Goran Trbuljak at P420 – Artforum International
In 1969, a younger artwork scholar from Zagreb threw a sequence of frames into the Adriatic. They framed the ocean briefly earlier than floating away (Sea Landscapes of Kvarner and the Southern Adriatic). In some ways, this motion foreshadowed Goran Trbuljak’s ongoing obsession with the function of the canvas, charted right here in “45 Years of Non-Portray.”
Trbuljak is stuffed with creative approaches to making use of paint to its assist as not directly as attainable. A Conceptualist who emerged from Yugoslavia’s New Artwork Observe group, his deeply private investigations into the social place of an artist are unwavering of their critique. A4 sheets of paper nailed all through the gallery bear Dadaist statements comparable to if this paper hangs in some gallery then it isn’t paper however a portray.
Within the first room, small monochromes current minimalist guessing video games. For 1#(4)b, 1986, Trbuljak painted the canvas from behind in ochre pigment which seeped by means of the entrance to create a pale yellow rectangle. In one other, Untitled (sprayed from the aspect), 1988–92, a canvas coated in plexiglass bears 4 streaks, which have been sprayed onto the canvas by means of small holes bored into either side of its wood body. The result’s a beguiling, windswept black-and-white summary portray.
The second room is a examine of what occurs when a dedicated non-conformist out of the blue finds himself “found.” By Trbujlak’s personal admission, his later works shift from self-ironic to self-sardonic, and one thing is misplaced as he grapples with elevated demand. In Large Composition IX, 2021, two brushes have been joined collectively and positioned on high of two canvases mounted at a proper angle in order that each could be painted in a single go. The place the sooner works shine with witty however measured dedication, the later works betray a mechanical haste that appears like a give up of types.
— Ana Vukadin
