Pagar Vanja / Colourful Paintings

Vanja Pagar’s Colourful Paintings

Blooming Structure

Artist Vanja Pagar subtly manipulates visual  language morphology and may be considered an alchemist of language structures’ syntax. He is an artist that provides constructive and valid answers to every question, fully engaged and interested in new, as we (for whom the time has stopped) like to say, media. At a first glance, in terms of painting at least, it is mostly about delicate, almost unnoticeable movements through thematic pursuits, visible only in presentational rearrangement. We will briefly mention and only telegraphically look for relations within this frolic, aptly and logically named Colourful Paintings.  No, these paintings did not fall from Mars, and neither did this innovative and restless individual’s creativity. They have their own genesis, plan of development and theoretical foundations.

In the centre of it all, there is something reminiscent of a modified colouristic Malevich’s bipole, celebrated in first exhibitions and multiplied with the passing of time. In the meantime, couple of sustainable colour relations grew in numbers to seek refuge in real image, in scenes from real life. However, nothing is coincidental, at least in the case of the stations placed on the route beginning with two coloured squares, all the way to Colourful Paintings. In an adult playroom, we and Pagar attempted to reorganise smaller paintings into a greater composition. “We took books from the shelves” and searched for the identical elements in sails and regattas, paying respect to geometrical harmony, a source of everything. In the end, the painter did his own thing, dismissing technical aid of a ruler and letting his hand dance. Truth and dance have their own rules, such as choreography and linear movement, because there has to be order, even if we are talking about a perfect disorder. And again, thick lines occasionally create a cordon for the mass so it does not disperse and remains under control. One of the reasons I like Pagar’s paintings is because of the notorious truth that allows the freedom to talk about different states and moods. It is not so much about calculated skipping on colour valeurs, as it is about the testimony of the state of spirit and mood, as well as the austenite correlation with the spectator.

Maybe, like me, you will think of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, or recognise Split’s Pjaca, flamboyant, welcoming and crowded with tourists. It is possible that people such as I, who talk about all and everything, will take note of the microstructure and recognise martensite thread, needle crystals that touch under specific angles. Bear in mind, martensite structure is characterised by possessing the greatest volume of all steel structures. These are blooming paintings! Still, metallurgists would probably warn about the fact that, at the same time, they are solid, yet still fragile structures. Here I see the inseparable relation between the painter and his work. Artist’s mood is measured in Brinell scale, and everything is a consequence of thermic processing, where the only variable is temperature. Time is peripheral and irrelevant.

Igor Brešan