitating them. Non sit alterius qui suus esse potest: Impressionism - subjective naturalism - is still present, will remain and future generations will still built on it. The notion of ’Impressionism defeated’ has muddled the minds of a few imbeciles only"

But like Jakopic he was aware that impressionism could not exsist for its own sake, but that in the history of painting it had a special mission. This is proved by one of Jama’s last declaration in 1940, in which he says:Ê"Impressionism came into existence as a reaction black-and-white and post-romantic painting. Our method cannot be the final aspect, the final form of impressionism. In the course of development something else must stem from it The Impressionists tackled the problem of colour but neglected content and form; this is in fact always only a transitional and temporary phenomenon, since it is impossible to overcome all problems at the same time. The Impressionists picture, too, must be as an image perfect in all respects. We have only discovered light and that with great difficulty. I remember that it was quite a discovery for me to see that it was possible to paint in oil in vivid light. I see the possibility of future evolution only in Impressionism. What Impressionism has discovered in the fields of light and colour will be the basis for future painting, but from this starting point, who knows what different phases of development are possible."