Nationality Montenegrin Notable work Cyclus (1996) | Name Vasko Lipovac Role Artist | |
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Awards Emanuel Vidovic Lifetime Achievement Award Known for | ||
Vasko lipovac valovi
Vasko Lipovac (June 14, 1931 – July 4, 2006) was a Croatian painter, sculptor, printmaker, designer, illustrator and scenographer and one of the most prominent artists of the region. He is best known for his minimalist figuration and use of intense, unmodulated and often dissonant palette. With the exception of his juvenile period of geometric abstraction, he remained loyal to figuration throughout his whole career. Exceptionally prolific, he worked in various techniques and was equally skilful in using high-polished metal, polychromous wood, enamel, terracotta or polyester to create his sculptures, reliefs and mobiles.
Contents
- Vasko lipovac valovi
- Vasko lipovac izlo ba umjetni ki salon split 1979
- Biography
- In theatre
- In popular culture
- Awards
- References
Vasko lipovac izlo ba umjetni ki salon split 1979
Biography
Vasko Lipovac was born on June 14, 1931, in Škaljari, a small coastal settlement near Kotor in Montenegro. He was the youngest of five children in a very harmonious family of a prosperous merchant and a shipping agent Spasoje Lipovac and Antica Lui, the daughter of a respectable landowner Maksimilijan Lui. He attended Real Grammar School in Kotor, where his drawing teacher was Mato Đuranović (1895–1973), the painter who inspired his students with the bright, shiny colors of his works.
After graduating from the secondary school, he moved to Zagreb, Croatia in 1950 and enrolled in the Academy of Applied Arts. He initially chose sculpture, in the class of Kosta Angeli Radovani, but during his second year (1951/1952) he switched to painting, where his mentor became Željko Hegedušić. It is worth mentioning that during this period of the early 1950s, many future prominent artists attended Zagreb Academy of Applied Arts, such as Zlatko Bourek, Jagoda Buić, Ante Sony Jakić, Zvonimir Lončarić, Mladen Pejaković, Ordan Petlevski and Pavao Štalter. After graduation, from 1955 to 1959 he attended the Master's Workshop of professor Krsto Hegedušić. This postgraduate study gave many talented young visual artists much needed freedom and opportunity to explore and use their artistic sensibility.
In 1959 he married Milena Matas, and they later had three sons. He spent most of the 1960 in the army, and upon returning to Zagreb he spent a year (1964–1966) as an art editor assistant in the magazine “Chemistry in industry”, which was the only full-time job he ever had. Since 1967, Vasko Lipovac lived and worked in Split, Croatia, where the Mediterranean climate inspired him to fulfill his poetic vision, and to create numerous works. Four thematic units have been detected in the work of Lipovac, namely the Mediterranean, sports, the sacral and erotic.
During the whole course of his active life he carried within himself the images of the native landscape of Boka Kotorska and the rich cultural heritage of his home town, while his education in Zagreb provided him with an access to the essential experiences of modernism and figurative autonomy, especially thanks to Kosta Angeli Radovani. So in his work, apart from the early abstract phase, he tried to affirm the contemporary anthropomorphic and associative sculpture and figurative painting, succeeding in evoking the figures and ambiances of recognizably Mediterranean descent. No matter how stylized, that figure is full of life, just like a human being who works, thinks, feels...
He was intrigued by the idea of integrating art with architecture, and especially integration of art into workspace, so he collaborated with numerous architects. Among his most prominent are the collaborations with Lovro Perković, Julije De Luca, Jerko Rošin, Dinko Kovačić and Bernardo Bernardi.
Exceptionally prolific and equally skilful in various techniques and using wide range of materials, high-polished metal, polychromous wood, enamel, terracotta or polyester to create his sculptures, reliefs and mobiles, his work encompasses many different art forms (drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking, design, illustration as well as set and costume design). As a result, he had almost 100 solo and over 200 group, juried, problem, conceptual, and important invitational exhibitions in Croatia as well as abroad during his life. He gained a great deal of deserved popularity with the wider public and earned an equally high esteem and recognition with the professional critics and received over twenty awards and honours for his sculptures, paintings, graphics, illustrations and public monuments. In May 2006, “Slobodna Dalmacija” awarded him with the lifetime achievement award.
Vasko Lipovac died on July 4, 2006.
In theatre
Since the mid-eighties Lipovac has made several highly successful excursions into performing arts and won prestigious Marul award in 1991 for set design. His works in theatre include set, costume and puppet designs:
In popular culture
References in popular culture on Vasko Lipovac and his work: