Vatroslav Kuliš
Fughe Centripete – Centripetalne Fuge
Magazzino delle Idee, Trieste
4 march -3 april 2016
Vatroslav Kuliš – Exuberant Freedom by Edward Lucie-Smith
The art of Vatroslav Kuliš offers an example of the way in which an apparently universal art style
can modify itself in response to different circumstances and different cultural conditions. In the
broad sense, there can be no doubt that he belongs in the tradition of painterly abstraction that
established itself, first in North American, then in European painting in the years that
immediately followed World War II.
Totally abstract art had been known before this – one only has to think of early Modernist
masters such as Malevich, Kandinsky and Mondrian. But in the abstracts of the early Modernist
period the emphasis was on the creation of forms – the actual movement of the brush did not
become the dominant force in the making of paintings until the rise of Abstract Expressionism
in the United States – specifically in New York, while the war was still raging in Europe.
One feature of this major art movement, now regarded as characteristically American, and
indeed often seen as an expression of the cultural dominance that the United States achieved
in the mid-20th century, hand in hand with its now overwhelming military and economic power,
was its emphasis on the idea that art was now primarily a liberation of the inner self.
This liberation had in fact been a long drawn out process. Its first stages can be seen in some of
the art produced during the time of the 19th century Romantic Movement, though the violent
emotions of Romantic art were often linked to political and also social causes, as can be seen
in a series of painting produced by leading French, and also British artists – I am thinking here
of Gericault’s Raft of the Brig Medusa (1818-19), Delacroix’s Massacre at Chios (1824) and
J.M.W.
Turner’s The Slave Ship (1840 – two years subsequent to the abolition of slavery in all British
territories: it still continued to exist in the formerly British United States).
This impulse reached a kind of culmination with Courbet’s huge The Studio: A Real Allegory
(185455). This showed the artist – Courbet himself – as the opponent and equal of the then ruler of
France, the Emperor Napoleon III.
In the second half of the 19th century artistic innovation took a different turn. Following the
defeat of France in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1, followed by the collapse of the Second
Empire, innovative art increasingly became the expression of impulses that existed in a parallel
world, outside the realm of politics.
Efforts were intermittently made to change this by artists who belonged to the various tribes
that together made up what we still call the Modern Movement, even though today the
adjective ‘modern’ no longer applies. Some bizarre alliances were formed – for example that
between Russian Communism and leading members of the International Surrealist Movement
– the most coherent of the art movements that flourished in the period between the two World
Wars, and one that embraced a wide variety of different nationalities. The courtship – all from
the Surrealist rather than the official Communist side – was never consummated.
Leading European Surrealists did, however, eventually find refuge in the United States, driven
there by the exigencies of war. Surrealist thinking, with its emphasis on finding ways to set free
fantasies and impulses generated by the unconscious mind, exercised an important influence
over the evolution of Abstract Expressionism, which can be seen as being, in many important
respects, Surrealism’s direct transatlantic heir.
The irony is, of course, that Abstract Expressionist art, regarded by this time as a quintessentially
American product, was promoted in Europe post-war by the CIA, through the agency of the
Congress for Cultural Freedom, founded in 1950. It served as a visible counterpoise to the
antiindividualistic,
authoritarian leftism of the Soviet Union. Though the artists who practiced this
style were sometimes denounced as ‘communists’ by angry right-wing legislators in America
itself, the CIA, and its often unwitting intellectual allies in America and abroad, saw Abstract
Expressionism as the absolute paradigm of free, totally liberated creativity – something at the
very opposite pole from Soviet cultural authoritarianism.
Freely painted abstract art still carries an echo of this attitude today, even in a region, the
territory of the former Yugoslavia, where there was never such a determined attempt to control
artistic expression as existed until comparatively recently both in Russia itself and in other
countries of the Soviet bloc. When one looks at Kuliš’s work, one of the things that immediately
strikes one is its exuberant freedom. It obeys no rules. What inevitably sounds in one’s head in
this context is some echo of the civil wars that perturbed this region of Europe in the 1990s.
Kulis’s paintings are joyous declarations of the individual’s right to create as he pleases. Their
improvisatory character, in this historical context, immediately takes on both political and social
connotations.
The dominant image in all of these works can be interpreted in three non-exclusive ways: as a
sun, as a flower, and as a vortex. As Leonardo da Vinci long ago pointed out, in his advice to
artists about how to generate figurative compositions from accidental mottled markings on a
wall, human beings have an innate compulsion to try to turn non-figurative marks and symbols
into things that the brain will immediately recognise as images corresponding to what is known
in surrounding, everyday reality. 20th century artists, art critics and theoreticians, advocates of
the Modern, spelled, as here, with a warning capital letter, tried to reject this impulse, almost
always in vain. Malevich’s Black Square, notoriously he most radical of early 20th century
abstract paintings, is easily read as a widow looking out at a night sky. It is only some of the
products of the Minimal Art Movement of the late 1960s and 1970s, Donald Judd’s sequences of
boxes, for example, may perhaps entirely fulfil this rejectionist ambition. Minimalism, notoriously,
marked the real conclusion of the Modern Movement. Kulis, in any case, can certainly not be
described as being an artist who embraces the minimal.
In fact, his paintings are best read, if we insist on specific meanings, as joyous celebration of
nature, and of being, at the same time, celebrations of the kind of vertigo that the contemplation
of natural phenomena sometimes induces. Some of Leonardo’s drawings of Deluges express he
same feeling, though the tone in his case is pessimistic rather than optimistic. If one looks a
little nearer to the present time in the history of pre-Modern art, then there is perhaps a kind
of kinship to J.M.W Turner’s depictions of storms – for example his Snow Storm: Hannibal
Crossing
the Alps (1812 – Tate Britain, London). That is, Kuliš is a ‘modern’ artist in the truest, though most
paradoxical sense – as someone who is fully aware of his place in a great tradition.
Vatroslav Kuliš – diferentia specifica by Miroslav Gašparović
Cultural and artistic links between Italy and Croatia are as long and lasting as the history of
our co-existence on the Adriatic shores. Even the shortest recapitulation of these relations
would require several books. Yet I would like to mention here only some of the artistic
personalities that left an indelible mark in both cultures – from Lucian Vranjanin (Laurana),
Giorgio da Sebenico, Andrija Medulić (Meldolla) and many other Schiavoni, to extraordinary
cooperation of Croatian and Italian artists in the context of the New Tendencies movement of
the fifties and sixties, who in those years together wrote the brightest pages of art of both
countries. The continuity of idea exchange and better knowing of each other are equally
present and important today as they were in times past. The exhibition which presents one of
the most important Croatian painters of the past decade Vatroslav Kuliš to the Italian public is
one such step towards better understanding of the most delicate and beautiful in the spirit of
both nations.
The new cycle of Vatroslav Kuliš’s works entitled Centripetal fugues which at this exhibition
presents in a certain way the founding of a new segment of his painting oeuvre. This is a new
cycle of synthetic works which integrate his artistic experience of recent years and open up new
areas on which to base his art in the future. I even dare to say that this is one of the top
moments of his work in recent years.
Vatroslav Kuliš is surely one of the most important Croatian colourist, painter of inexhaustible
energy who in all of his development stages kept his core elements regardless of how he
modulates them in each moment. This powerful, unique expression is Kuliš’s diferentia specifica,
the one stylistic determinant that makes him unique within the corpus of Croatian, as well as
European contemporary art.
The painting of Vatroslav Kuliš is without a doubt and at first sight recognized as contemporary:
it is immersed in contemporarity and arose out of the present moment. This reflects all doubts
and concerns of contemporary art, while firmly rooted in the tradition of the twentieth century
painting. This duality creates an energy that in the artist’s case results in a powerful artistic
expression of a clearly defined identity. Kuliš is not even today, in the era of great artistic
experiment, an artist who directed all of his creative energy towards the study of formal,
technical or conceptual premises of painting, but accepts them as a starting point – foundations
on which his creativity is achieved, as a space of research which is not an aim in itself, but is a
natural process of the image formation.
Vatroslav Kuliš founded his artistic expression just in the direct, impulsive approach, in which
the substance – colour and canvas to which it is applied are not only a means of expression,
but also a subject of dialogue. The final form of works actually arises in the interactive relation
of the artist, as an active principle who with his act ignites the passive principles of the substance,
and the substance itself, which when moved affects the artist in the process of creation. In this
complex process the perception of the artist changes which determines his reactions, and
therefore the flow of the next phase of interaction, and the image formation. Kuliš’s paintings
are not made on the basis of pre-thought concepts and elaborate sketches that guide the
process of creating from the first move to completion. It is just about activating spontaneous
and direct access to the image and the process of interaction through which the artist and the
substance-matter both change, now designed in a unique manner. It becomes the artist
embodied spirituality, and his style – expression.
The fact that Kuliš his entire body of work, as well as this latest cycle, builds on the relation
with nature, however he cannot in any way be defined as a landscape painter or mannerist in
the classical sense, is reasonable in the light of two fundamental components of his painting
genealogy. On the one hand Kuliš’s painting is based on the experience of American abstract
expressionism and action painting, and on the other on a strong tradition of Croatian
abstraction based on landscape painting of Šimunović, Gliha and Murtić, as well as European
painters Vedova and Richter. Kuliš does not approach nature in search of a specific motive, but
sees it in its totality, as a living vibrant organism, as an incentive, ever changing poetic warp
which acts in its fullness and strength on all of the artist’s senses and with the movement of
the creative hand materializes paintings in colour and light. The process of image purification
and the creation of a new space yet only sporadically indicated in his paintings already began
with Riffovi (Riffs) cycle presented in the Zagreb Art Pavilion in 2003. For Kuliš this represents
a new adventure of exploring his painting, and himself. In this sense, the exhibition Herbarium
Pictorium held at the Museum of Arts and Crafts in 2007 is a step further: holding on to his
associative connection with nature as the source of all art forms and inspiration, Kuliš subtly
deepens the relation towards his second fundamental origin – painting. Gesturality and
colorism are still the main means of expression. His approach to painting, or in this case paper,
has become much more direct and immediate, subject to current impulse, but in some way
we recognize his subconscious goal: the return to his own origin – true painting. The
impression is that the interface between the artist’s hand and matter is mutually completely
free-flowing, that there are no barriers or noise. Kuliš’s style kept all of those characteristics
that have so far marked his painting, but his expression in this cycle changed by adding a new,
vibrant dimension that also stems from the emancipation of matter, or colour. Kuliš’s painting
style is now much freer, more direct, and more sublime in terms of progress towards pure
painting. And with this new cycle of paintings not only did Vatroslav Kuliš confirm the distinctive
identity of his painting, but in fact he managed to achieve a contemporary, distinctive, and
independent stylistic expression.
Each individual Kuliš’s painting is a stylistically coherent and closed composition which, when
viewed in the totality of his oeuvre, becomes an integral part of a larger whole, like every flower,
wave or sun glare unique and different actually constitutes a fraction of the immense fresco of
the natural element. This dialogue that the artist leads with nature through painting resulted in
a new artistic expression, charged with primeval energy, the expression that is never just a
depiction of a natural element, but also a “seismograph of the artist’s personality – soul”. His
painting, in all previous phases, including the current at this exhibition, is characterized by
communication – simple connection of the viewer with the painting. Although some might say,
and sometimes they do say, that this is his flaw, in fact we are speaking of utter sincerity and
truth – those key features that are today in contemporary art perhaps the most important,
through which the artist conveys his artistic sensibility or idea.
Centripetal Fugues | New cycles by Vatroslav Kuliš by Tonko Maroević
The freedom with which Vatroslav Kuliš moves across his frames, his canvasses and papers, is
the result of a long and persistent study of the various experiences of modern painting and of
an equally passionate and individual approach to different tasks. The painter is conscious of the
great tradition of numerous predecessors and he knows that he has to try to measure up to
them, but his responsibility is also towards the demands of his own temperament and his own
talent. Remaining faithful to painting as an artistic medium, if curious and open to other means
of expression, he successfully follows the continuity of intense, flaming colorism and an
instinctive, gestural expressivity, beyond any generational, stylistic or trend-related framework.
The freedom and autonomy of Kuliš’s art do not acknowledge any external limitations either.
The subject-matter is non-figurative, non-representational, “abstract”, but this abstraction is
guided by internal rhythms and closely follows the premises of organic growth and development
of forms. Thus, the lines and the blots, the inscriptions and the traces in the exhibited works
illuminate the artist’s relationship with the world; they communicate his anything but indifferent
affection to the light and the warmth of creation. By the energy of his ductus, by the richness
of his chromatic choices, Kuliš traces a kind of correlation with the vehemence of natural
phenomena and the glow of elementary irradiations.
The freedom with which the layers of paint are applied in Kuliš’s paintings, and the decisive
movements of the brush or spatula, entitle the viewer to another kind of freedom - that of
association, while observing and interpreting the encountered signs. The dominant circular flows
and the accumulation of trajectories around the centre make it possible for us to experience
many of the paintings as allusions to the form of the sun or to the core of a fruit or to a vortex
which the surrounding elements flow into. None of these conditional references exclude the
idea that the central circle can be proclaimed an open eye, a symbol of self-reflection and
determined optical concentration, as a sublimation and corrective, - not to say: control – of the
otherwise unrestrained, almost anarchic euphoria.
The least disputable point about Kuliš’s paintings is that they are characterized by an exceptional
dynamism, a strong contrast of the first plane and the background, a pronounced confrontation
of delicate details and aggressive dominants. The polarization could be taken a step further to
describe the relationship between the regular parallel lines of continuous flow and the dispersed
drops of colour (the method of dripping). We could even talk of the coaction of programmatic
sections and those realized instinctively, of the interrelation of disciplined knowledge and the
captured moment. It is essential, however, that the painted surfaces vibrate and pulsate
homogeneously, that they radiate the interaction of the procedures used and the characteristics
expressed.
We have mentioned the possible dichotomy or dilemma regarding the interpretation of the
basic forms. In other words, we ask ourselves if we can perceive the circumvention around the
nucleus as a voyage towards depth, a penetration into the centre of the painting, or if we, on
the other hand, see it as an emerging to the surface, an expansion towards the edges. While
we do not exclude the possibility of an “introvert” reading, of the dive of the eye into the heart
of the painting (a kind of losing oneself in the vortex of Poe’s Maelstrom), the extrovert approach
seems more acceptable, as we perceive the central form as a solar principle. The round centre
does in effect emanate as a starting point of a galaxy of chromatic particles, it is like a sun, with
its protuberances, like a focus which explodes only to expand in different directions.
The oblong horizontal formats of Kuliš’s papers are perceived as visual parallels to music scores
in which almost dramatic confrontations of light and shadow, of warmth and coldness, of
tenderness and anger happen in search of a more universal harmony. On the basis of the
orientation of the dominant lines, of the energetic strokes which go beyond the frames and
expand, run away from the limitations of the quadrangle, we dare call many of the painter’s
compositions – optical fugues. But it is as if all these flights of the compositional dominants
become paradoxically neutralized in the circular centre, a little like a peaceful point in the eye
of a cyclone, so that we can find the programme of the artist’s composition in a dialectical
interchange of centrifugal and centripetal forces, with a predilection for the latter tendency.
Somewhat different is the case of Kuliš’s vertically set collages. The central circular web of lines
and blots does not possess the force of irradiation and expansion as in the horizontal works; it
is not the starting point of rays of intensely coloured stripes. On the contrary, the energy here
is condensed, compact, almost put into the second plane. The layers of painted pieces of paper
cross and overlap, they cover and oppose one another, but every layer manages to
communicate, to bring to the surface, the fruitful tension of its (latent) formative structures
within the dominant gamma. In this way a complex dynamism of material and gestural
stratification is created, of differentiated means and elements.
Vatroslav Kuliš belongs to those artists who have not lost their faith in the potentials of painting,
and he confirms this faith with an adequate affirmation of strong coloristic expression and with
a passionate and variegated personal manner. At the same time, the affirmative relationship
towards the modern artistic tradition testifies of an innate vitality, of a belief in sensibility, in
sensuality, in the almost erotic and life-giving force of “convulsive beauty” (as Breton would put
it), especially welcome, almost indispensable in moments of doubt and in a time of fatigue and
depression such as our own. Vatroslav Kuliš’s art does also contain a caustic, bitter element; all
the more, however, it offers an antidote for any kind of indifference or apathy.