VARAŽDIN, Hommage to Varaždin / Exhibition on the occasion of the 50th Varaždin Baroque Evenings
September 9. 2020.
The new Wednesday cycle at the Museum of the Varaždin City Museum, after a summer break, began with an exhibition by the academic painter Ljerka Njerš, entitled Hommage to Varaždin, which opened in the Old Town on September 9 at 7 p.m. The exhibition is organized on the occasion of the 50th Varaždin Baroque Evenings, and was realized with the financial support of the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia.
About the exhibition
The author of the professional concept of the exhibition, museum advisor at GMV Ljerka Šimunić wrote about the work of academic artist, sculptor, painter and ceramicist Ljerka Njerš and her exhibition dedicated to Varaždin:
“The painter with a distinct creative vitality graduated in 1960 in the class of Marina Tartaglia at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb. In addition to her works in painting, she has created an impressive work in ceramics, glass, graphics and works created through a combination of the use of photography and computer techniques, recognizable and valorized in the homeland and the world.
In the works, which are characterized by professionalism and method, there is a refined sensitivity in the choice of materials and techniques. When choosing topics, she abandoned the generally accepted conventions in Croatian art and opted for the freedom that we can call capturing the eternity of the moment or moments of eternity.
This is exactly what happened during the preparation of this exhibition; the artist dedicated an entire cycle of works to Varaždin and its museum, specifically the permanent exhibition in the Old Town. She recognized the secret life of Varaždin’s heritage and interpreted it in her own special and artistic way, and the disturbing experience of the recent earthquake in Zagreb is presented to us in a shocking way by a group of artifacts connected and destroyed by destructive force. ”
The exhibition is accompanied by the video film Creating Beauty in Contemporary Media by Ljerka Njerš, for which the music was composed by Matej Meštrović.
Venue: GMV Stari grad, September 9, 2020
Start / end date: 09.09.2020. / 25.10.2020.
Branka Hlevnjak’s review:
The rough walls of the gallery of the Old Town of Varaždin and the shine of glass, porcelain, glazing and pure complementary colors on the painted silk of large formats leave an impression of wealth and luxury. It is this combination of atmospheric antiquity and modern interpretation of the decorative and the solemn that are the lasting features of Ljerka Njerš’s art. Of course, in the course of her many years of work, she went through and found different motives and techniques, and now focused on this or that current moment, either social, like the Homeland War, or philosophical in terms of searching for new media meanings. Art critics, who followed her wholeheartedly from the beginning, from the 1960s until today, recognized the originality and originality of Ljerka Njerš’s works.
Also, its painting component is emphasized, based on the skilful sketch of naked female bodies, or inherited paintings, as well as landscapes sunk into floral frames or especially colorfully executed arabesques. We can freely say that the embrace of form and color, that intertwining of the real and the unreal, the artistic play of a skilled master permeates all the materials and techniques in which the artist expresses herself. In more recent times, these are glass paintings with or without gilding, either on plates or on trays or bowls, just as they are increasingly large canvas portraits of loved ones or favorite spaces. The old town of Varaždin also received its dedication to the artist, who wrapped and crowned it in her characteristic and temperamental way.
The skill with which Ljerka Njerš combines techniques and the way she comes up with her own methods of work, starts from wax substrates and goes, to the computer, without abandoning the old techniques of ceramics and painting glass or watercolor. All tools, all means are subordinated to a unique painting, in which Ljerka Njerš achieves highly valuable results.
The exhibition in Varaždin was one of those magnificent and inspiring atmospheres in which painting, drawing, color and design triumph with a unique mixmedia and new millennium zeal.
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