KGLU

Carinthian Triennial
FINGERTIP TOUCH (Drawing in Carinthia I.)

Franc Berhtold, Bogdan Borčić, Stojan Brezočnik, Gustav Gnamuš, Franjo Golob, Miro Hajnc, Peter Hergold, Anja Jerčič Jakob, Ted Kramolc, Stanko Makuc, Štefan Marflak, Jure Markota, Zoran Ogrinc, Karel Pečko, Oskar von Pistor, Luka Popič, Anton Repnik, Lucija Stramec, Boštjan Temniker, Jože Tisnikar, Sašo Vrabič

The Carinthian Triennial is a traditional exhibition project with which the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Koroška organizes overviews of Carinthian artistic creativity at regular intervals, either of current production with insights into the creative pulse of artists’ studios, or with thematically rounded presentations that usually include works by older authors as well. This year’s thematically oriented exhibition is dedicated to DRAWING, the fundamental artistic practice that is cultivated in various ways and with various impulses by virtually all visual artists, but mostly remains hidden and marginal, as merely an intimate diary or working itinerary of the artists’ creative day-to-day life. However, drawing is probably the most direct authorial manuscript, leaving behind a primal and unpolished trace of intention, which makes it particularly exciting and inspiring for the perceptive observer. Insight into the drawing achievements primarily emphasizes the “inner impulse” of each artist’s creative process, while the “external plot” is less significant here. The current selection presents achievements in the field of drawing in Carinthia from the generation of Oskar von Pistor and Franjo Golob, who reached their artistic credo already before World War II, and the group of artists born before 1945, including Karel Pečko, Bogdan Borčić, Ted Kramolc, Jože Tisnikar, Anton Repnik, and Gustav Gnamuš, who prominently represented Carinthian creativity of the second half of the past century, to the older and younger middle generation, who are still actively exhibiting and developing their artistic potential.

The works of the twenty-one selected authors, beside above mentioned are there also: Franc Berhtold, Luka Popič, Stojan Brezočnik, Štefan Marflak, Zoran Ogrinc, Peter Hergold, Miro Hajnc, Stanko Makuc, Lucija Stramec, Anja Jerčič Jakob, Jure Markota, Boštjan Temniker in Sašo Vrabič, could very loosely be classified into five fundamental thematic areas that underline key aspects of drawing: drawing as a visual record of the thought process can have the role of the “Mirror Self” when it serves as a reflection of oneself; it can be a “Journal Entry” when trying to capture an experience or impression from the environment; we label it as “Coded Impressions” when it deals with questions of (artistic) language and symbolic systems; as “Artistic Discourse,” it is a tool for conceptualizing artistic messages, and lastly, it can also create “Invented Bodies”, when it freely draws from imaginative potentials to develop new bodily forms and scenes.

New media are expanding the field of drawing in the most contemporary way, but still preserving its essence as a sketch and primary articulation of artistic idea(tion). Like other various techniques, materials, and approaches presented in this overview exhibition, they seek to answer the simple and fundamental question: What does it mean to draw? … One question and an assortment of original answers, yet by no means covering all, especially those offered by representatives of the youngest generation of Carinthian visual artists, including a whole plethora of the youngest female artists, which is why special attention will be afforded to them with a new exhibition project, Drawing in Carinthia II., in the near future.

Curator: Marko Košan