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Wax, as a painting medium, determinates all paintings exhibited by IVANA PULJIĆ. It determinates them just as much as, for example, the metrics matrix determinates a sonnet. The painter has to take into consideration its technological and medium specificities, equally at times when wax gives her wings as well as at times when she, by her own good will, transforms its expressional limits into a welcome advantage. In the same way as the limits of a frame have become, with time, the key element of a painting. In these paintings everything is wax and everything is made of wax. However, some of them are more “waxy” than others. Those are the ones in which the painter uses a tiny cloud of wax over the already existing coat of wax in order to separate signs, symbols and even a scene, that is, the most important details on those paintings. By constructing a metaphor of the story on the basis of inequality of the more and the less important, she also composes the denotative and visual matrix of the painting. This assembly of painted material gives conciseness to expression, but reduces the possibility for creative involvement of an observer. In the other, here exhibited, paintings– those that were not painted in the above described manner, those in which the eye is not focused on only one stronghold - the spectators enjoy freedom of non-binding “open space” of the painting which is left to their imagination. Therefore, Ivana Puljić offers interactive realisation in one group of paintings, while in the other group of paintings she offers hierarchical, gradual and concise realisation. The line, guided by the hand, likes the technically precise, descriptively readable drawing that finds a well known shape interesting, but it does not object when the painter entrusts it with the role of an unsettling factor, when it becomes a servant of the rhythm. A range of denotations at the disposal of the painter manipulate with the general, most imminent knowledge that each one of us possesses, but for which we do know how we acquired it or where it came from. Probably it has been a part of us forever. It is exactly that agreeable comfort of revelation that the painter relies on when she presents this type of painting to us. Those among us who are systematically interested in visual arts know that our senses present the world of individual events in inextricably connected and mixed images. However, if we were to leave those images only to our senses we would never succeed in untangling them nor in clearly understanding their structure. Luckily, our minds possess instruments to understand generality in its clearest form. It is this talent of ours that she counts on and manipulates with. She pulls us in her spiritual game that gives us comfortable access to the world of these paintings, which we experience as being simultaneously inside and out of/above it. A good example of such narrative game can be found in the works exhibited here which bind together the landmarks of two or more cities with very different visual identities. Let me revert to one of them - the painting «Dance of the Venetian Gondolas» which 'hosts’ visual identities of the three cities (Split, Venice, Zagreb). Rialto and Peristil participate in a mix of identities whose final result is a new, self-sufficient, visual reality. These works are, in most cases, very successful – ones that the painter can be particularly proud of. One of the elements which is not the most important for this type of painting, but is obviously constantly present in its spiritual meander is the aesthetics of the comic. I shall say no more on this topic. This generalized observation results from the perception that the connection of these paintings with the comic is buried somewhere deep in our subconscious, so this perception is more of a feeling rather than a clear and elaborated argument. The painter feels good and comfortable in the liberalistic milieu of the postmodernism. However, she has not sworn fidelity to it and therefore she frequently shifts away from it and tries out other liberties, other experiences. The shift of these paintings from the postmodernist experience is perceived in the fact that these individual signs are not without reference, they are not “paintings without reality, and even less are they reality without a foundation”. Her hyper-reality bases its authenticity on objectification. That “simulacrum”, suitable only for her, leads us to perceive the painter as the one who believes that what she advocates in the social field is only a more or less attainable Utopia. This multi-layered richness in front of you is dedicated to those who posses a deeper, more fundamental intimacy of information. The search of structure of these paintings reveals complexity which results in simplicity and readability and that is the final impression of these paintings. Andro FILIPIĆ ___________________________________________________ On the occasion of wax These are not words from an expert but from an admirer. Where to place Ivana’s intimity? Metaphysically, magical realism or real surrealism? Skilled and gentle is her minute hand. Her clips are swallows sited on staff. She paints in praise of secondary matters. “Ciò che mi ha detto il tram” / Carlo Carrà /. Her streetcar drive us through the Ilica street, weather-beaten. Her paintings are late candle light, melting on the kitchen table. We are sleeping in blue bed of Ivana’s childhood. We linger our lives behind her Mediterranean window. We are packing ourselves for leaving. Our yearning is wax on wood. Mysterious stranger who’s red umbrella protects his backbone of existence. I’m like a waxwork on Ivana’s page. Arsen Dedić ___________________________________________________ Cross-over of taletelling reliefs Labelling works that escape common “categorisation” seems to be not only risky but also a witless endeavour already since the lucid - for some perhaps also cynical - Tom Wolf’s “diagnosis” on literary or interpretative rigour of contemporary art, which becoming actually a “painted word” has often been a purpose to itself. Nevertheless, it is hard to resist not naming a series of combined wax techniques on wood, that is, peculiar assemblages and taletelling bas-reliefs of Ivana Puljiæ, typical offspring of the idiosyncratic “cross-over” fine art. Or, particularly, a part of a tidal wave that combines various techniques which find their origin in the peculiar eclecticism and the post-modern freedom to choose forms and content(s). Basically, we are witnessing here a real process of patchworking/colagging, yet not in a sense of traditional and common assembling of pieces of paper or debris “deposited” from everyday surrounding, but as a way to make/form a composition, “picture of the whole” and painting’s surface; and all that with deep premeditation and faultless selection of material. Namely, different kinds of wax - natural, artificial and those mixed with pigments - have twofold function. They are, of course, major part of relief “configuration” of painting’s surface, its basic building element, surface on which one scratches as if it would be graphics, but as well they are translucent protective “emulsion” through which the underlying layer is visible. Moreover, wax happens to be not only a connective tissue which, in the painting’s whole, connects inserted objects and various materials - from nails, old diskette “floppy disc”, MP3 player or i-pod’s earphones, wires, cords... - but becomes a contemporary amber’s kin, in which the yellow enamel fossilised remains of departed life are eternally caught. Obviously, Ivana Puljiæ is authoress that insists on “facing” (juxtapositioning) formally disparate elements yet instead of leaving chaotic impression, each of her collage-reliefs is irresistibly seducing and meticulously wrought. Be it even when a painting - as a public advocacy of the idea of post-modern adoption - forms a drawing à la David Hockney, pop-artistic motives or informell’s “dramatic effects” used to form relief surface. The notion of new “fusions” of seemingly disparate elements and styles - which perhaps provokes the idea that all of the old “forms” and “classical disciplines”, and moreover the art of painting itself, are dead - is fully in tune with the main topic of Ivana’s work. As the title of this cycle suggests, the authoress is interested in parallelism of inner and outer worlds; the literal one - say, with apartment interiors and public transportations in which “time stands still” while the outer world “passes by” quickly as lightning - and, the symbolic one that speaks of questioning the connections between the inner self and outer world trapped by the translucent envelope of wax. Zlatko Gall ___________________________________________________ Exploration of intimacy and space The newest cycle of paintings by the promissing authoress Ivana Puljić from Split, which presents herself for the first time to the Šibenik audience, although being a new share of her liric expression it does make a continuation to a previously began specific explorations and reflections, now already within an extinct gammas of dark or black tonality with blazing coloristic accents. If we remind ourselves with her graduation at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Rome (2000), the artist has added to the earlier questionings on silk, jute and cotton, a new cycle of portraits with a predominant narrative expression and alive lyric-expressive charge. In the lap of the liberal incentives of the postmodernism in Rome, with often engaged social contents and predomination of new technological media with very different bringing-about interventions, through a more freely pictorial treatment I. Puljić quickly opens herself to the visual impressions of the light magic of the big city and its countless faces. In amadly poetic imagination, curious searching, but as well purifying of the composition and aspiration for a technical perfection, an almost nomadic spirit finds anew, as it were, a safe asylum. Interestingly enough, when selecting the material, as being obviously an obsessive dimension in her creative opus, Ivana has reached after a wax, researching its quality, plasticity and origin, but primarily color, to which she has added different pigments and hence, from a more bright and transparent across pastel tones, she has attained to a more dark gammas of blue, red, green and finally dark gray and black layers. She palpably demonstrates that a persistent and systematic work on the technical-craft’s perfecting can bear fruit to perfection of the lyric experience and refer to the multilayerness of the whole sight. The urban jam which in the beginning can thrill with its colorfulness and rhythms of the contemporariness has quickly satiated the painter, which prone to silences and tranquil atmospheres turns back from an expressionistic fervency to the small, but for her important things. The spatial fascination by the vistas and city-squares, by the seethe of life in the eternal Rome, gradually enriches through the exploration of the so called inner life, of ultimately simple quotidian facts, there where a dream, memory, loneliness with abundance of metaphoric connotations dwell. Subtly and gently the authoress simply calls upon in purified forms certain poetic minimalism, be it street’ lights, lightened windows, ropes with flags, calm city motives, but as well counterpoints of crashed delights and expressive colorist charges. The exploration of the space and the occupation with métier problems, the different wax layers on the wooden plates, the new insertions of metal scraps with prodigious visual effects (e.g. Tango), are not for Ivana only a heritage of the surroundings but a personal searching, in her vision with a warmth of feelings she wants to appease worlds, with an upheaval of imagination she wants to touch human spiritual landscapes. If behind the appearance of the paintings by Ivana Puljić one can find traces of the consequences of human loneliness and anguish in the turbulences of the contemporary world, the lyric expression and inversion towards the rich sensual scale has doubtlessly discovered the freed inner impulse of one refined and elegant play. The persistent work on creating a recognizable signet, which on a conceptual level we experience very emotionally and with strong tones of lyricism, intends an in-depth observation of the world, subtly registering each alteration of it. Tonći Šitin ___________________________________________________ Hidden liric impulses of the city In a relatively short period of time the paintress Ivana Puljić articulates her existential and artistic position, concentrates her personal experience of the world not being interested in a firmly fixed view, but always in the new alchemy of carefully selected materials. With the graduation on Accademia di Belle Arti in Rome (2000) this young paintress adds to her previous abstract questionings on silk, jute and cotton, a new cycle of portraits with a predominant narrative expression and alive lyric-expressive charge. In the lap of the liberal incentives of the postmodernism in Rome, with often engaged social contents and predomination of new technological media with very different bringing-about interventions, through a more freely pictorial treatment I. Puljić quickly opens herself to the visual impressions of the light magic of the big city and its countless faces. The encounter with the consequences of a depersonalization and dehumanization of the urban centers by no coincidence provokes in her a thoroughly individual artistic feeling that will guide her towards abandoning mimesis and entering in the fantastic world of symbols and metaphors. It is interesting that when selecting the material, as being obviously an obsessive dimension in her creative opus, Ivana has reached after a wax, researching its quality, plasticity and origin, but primarily color, to which she has added different pigments and hence, from a more bright and transparent across pastel tones, she has attained to a more dark gammas of blue, red, green and finally dark gray and black layers. The urban jam which can thrill in the beginning with its colorfulness and rhythms of the contemporariness has quickly satiated the painter, which prone to silences and tranquil atmospheres turns back from an expressionistic fervency to the small, but for her important things. The world, which once seemed a secret suddenly becomes reality, the most simple givens of life and spaces around us accumulate new psychological contents soaked in poetic touches and hidden music. Subtly and gently the authoress simply calls upon in purified forms certain poetic minimalism, be it street’ lights, lightened windows, ropes with flags or hanged clothes, calm city motives, but as well counterpoints of crashed delights and expressive colorist charges. The investigation of the space and the occupation with formative riddles, the different wax layers on the wooden plates and the new insertions of metal scraps with prodigious visual effects are in the same time an investigation of the spaces of consciousness, of broken memories, dreams and mediations. If behind the appearance of the paintings by Ivana Puljić one can find traces of the consequences of human loneliness and anguish in the turbulences of the contemporary world, the lyric expression and inversion towards the rich sensual scale has doubtlessly discovered the freed inner impulse of one refined and elegant play. Tonći Šitin ___________________________________________________ Preludono i paesaggi-città della pittrice Puljić per la grigia tristezza ambientale in cui sono solennemente immerse le sue città in cera. Ma la Puljić, che è una pittrice sognatrice ancorché intellettuale si affanna a ricoprire gli spazi strutturati in vorticosi parallelepipedi facendoli invadere da minuscoli animaletti, felicemente colorati, che in modo fantastico circoscrivono la megalopoli, trasformandola in un mosaico di straordinaria bellezza. Vedendo queste opere vien voglia di gridare: evviva gli animali-insetti della pittrice Puljić, che con la loro vivacità cromatica portano la luce, rasserenano il cielo, rallegrano il giorno rendendo azzurra la speranza. Sandro Trotti ___________________________________________________ Giovane pittrice Ivana Puljić, già con la sua scelta pittorica, indica una dettagliata ricerca sulle arti visive, in sostanza i suoi quadri in encausto possiedono lo sguardo sulla vita urbana moderna L’encausto,la quale pittrice ha usato per le sue opere,è un modo di dipingere usando la cera. Pigmento di colore in polvere si mischia con la cera riscaldata e sciolta, e in stato liquido si applica sulla base di legno, la quale parzialmente assorbe la cera colorata. Quando la cera si raffreddail quadro mantiene a lungo la sua brillantezza,vigore di sfumatura e resistenza verso l’umidità, ma non resiste al calore (i quadri bisogna tenerli lontano dal fonte di calore). Per applicare la cera e colore lei usa strumenti di incisione. Encausto, come modo di dipingere viene usato dai antichi Egizi nel lontano V secolo a.c.La stessa tecnica era conosciuta anche in tempo di antichità dal IV sec.a.c. fino ai tempi nostri. Attraverso pittura ellenistica,encausto è entrato nella pittura romana dove lo troviamo fino a IV sec.I Greci, inizialmente usavano encausto per decorare le navi e le case, e poi dopo V sec anche per la pittura murale. Per l’arte occidentale europea sono particolarmente importanti ritratti sulle tavole di legno,trovate nei sarcofaghi insieme a le mummie nel El Fayum in Egitto che datano dal periodo dal I a IV sec.d.c. Ivana Puljić ha utilizzato questa antica tecnica pittorica con la consapevolezza o con l’intuizione?Probabilmente per quest’ultimo, il ruolo importante lo ha avuto lo spirito curioso della pittrice con attenzione alla particolarità. I suoi ritratti sono di forte espressività e sensibilità, caratterizzati dalla scelta delle forme ed i colori e perfetta interpretazione dei giovani.I quadri delle sue pop icone trattengono colori ricchi di tonalità e di sfumature. Pittrice con inventiva intreccia linee e superfici e con questo aumenta la ricchezza pittorica di illustrazione, i colori sullo sfondo dei quadri creano astratte applicazioni, con taglio delle figure e riflesso sui quadri, aumenta la tensione.Per applicare la cera colorata, autrice con la stessa maestria usa la spatola e strumenti d’incisione, e altri modi ancora, struttura la superficie pittorica. Per interpretare il mondo urbano,moderno, ragionando di vita in generale , la pittrice adopera una delle più antiche tecniche pittoriche, la cambia e la perfeziona . Nonostante la sua gioventù, lei è capace di contemplare la società moderna, con antica tecnica dei tempi lontani, e proprio in questa contraddizione sussiste la causa della sua osservazione e interpretazione. ETTIVA 30 MARZO COMUNICATO STAMPA. Maruša Avgustin