Mirjana Marović / Izložba

With self-imposed discipline an artist Mirjana Marović tries to restrain her colouristic lavishness and her premonition of endless spaces. That is why she adheres to strict organisation of cadre and systemic, chained rhytmic movements of the parts of her paintings. In short, she adheres to “pattern painting”, a term of American provenience which denotes affinity for ornamentation and surrendering to decorative and alignment of linear lines. Therefore, in foreground of her paintings there will almost necessarily be rosette and latticed structures made of heart-shaped and spherical particles or star-like and leafy forms.

However, one should know her miniatures and sketches where colours boil and ferment, spread over the surface in free movements and form blots and hazes, cores and constellations with almost enformelistic sign. In small formats she expressed herself unrestrainedly, following stressed contrasts or dynamic harmony, fulfilling her cromatic raptures and gestual impulses. In this way she was able to come closer to a bit larger cadres and more complex compositions with wish and ambition to fulfil her otherwise disparate tendencies: the clarity of shapes on the one hand and surface tension on the other.

The paintings she represents at this exhibition are continuation of her works from one decade ago. In that phase she still insisted on emotional relationship to the motif, she based her solutions on light and composition emanations of observed objects (most often harmonious and warm floors of baroque iron bars of Venetian as well as Hvar and Split’s churches). This time she has made one step further into iconic repertoire and indented morphology of broad heraldic or arabesque-like phytophorm motifs. Following her urge to pursue entangled patterns of emblematic floral and net-like formations, she transferred them to her cadres, identifying herself with their ondulatory rhythms.

In her more complex works the plans overlap. There is also a vivid polarisation between well-organized surface of the foreground and whirled, turbulent and often even vortical movements of intensely glowing basis. Especially fortunate are the solutions in which silvery and golden patterns burn in flames of euphoric yellow-reddish proliferations. That is, geometrism and symmetry of the dominant forms are well harmonized by corrective energy of pouring flows of pure and freed colours, rationalism and stereotypes of foreground come to life by emotional impacts of the background (where we may feel the echo of her fovistic predispositions of her miniatures).

Welcoming the new exhibition of artist Mirjana Marović we wish to see her more frequently and to have a chance to witness a stronger continuity of her work, to welcome expression of her gift in a more visible way. Let our sincere good wishes be with her.

Written by Tonko Maroević