wood and iron, 23.5 x 22 x 16 cm, inscription on the base, "D. Džamonja, SCULPTURE S - I, (19)84"

The sculpture S I - 84 by Dušan Džamonja is characteristic of his mature oeuvre. All his knowledge of sculpture, his sense for form, as well as his specific poetics built during his entire life of studying elements of sculptural language and experimenting with it, are visible in this smaller dimension sculpture, yet with a strong expressive charge. Dušan Džamonja was born in Strumica, Macedonia in 1928 and died in Zagreb in 2009. His work is highly esteemed in the domestic art history and can be found in some significant world museums (for instance, MOMA in New York or Tate in London). Džamonja's modernist (or late-modernist) poetics are evident here in the dynamic and contrasting relationship between materials, textures and shapes, in insisting on expression in pure form and achieving a rhythmic and balanced composition with an abstract form, non-narrative and non-descriptive. The very name of the sculpture, which is actually its label, testifies to its independence from any concepts from reality. The contrasts of rough surfaces and geometric compositions are characteristics for which Džamonja's sculptures are known. This sculpture also finds its basic idea in the dynamics of contrast. The basic contrast here is achieved between the central, egg-like part made of wood, which with its shape and material, suggests softness, and the iron nails driven into it in regular curves, which signify a ruthless communication of this shape with space. This skillfully performed incursion into space from a closed center shows the artist's knowledge of the laws of dynamic three-dimensional construction. In the 1980s, Džamonja was already an experienced sculptor, and his knowledge of the language of abstraction and all the effects that abstract sculpture can have can be seen in such smaller dimension achievements. FG

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