81. Still Life in Autumn [1944.]

Vladimir Varlaj (Zagreb, 1885 - Zagreb 1962) was a painter known for motifs of the Klek landscape, the Dobra river, Kvarner and the surroundings of Zagreb. His art education, after the private school of Tomislav Krizman and two years at the Higher School of Art and Craft (1913 and 1914), was interrupted by World War I and his stay on the Russian front until 1917 when he continued his education at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. After being noticed from the very first participation in the Spring Salon exhibitions in Zagreb, he became an active member of the Group of Independent Artists (1921 - 1927) in which were some of the most important names of the contemporary art scene: Ljubo Babić, Vladimr Becić, Joza Kljaković, Frano Kršinić, Ivan Meštrović, Jerolim Miše, Marin Studin, Zlatko Šulentić. His most fruitful years were the twenties and thirties, and already at the beginning of the forties of the 20th century, the consequences of his stay on the Russian front had such an impact on his health that he finished his painting work many years before his death. Although he starts from spatial relations based on reality, his magic-realist landscapes are characterised by smoothed surfaces and geometric forms, deep shadows and strong contrasts of sunlight breaking through heavy clouds. Such an approach is close to the contemporary right wing of German painting known as "Neue Sachlihkeit". At the same time, he transferred such expressive characteristics to his still lifes, which he painted when he could not go out in nature, and they are a collector's rarity. "Still Life in Autumn" is one of the best of Varlaj's still lifes, whose dating in 1944 indicates that this is one of the last Varlaj's paintings executed at a high artistic level as his health problems began to intensify that year, after which he became immobilised from 1949. On the obliquely viewed plane of the table, he depicted three quinces and six eggs in a ceramic bowl, and behind them a jug and a pot and a head of cabbage. The focus of his interest are the solid forms of quinces, eggs and ceramic vessels, but also colours and surfaces of objects. The fact is that Varlaj smooths all objects so that the textures of different objects are very similar (he even smooths cabbage leaves to a great extent), but the shades of colours and surfaces that more or less absorb light are important to him. This is emphasised on the jug that has no glaze and so absorbs light while the glazed pot reflects light, the quinces in warm yellow shades absorb light while the eggshell reflects it. Achieved in an unusual balance between simultaneous closeness and distancing from depicted objects, the silence and stillness of Varlaj's "Still Life in Autumn" is truly calming. FD

Dimensions

width 70 cm, height 54 cm

Description

ulje na platnu, signed and dated lower right, in black, "Varlaj (1)944"

Research information

The work was exhibited at the retrospective exhibition "Vladimir Varlaj, 1895-1962." at the Art Pavilion in Zagreb from December 20, 1992 to February 14, 1993. The work is reproduced in Frano Dulibić's monograph, "The Painting of Vladimir Varlaj", IPU, Zagreb 2011, p. 125.

Dating

1944.

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