Franc Berneker

(b. 1874, Legen near Slovenj Gradec - d. 1932, Ljubljana)

At the turn of the 20th century, when a generation of Slovenian Impressionist painters helped to shape a decisive period for Slovenian modern art, sculptural activity also flourished. The first Slovenian sculptors, trained primarily in Vienna, had the chance to participate at numerous sculpture competitions organised in that period by various committees for the erection of monuments to Slovenian men of letters and other important figures. It was precisely after the invitation for proposals for the Prešeren monument in 1900 that the Slovenian public first became acquainted with the sculptor Franc Berneker, previously unknown in his own homeland. Rihard Jakopič was the first to notice him and predicted that his artistic career would be a hard one.

Franc Berneker is known to the general public as the first Slovenian modern sculptor and the creator of the beautiful Primož Trubar monument in Ljubljana. He was considered an extremely gifted sculptor in his own lifetime but as one unable to fulfil his artistic mission because of his unfortunate fate. He never realised his numerous and ambitious sculptural ideas - ideas which mark him out as the supreme sculptor of Slovenian modernism. Less known is his artistic engagement. As an associate of Rihard Jakopič and a member of Savani, he fought ceaselessly, alongside his colleagues, for Slovenian art and for its appropriate role in public life. As an artist he took part in the first Slovenian exhibitions in the Jakopič pavilion; with Savani he exhibited at the successful Miethke exhibition in Vienna in 1904; he took part in sculpture competitions and completed several commissions; and as a fervent cultural activist he participated in public discussions on art. He was a member of the Vesna group, the Sava club, the Probuda society, the Society of Slovenian Artists and the National Museum Art Commission; he argued zealously in favour of the establishment of the Slovenian Art Academy in Ljubljana and for the foundation of a Slovenian art market, together with a critical professional public and a knowledgeable audience and clients.

Berneker's sculptural path began at the threshold of the 20th century with realistic sculptural expression, as developed by the conservative academic environment and supported by the taste of wealthy bourgeois clients. Academic realism was still prevalent at the Vienna academy; it was based on Bernini-like neo-baroque, while more direct modernism was not allowed. Nevertheless we can see, in the works of professors and students alike, echoes of the new stylistic trends of the time: elements of Secessionism, Symbolism, Meunier-type social realism, Hildebrand's new classicism, and the formative and contextual influences of Rodin's sculpture. When analysing Berneker's work we could also point to prevailing influences, or new stylistic tendencies, which he (in)directly followed. As for the form (less for the contents), he primarily relied on Rodin's sculpture - via the strong influence that the latter had on European sculpture. The pictorial (impressionistic) creation of forms, reflecting inner tensions and figural dynamism, which created a restless flickering of light on the surface and thus radically agitated the figure, was a Rodinian principle to which Berneker returned again and again in his portraits, sculptural groups and sketches for monuments. But Berneker's work is also clear proof of his ability and artistic autonomy: he did not merely follow the chosen stylistic expression but subdued both traditional and modern sculptural trends to his own artistic sensation, thus creating new totalities. The artist's most characteristic feature is the subject of his work. All Berneker's creativity is marked by a lyrical, melancholic tone, supplemented by his pessimistic and sometimes tragic relation to the world. This is most evident in his sculptural groups, dominated by symbolic, social themes elaborated with his strongly personal tragic tone. It was Berneker's special sculptural poetics that divided him from contemporary sculptors. The peculiar creation, 'filled with sorrow', reflects his fate in the same scale as it reflects the period in which he was living.

Franc Berneker was the first member of the qualitatively and stylistically diverse generation of Slovenian academic sculptors to break with academicism and to enrich his sculptural expression with contemporary art currents and movements. As a contemporary of the Impressionists and a member of the Sava club, he also contributed greatly to the establishment and development of contemporary Slovenian art. The peak of Berneker's opus was his Trubar monument, which illustrates in the best possible way the essence of his activity and his personal philosophy, at the same time representing a break in Slovenian monument sculpture and opening up the path towards the Slovenian modernist sculpture of the 20th century.

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Text: Špela Spanžel

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