What first appears as Tisnikar’s amateurish knowledge of the fine arts in fact carries an expressive charge of rough ‘primitivism’ and of a strong sense of emotional involvement, most explicitly reflected in the anxious but always confident, perhaps even monumental contour drawings of the intuitively rounded black-and-white compositions on paper. For many years the painter hid his drawings, thinking they are too simple and thus worthless. He exhibited his works for the first time only a few years before his death, surprising his admirers as well as himself with the power of his clean lines and modest solutions in the form of tiny croquis drawings, artistic notes, and well-constructed sketches.

Text: Marko Košan