GALERIJA EMANUEL VIDOVI U SPLITU Svijest o slikarskoj veliini Emanuela Vidovia (Split, 1870. 1953.

.) te njegovoj povezanosti s gradom Splitom u kojem se rodio, ivio i stvarao, o tome koliko je Split zaduio svojim djelovanjem kao slikar, kulturni djelatnik i nastavnik Obrtne kole, kao stup splitske likovne scene u trajanju od pola stoljea, urodila je eljom da se u Splitu otvori Vidovieva memorijalna galerija. Jo 1953. godine, a nakon Vidovieve posmrtne izlobe u Galeriji umjetnina, splitski kulturni krugovi pokrenuli su inicijativu da se za Galeriju Vidovi otkupi kompletna izloba. Vijest o prijedlogu naila je na oduevljenje brojnih ljubitelja umjetnosti koji su u Galeriji Vidovi vidjeli znaajnu kulturnu ustanovu, pandan ve osnovanoj Galeriji Ivana Metrovia. Znaajan korak u ostvarivanju tog cilja Grad Split napravio je 1986. godine kada je od Vidovievih nasljednika, a po cijeni manjoj od polovice njihove stvarne vrijednosti, otkupio zbirku od 69 Vidovievih slika koja je trebala initi jezgru Galerije Emanuel Vidovi osnovanu pri Muzeju grada Splita. Kako u to vrijeme nije rijeeno pitanje smjetaja Galerije, vrijedna su umjetnika djela godinama leala u muzejskim spremitima. Tek 15 godina kasnije, gradske vlasti su dodijelile Muzeju grada Splita, a svrhu preureenja u Galeriju Vidovi, klasicistiku kuu kraj Srebrnih vrata. Galerija Emanuel Vidovi zamiljena je kao mjesto sabiranja, obrade, istraivanja, zatite i prezentacije slikareva materijalnog i duhovnog naslijea. Njen postojei i potencijalni fundus su umjetnika djela koja ocrtavaju Vidoviev slikarski razvoj od poetka do kraja stvaranja te raznovrsni muzeoloki materijal, koji pridonosi upotpunjavanju Vidovieve biografije te prati prezentaciju i recepciju njegova djela. Jezgru Galerije ine Vidovieve slike, atelijer i arhiv u kojem je pohranjena raznovrsna dokumentacija o njegovom ivotu i djelu. Galerija trenutno posjeduje 69 djela koja su otkupljena 1986. godine od Vidovievih keri Milene, Zlate i Tatjane, 5 slika nabavljenih od razliitih vlasnika te mapu crtea s motivima Splita koju je Muzej jo 1967. godine otkupio od slikareva sina, dr. Slavana Vidovia. Veina slika izvedena je u tehnici uljanih boja (55 ulja na platnu, 2 na drvu i 8 na papiru), dvije u kombiniranoj tehnici ulja i gvaa na papiru, jedna gvaem na papiru, tri u tehnici akvarela, jedna u temperi i dvije u pastelu. Crtei su raeni u tehnici olovke, ugljena ili tua. Zbirka predstavlja vjeran preslik slikarevih tematskih preokupacija na relaciji pejsa-interijer-mrtva priroda i prati umjetnikovo stvaranje od 1898. godine do kraja ivota. Mnoge od zastupljenih slika pojavljuju se u pregledima hrvatske umjetnosti te u monografiji, studijama i katalozima o slikaru kao vana mjesta njegova stvaralatva. Vidovieva obitelj darovala je Muzeju grada Splita, prilikom otkupa slika za Galeriju Vidovi 1986. godine, izvorni slikarev atelijer. Inventar atelijera sastoji se od preko 300 predmeta kulturno-umjetnikog, povijesno-umjetnikog i etnografskog karaktera, od velikog broja fotografija i biblioteke koja broji vie od 400 knjiga. Arhivska graa o slikaru Emanuelu Vidoviu prikuplja se u Muzeju grada Splita od vremena njegovog osnutka. U prikupljanju vrijedne dokumentacije djelatnicima Muzeja od poetka su pomagali Vidovievi nasljednici, posebno dr. Slavan Vidovi. Duko Kekemet, tada kustos Muzeja grada Splita, osobno je poznavao slikara i jo za njegova ivota marljivo nabavljao dragocjeni materijal za arhiv. Veliki dio sauvane grae o slikaru Muzeju je darovala i njegova obitelj 1986. godine, nakon otkupa Vidovievih slika za Galeriju. Rezultat kontinuirane

sakupljake aktivnosti je iznimno bogat arhiv o umjetniku, nezaobilazan izvor informacija za sve one koji prouavaju Vidoviev ivot i djelo.

EMANUEL VIDOVI (Split, 1870. Split, 1953.)

Veliki hrvatski slikar Emanuel Vidovi desetljeima je bio rtva nepravedne minorizacije i marginalizacije od strane utjecajnog dijela hrvatske umjetnike kritike. Tek je povjesniar umjetnosti Igor Zidi monografskim izlobama koje je priredio 1971., 1982. i 1987. godine ukazao na injenicu da je Vidovi jedan od zaetnika hrvatske moderne, a isto tako i aktivni uesnik u procesu modernizacije hrvatskog slikarstva sve do pedesetih godina prologa stoljea. Vidovi nije proao Abeovu kolu, nije doivio Pariz ni konstruktivistike pouke Czannea, ali je zato, za vrijeme boravka u likovnim centrima Italije, Veneciji i Milanu, primio najsvjeije poticaje suvremenog talijanskog slikarstva koje nije toliko zaostajalo za njemakim ili francuskim koliko se to, iako nepravedno, mislilo. Revno je pratio rad kasnih romantiara, verista, macchiaiola i postimpresionista, te razumijevajui, ali ne kopirajui ikoga, stvarao temelje na kojima e izgraditi svoj osebujni i autentini umjetniki izraz. Poeci Vidovieva likovnog formiranja veu se za Veneciju kamo odlazi studirati. Vrlo brzo uvia da od konzervativnih profesora s Accademie di Belle arti ne moe mnogo nauiti pa izabire tei put, samostalno uenje. Traimo li korijene njegovog ranog pejsanog slikarstva, moemo ih nai u slikarstvu talijanskih macchiaiola, mletakih vedutista od klasika Guardija i Canaletta do njegovih suvremenika Ettorea Tita, Giacoma Favretta i Pietra Fragiacoma. Boravkom u Milanu (1892.-1895.) dolazi u izravan dodir i sa slikarstvom talijanskih divizionista, osebujnom inaicom francuskog postimpresionizma, koje se nije iscrpljivalo iskljuivo u rjeavanju problema slikarske tehnike, nego je, u skladu s duhovnim strujanjima druge polovice 19. stoljea, unosilo subjektivne sadraje u slikarstvo koristei elemente likovnog jezika za prenoenje nelikovnog, mentalnih projekcija. Posredstvom slikara kao to su Giovanni Segantini, Gaetano Previati, Angelo Morbelli, Giuseppe Nomellini i Giuseppe Pelizza da Volpedo upoznaje novu tehniku slikanja tokicama, ali istu vrlo brzo prilagoava u sredstvo slikanja vlastitih vizija. Na mladog Vidovia presudno e utjecati i splitska kulturna sredina. Kao lan Knjievno-umjetnikog kluba (od 1900.) koji je okupljao vrhunske hrvatske intelektualce, knjievnike, slikare, kipare, arhitekte i glazbenike, Vidovi je ostao u dodiru sa suvremenim umjetnikim strujama koje su sada stizale i u Split, uglavnom iz secesijskog Bea. Ne treba zaboraviti ni to da Vidovi sve do 1912. godine redovito odlazi u Italiju i posjeuje venecijanska bijenala te iz prve ruke dobiva informacije o suvremenoj europskoj likovnoj sceni. Znamo da su ga na bijenalima posebno oduevljavala Whistlerova nokturna i openito sutonsko slikarstvo s kraja 19. stoljea. Od poetka se na Vidovievim djelima primjeuje borba izmeu realistikog, veristikog i simbolistikog, vizionarskog naina prikazivanja stvarnosti. Prve Vidovieve slike su studije na drvu ili kartonu naslikane u pleneru tehnikom slobodnih mrlja u istim svijetlim ili sivilom priguenim tamnim bojama, a bliske su slikama talijanskih macchiaiola. Usporedno s realistiko-impresionistikim uljima, Vidovi slika i atelijerske slike srednjeg ili velikog formata, stilizirane sutonske krajolike u kojima samuju ljudske figure, utopljene u romantiarsko-simbolistiko ozraje.

Za vrijeme intenzivnog druenja s don Franom Buliem, a vjerojatno i pod njegovim utjecajem, Vidovi se na kratko posveuje slikanju izrazito realistikih slika iz Solina i Vranjica. Niz poinje s Kuama kod Tusculuma iz 1897. godine, nastavlja s Padom Solinice, a zavrava s tri inaice Vranjica iz 1898. i 1899. godine. Oko 1903. godine slika Impresije, krajolike iz Giudecce i Chioggie, najimpresionistikija platna hrvatskog slikarstva na kojima su oblici potpuno dematerijalizirani vibrirajuim potezima proienih boja. Na povratku iz posjeta molikim Hrvatima, svijetlom impresionistikom paletom i tehnikom slobodnih mrlja stvara suncem obasjani Mundimitar. Iste, 1904. godine, eksperimentira s tehnikom poentilizma, dosljedno provodei tehniku slikanja Lombardijca Giovannija Segantinija. Kao rezultat tog nikad ponovljenog pokusa nastaje alegorija ivota i smrti Mali svijet, ustvari blago stilizirani krajolik izveden istim bojama tehnikom tokastih i igliastih poteza. Zaudna je Vidovieva sposobnost da ve tada jednako kvalitetno prikae svijet zahvaen i vanjskim i unutarnjim okom i da za svako pronae odgovarajui rukopis varirajui debljinu nanosa boje, krae i due, vidljive i nevidljive poteze. Jednom je to realistiko-impresionistika veduta raspjevanog kolorita i temperamentnog poteza, a drugi put lirski, melankolini pejsa utiane gestualnosti i game na kojem tanki sloj neke prevladavajue boje zastire predmetni svijet poput koprene. Rano okretanje prirodi i verizmu u tradiciji talijanskih macchiaiola, kratko pribliavanje impresionizmu ili eksperiment sa segantinijevskim divizionizmom nisu zadovoljili uroenog pjesnika i sanjara koji, kao takav, nije mogao ostati slijep na duhovna i stilska strujanja koja su pristizala iz Bea, onaj nalet mistike i simbola utjelovljen u secesiji i simbolizmu, to je konano rezultiralo njegovim priklonom srednjoeuropskoj tematici. Intuitivno je povezao simbolizaciju s apstrahiranjem, odbacio iluzionizam i dao prednost dvodimenzionalnoj slikarskoj plohi (Angelus, 1906./7.) ime je sebi osigurao status jednog od zaetnika hrvatskog likovnog moderniteta. Turobne ratne godine i slikanje u izolaciji prostranog atelijera u zatvorenom Opinskom kazalitu pogoduju nastanku novih i drugaijih djela. Na tim golemim i tamnim slikama sazdanima od slojeva gustih tokasto nanesenih boja tek simbolini traak svjetla razbija apsolutni mrak i izvlai krajolik na povrinu. Ve pri kraju Prvog svjetskog rata potpuno je napustio literarne teme i eksplicitnu simboliku, a isto tako i prestao koristiti strogo poentilistiku tehniku slikanja. Bilo da se sluio koloristikim kontrastima ili paljivo prebirao po ljestvici sordiniranih tonova, plohe je uokvirivao jakom i tamnom linijom koja je slici cizelirane povrine davala ekspresionistika obiljeja. Takve su i ranije slike Trogirskog ciklusa (1930. 1938.), dok je na kasnijima, onima nastalima nakon 1936. godine, traei put od predmeta do slike, linije i boje, snanim i irokim pokretima pobunjenog kista doveo motiv do ruba ieznua. etrdeset godina Vidovi je slikao krajolike, najvie talijanske, splitske i trogirske. U zadnjem, Trogirskom ciklusu, nainio je, to u prirodi, to u atelijeru, na stotine crtea, ulja, akvarela i pastela. Neumorno radei, iscrpio je motiv do krajnjih granica. Nadomak sedamdesete godine ivota, tonije od 1938. godine, slikar pronalazi smiraj i zadovoljstvo u intimi svoga doma, u dobro zatienom prostoru vlastitog mikrokozmosa. Dok se na ranijim slikama paleta rasvijetlila i proirila, a rukopis ivnuo zajedno s prostorom i njemu pripadajuim predmetima, kasnije su slike (1942.-1949.), nastale u polumraku skuenog atelijera Vidovieva stana, slikane finim suzvujima priguenih, sivilom oplemenjenih boja. Jedne i druge, pak, pokazuju neka zajednika obiljeja, crte stvara stabilnost i vrstou kompozicije i prostora, a raznobojne koloristike mrlje raznolike gustoe slojevitu

i titravu slikarsku povrinu koja sve predmete povezuje u cjelinu jedinstvenog ozraja. Uvodei nove motive, Vidovi se ne zadrava samo na intimnim prostorima. Posredstvom uspomena iz djeakih dana u njegovo slikarstvo ulaze i prostori splitskih i trogirskih crkava. Interijeri splitskih i trogirskih crkava slikani su slino kao i interijeri stana i atelijera, s tim da kadar slike sve ee zahvaa dublje i arhitektonski sloenije prostore. I ovdje ivahni slikarski rukopis oduzima predmetima teinu, a precizno prenosi igru svjetla i boja to se odvija na njihovoj povrini. Senzibilni slikarski kist registrira i patinu vremenog mramora, i sloene koloristike nijanse na povrini renesansnih i baroknih slika, i trag crvotoine na drvenom raspelu, i potmuli sjaj staroga zlata, i blagu svjetlost votanica Nita to Vidovi nije osjeao kao svoje, nije nalo put do njegovog platna. Da bi nainio dobru sliku, morao je poznavati i razumjeti ono to slika. Vidovievo okretanje ka slikanju mrtvih priroda, sainjenih od stvari iz njegova okruenja, ini se kao logina posljedica takvog pristupa motivima. Trebalo je samo odvratiti pogled od izvanjskog, zagledati se u mali svijet atelijera i fokusirati na govor nijemih predmeta. Prvi rezultati rada (mrtve prirode nastale od 1926. do 1928. godine) pokazuju to je novi anr, ali opet, samo Vidovieva mrtva priroda, prebaena u svijet slikarstva iz domaeg ambijenta, iz bliskog mu duhovnog podneblja. Neke mrtve prirode raene su tamnijim i priguenijim, druge svjetlijim i intenzivnijim bojama, a sve ih odlikuje lapidaran crte i jednostavna kompozicija, mekoa modeliranja te iznimna usklaenost boja i tonova. Nature morte nastale nakon Drugog svjetskog rata udaljene su od vanjskog svjetla i konkretnog svijeta. Predmeti su izgubili granice, iz nedefiniranog tamnog prostora izdvajaju se samo svojim nutarnjim zraenjem koje stvaraju ritam oblika, produhovljena i utiana paleta i delikatni potezi slikareva kista. U poznim godinama ivota Vidovi se vraa slikanju krajolika, ali sada slika po sjeanju. Pred slikarevim oima pojavljuju se dragi i poznati, davno doivljeni motivi Splita i Trogira, uvijek u novim bojama, a on se uri prenijeti ih na platna. Ponovo koristi tokanje, ali ne ograniava paletu na nekoliko krtih tonova nego brzim kratkim potezima u bojama koje se kreu od muklih sivih i smeih do smjelih crvenih, plavih, utih i zelenih tonaliteta rastvara motiv u krhku i labilnu viziju krajolika sjeanja. Motiv je reduciran, obrisi predmeta jedva naznaeni, a mrljastom ili tokasto nanesenom bojom postignuto povrinsko jedinstvo predmeta i prostora. Pikturalna materija i prosijavanje njenih slojeva glavni su imbenici u stvaranju specifinog ozraja koje, iako uvijek drugaije, sliku ini Vidovievom vie od njegovog potpisa. Sauvani Vidovievi crtei Splita, nastali u posljednjih dvadesetak godina njegova ivota, pruaju uitak gledanja osebujno doivljenih portreta umjetnikovog rodnog grada, ali i svjedoe o kvalitetama Vidovia crtaa. I oni potvruju ve poznato, bilo da slika, bilo da crta, Vidovi se znalaki prilagoava dvodimenzionalnoj datosti plohe pa s lakoom u njene dvije koordinate saima bogatstvo svojih vizija. Emanuel Vidovi je preminuo 1953. godine s kistom u ruci. Slikao je do posljednjeg daha i uvijek iznalazio nain kako slikarskim sredstvima, linijom i bojom, prenijeti bit odreenog motiva. Postupak pronicanja u bit vienoga kod njega je bio ravan postupku pronicanja u bit slikarstva, a metafiziko se ostvarivalo metaslikarskim, likovnim jezikom koji se osamostalio od objekta slikanja. Nela ii,

rujan 2006.

THE EMANUEL VIDOVI GALLERY

The awareness of the greatness of Emanuel Vidovi (Split, 1870-1953) as a painter, of how much Split owes to him not only as a painter but also as a member of the cultured elite and a teacher in the Crafts School, and of his presence as a moving spirit of the artistic scene in the course of over half a century, has given birth to the idea to open a memorial gallery dedicated to him. The first significant step in the realisation of this idea was taken in 1986 when the city of Split bought from Vidovi's heirs, practically at half price, a collection of 69 Vidovi's paintings that were to constitute the core of the future Emanuel Vidovi Gallery, conceived as an annex to the Split City Museum. As at that time the exhibition space for this collection was not available, these valuable art works were stored in the Museum repositories. It was fifteen years later that the city authorities allotted to the Split City Museum the classicist house at the Silver Gate, which was to be restored and made into a gallery space for the Vidovi collection. The Emanuel Vidovi Gallery is dedicated to the person and art of Emanuel Vidovi. It is the place where the artist's material and spiritual legacy is gathered, studied, protected and presented. The collection illustrates the painter's development from the beginning of his career to the end of his life, and also includes a variety of museological material that supplements the facts in Vidovi's biography and accompanies the presentation and reception of his work. Vidovi's paintings, items from his studio and archives materials make up the core of the Vidovi Gallery collection and shed light on his life and work. Currently, the Gallery is in possession of 69 paintings acquired in 1986 through purchases from the artist's daughters, Milena, Zlata and Tatjana Vidovi. Five paintings were bought from different owners, and a portfolio of drawings showing motifs of Split was bought by the Museum from Dr Slavan Vidovi in 1967. The majority of the paintings are in oil (55 oils on canvas, 2 oils on wood and 8 oils on paper), and two are in mixed media, oil and gauche on paper. Also in the collection are three watercolours, a gauche on paper, a tempera and two pastels. The drawings are in pencil, charcoal or ink. The paintings are, by and large, masterpieces in Vidovi's opus and they are regularly reproduced in monographs, studies and catalogues as milestones in his art. The collection is also a reliable indicator of the artist's thematic preoccupations with landscapes, interiors and still lifes. The works featured in the collection are a sample of the artist's output from 1898 to the end of his life. The collection should continue to grow and be carefully augmented by adding works from less well covered periods of his life and it should include more spontaneously executed works done in watercolour, pastel, gauche and the various drawing materials. In 1986, when the Split City Museum bought the paintings for the Gallery, the family donated to the Museum a collection of items from the painter's studio. There are 300 items, which include objects of cultural, artistic, historical and ethnographic value. The collection also comprises a large number of photographs and a library of over 400 books. The Split City Museum has been collecting archives materials on Emanuel Vidovi from the time of its founding. From the very beginning, Vidovi's heirs, especially dr. Slavan Vidovi, offered their kind assistance in gathering valuable documents. Duko Kekemet, then curator in the Split City Museum, was personally

associated with the artist and he diligently began collecting precious documents on the artist. A large portion of the preserved materials on the artist was donated to the Museum by the family in 1986 when the paintings were purchased for the future Gallery. Years of ardent collecting have yielded a wealth of documents on the artist that are a rich source of information for all those studying Vidovi's life and work.

EMANUEL VIDOVI (Split, 1870 Split, 1953)

For many decades, Emanuel Vidovi, one of Croatia's best painters, was a victim of an unjust minorisation and marginalisation espoused by a number of Croatian art critics. It was art historian Igor Zidi, who showed in the retrospectives held in 1971, 1982 and 1987 that Vidovi was one of the precursors of Croatian modern art and a moving spirit that inspired the modernisation of Croatian painting before the 1950s. Vidovi had no contact with Abe's school nor did he encounter Paris and the constructivist teachings of Cezanne. His stays in Venice and Milan, Italian art centres, brought him in touch with the newest trends in modern Italian painting, which did not lag as far behind the streams in German or French art as it was once erroneously believed. He ardently studied the work of the Late Romantic painters, the verists, the macchiaiola and the post-impressionists, understanding them all but copying no one. He built his own foundations on which his characteristic and authentic artistic expression was to grow. Vidovi's early artistic formation coincided with his student days in Venice. He quickly perceived that the conservative professors at the Accademia de Belle Arti would not teach him much and he chose a more difficult route of self-study. If we were to seek for the roots of his early landscape paintings, we would find them in the work of Italian macchiaiola and Venetian landscape painters, from the classics, Guardi and Canaletto, to Vidovi's contemporaries Ettore Tito, Giacomo Favretto and Pietro Fragiacomo. Vidovi's stay in Milan (1892-1895) brought him into contact with Italian divisionists, whose works were a unique reading of French post-impressionism. Their art did not exhaust itself on the problems of technique, but, in keeping with the intellectual currents prevalent in the second half of the 19th century, brought to painting personal content, using pictorial language to depict non-pictorial, mental projections. From the works of Giovanni Segantini, Gaetano Previati, Angelo Morbelli, Giuseppe Nomellini and Giuseppe Pelizza da Volpedo, Vidovi learned the novel technique of dot painting but soon adapted it to suit his own vision. Young Vidovi was also deeply affected by Split's cultural scene. As member of the Literary and Arts Club (from 1900) that gathered elite Croatian intellectuals, literary figures, painters, architects and musicians, Vidovi was in touch with contemporary art streams that came largely from Vienna, where the art production was strongly marked by the Jugendstihl. We must also not ignore the fact that until 1912 Vidovi regularly travelled to Italy and visited Venice Biennale where he witnessed the new developments in European art. We know that on his visits to the Biennale he was particularly delighted by Whistler's nocturnal scenes and, generally, by dusky landscape motifs, so frequently found in late 19th century painting. Already in his earliest works Vidovi exhibited a duality of approach to the real world, with one end of this approach rooted deeply in realism and verism, and the other in symbolism and vision. Vidovi's earliest pictures are studies on wood or cardboard, painted outdoors, and executed with casually applied dots of clear,

light colours, or smudges of dark colours further dimmed by grey. The mood in these works is close to that of the Italian macchiaiola. Alongside with the realistic and Impressionism-inspired oils, Vidovi was painting studio pictures of medium to large formats, depicting stylised dusky landscapes with lone human figures, steeped in a romanticist and symbolist atmosphere. In the course of his intense association with Don Frano Buli, the artist was probably briefly influenced by the latter's style and painted very realistic pictures with motifs of Solin and Vranjic The series begins with The Houses at Tusculum painted in 1897, continues with The Fall of Solinica, and ends with three versions of Vranjic, dated 1898 and 1899. Around 1903, Vidovi painted his Impressions, landscapes showing Giudecca and Chioggia, the most Impressionist-like canvases in Croatian art, with shapes completely dematerialised in the vibrating strokes of clear colour. Following a visit to Molish Croats, he painted the sun-drenched Mundimitar, using clear Impressionist palette with colours applied in free dots. In the same year, 1904, Vidovi experimented with pointillist techniques, especially the one preferred by the Lombardian painter Giovanni Segantini. The result of this, later never repeated experiment, was an allegory of life and death entitled Small World, in actuality a somewhat stylised landscape executed in pure colours applied in dotty and spiky strokes. It is astonishing how skilled Vidovi was at this early stage in showing the world seen both by the outer and the inner eye and in finding for each a suitable expression by varying the thickness of the paint and by alternating shorter and longer strokes, sometimes visible and sometimes not. One picture may be a realistic, Impressionist landscape of singing colour and temperamental strokes, and another will be a lyrical and melancholy view of controlled gesture and gamut, where a thin layer of a dominating colour softens the world of reality like a veil. The artists early inclination to nature and verism, in the tradition of Italian macchiaiola, his brief Impressionist phase and experimentation with Segantinis divisionism could not satisfy this born poet and dreamer, who did not stay blind to the spiritual and artistic streams pouring in from Vienna and bringing in a surge of mysticism and symbols embodied in the Jugendstihl and Symbolism. These new streams made the artist turn to the artistic preoccupations then prevalent in Central Europe. He intuitively brought together Symbolism and abstraction, rejected illusion in his paintings and emphasised the twodimensional character of the surface (Angelus, 1906/7), thus securing for himself the status of one of the instigators of a modern expression in Croatian art. In the gloomy years of World War I, when the painter worked in the isolation of his spacious studio in the closed municipal theatre, novel and different works were painted. They were large-sized canvases covered with thick layers of colour applied in dots. The pictures were dark, with an occasional symbolic trace of light that brings out the landscape. By the end of World War I he had already abandoned literary and explicit symbolic subject matter and had stopped using a strict pointillist technique. Irrespective of whether he used colour contrast or a subdued tonal scale, the planes are framed in strong, dark lines that lend the chiselled picture surface expressionist characteristics. The earlier paintings in the Trogir series (19301938) were painted in this manner, whereas those painted later, after 1936, show powerful, broad strokes of his rebellious brush that seek to transform the object into pictorial means - line and colour - and obscure it to the point of eradication. The earliest paintings of The Trogir Cycle (1930 1938) did not, in essence, differ very much from the earlier work, while in the later, those painted after 1936,

Vidovi's bold expressionist gesture carried the pictures to the edge of abstraction. For forty years Vidovi painted landscapes, for the most part of Italy, Split and Trogir. The last group of landscapes, The Trogir Cycle, which he worked on both outdoors and in the studio, features hundreds of drawings, oils, watercolours and pastels. Working incessantly, the artists exhausted the motifs to their utmost limits. On the eve of his 70th birthday, from 1938 onwards, the painter began finding satisfaction in the peace and intimacy of his home, in the secure surroundings of his personal micro cosmos. His delight with the new motifs resulted in new pictorial solutions. The palette became light and more varied, the stroke more lively and vibrant, breathing life into the painted space and the objects in it. Later paintings (1942-1949) show semi-darkness, built up of harmonies of colours, subdued and enriched by grey. Despite of difference, Vidovi's interiors exhibit several common features. The painter employed drawing for spatial and compositional unity. Multi-coloured smudges of varying density make up a layered and vibrating surface that interrelates all objects into a unified whole radiating a singular atmosphere. Always searching for new motifs, Vidovi did not stop with the intimate spaces of his home and studio. His childhood memories took him back to the interiors of Split and Trogir churches. Split and Trogir churches were painted in the manner resembling that of the flat and studio interiors, but with greater threedimensionality and depth. Vibrant strokes, here too, take away the volume of the objects and their weight, but finely render the interplay of light and colour on the picture's surface. The painter's sensitive brushwork registers the aged marble and the complex colour nuances of the Renaissance and Baroque paintings, as well as the worm-eaten wood crucifix, the dull shine of old gold and the gentle candlelight. Only those objects that Vidovi had feelings for found a way onto his canvases. He had to know and understand the objects to make a good picture. The artist's turning to painting still lifes with objects that surrounded him seems like a logical consequence of this approach to the motifs. His method was to turn his eye away from the external world and focus on the small world of the studio and the whisper of the silent objects. The first pictures, those painted from 1926 to 1928, showed that even if the genre was new, the still lifes were nevertheless a continuation of Vidovis other work, a painterly rendering of the intimate ambience and the artists typical mental atmosphere. Some pictures were done in darker, more subdued colours and some were lighter and brighter, but they all exhibit summary drawing, simple composition, soft modelling and exceptionally fine harmonies of colour and tone. After the Second World War still lifes begin to change and seem removed from the external light and the concrete world. Objects lose their outlines and stand out of the dark and undefined space as if by some inner radiation and rhythm of shapes. The palette is subtle and subdued, and the brushwork delicate. From 1950 onwards Vidovi painted from the memory the old, dear and familiar motifs of Split and Trogir, giving them always a new colour on the canvas. He began using dots again, but did not restrict his palette to only a few shades. Vehement and quickly applied short strokes of dark greys and browns are enlivened with audacious reds, blues, yellows and greens that dissolve the motif into a fragile and unstable vision of his memory landscapes. In these works the painter reduced the motif to only lightly indicated outlines and, through blotches or dots of colour, achieved a unity between the objects and

space. The pictorial matter and the light that shines from its layers create a unique atmosphere that, although different in each work, may be recognised as the artist's personal signature. Vidovi's drawings of Split that are kept in the Gallery are done in the last 20 years of the painter's life. They do not only provide the pleasure of viewing the portraits of Vidovi's hometown, but also stand as proof of his drawing skill. They show once again that Vidovi is always capable of handling the two-dimensional surface between whose two coordinates he compresses the wealth of his world and vision. In 1953 death caught the artist with brush in hand. He continued painting to the very end of his life, always finding a way to express through line and colour the essence of a motif. His delving into the core of the visible world was, for him, the same as delving into the essence of painting, where metaphysical reality is recreated through visual language, independent of the object. Nela ii, September 2006