31. Orchard Street Under Snow [1928. - 1934.]
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31. Orchard Street Under Snow [1928. - 1934.]
1894, Kuželj kod Delnica - 1973, Zagreb
Not sold
Post-auction price
EUR 13.100
ulje na platnu, 32.5 x 46 cm, signed lower right, in brown, "Gecan"
Vilko Gecan (Kuzelj, 1894 – Zagreb, 1973) is one of the most important representatives of Croatian visual expressionism. His artistic journey began in the Banja Luka gymnasium, where he met M. Uzelac, three years his junior, with whom he would remain friends for life. During his time at T. Krizman's private painting school, he was introduced to the paintings of M. Kraljević, which marked his early work. He began to study at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, but his studies were interrupted by his enlistment and the start of World War I. He spent three years of war in captivity in Sicily, where he managed to create several expressionist drawings. At 27, he creates the masterpiece "Cynic", in which the influence of both Kraljevic and expressionism can be seen. He then enters a phase of cuboconstructivism and touches on the German new reality. In the next artistic period, intense color dominates. After staying with Uzelac in Paris, he takes a cue from Van Gogh's approach to color. In the 1930s, when he finally returns to Zagreb, there is a noticeable stagnation in painting – due to intense long-term work and early symptoms of Parkinson's disease. He begins to paint still lifes and landscapes with a soft conventional realism marked by principles he had worked out during his stay in the United States. The oil on canvas called "Voćarska Street under Snow" belongs to this period. Affected by illness, he stops painting radical compositions and spatial oddities and paints what's closest to him – in this case, the street where his studio was located. The wintery setting, the snow-covered street devoid of human figures, exudes tranquility. Airy applications of color, from greyish white to light blue, contribute to the impression of purity. It was surely Uzelac who, with great effort, made all the brushstrokes in this period of creation. He often had to support his trembling right hand with his left hand.
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