Press release
Survey exhibition
Bogoslav Kalaš
The painting machine
17 December 2015 – 20 March 2016
Moderna galerija / Museum of Modern Art, Cankarjeva 15
Curator: Marko Jenko, PhD
Press conference: Wednesday, 16 December, at 11 a.m., at Moderna galerija / Museum of Modern Art
Odprtje razstave: Thursday, 17 December, at 8 p.m., at Moderna galerija / Museum of Modern Art
The exhibition Bogoslav Kalaš: The Painting Machine is a comprehensive survey exhibition of Bogoslav
Kalaš's oeuvre to date.
In the past, Moderna galerija has collaborated successfully with Bogoslav Kalaš a number of times, on
group exhibitions, and on the Triennial of Contemporary Art U3 in 2010, which was, quite felicitously,
dedicated to the question of realism, which has, again, recently seen a renewed presence. Kalaš’s works
were shown extensively for the first time at his solo exhibition in Mala galerija in 1983, and then again in
1995, also at Mala galerija. Those Kalaš works that are part of Moderna galerija's national painting
collection have been regularly selected for permanent exhibitions. In 2006, Moderna galerija also hosted
the Jakopič Awards, where Bogoslav Kalaš received a lifetime achievement award.
It would not, perhaps, be too much of an exaggeration to say that despite his success as both artist and
teacher, Kalaš still remains, to a certain extent, a polarizing figure: his work is either seen as fascinating,
which is more or less attributable to his invention of the painting machine and a sui generis technique
named aerography (and undoubtedly marked by the spirit of the times in which it was born); or it
provokes reservations, since the artist’s hand, even if the machine still allows, even calls for certain
interventions, has in the eyes of some lost a certain artistic or creative authenticity. Yet all of these
reservations revolve around an artist that is actually utterly dedicated to the grand historical tradition of
Western painting (or of creating images from the Renaissance onwards). They therefore involve an artist
that at first glance might seem unusually attached to the (realistic) image as such – something that can
also provoke either astonishment or reluctance. Have we not already surpassed, transcended this very
issue many times over – with modernism perhaps? And how about our contemporary capitalist tradition,
this flood of images, where the object, sold to us through images, does not even appear to matter
anymore, or is replaced by the commodification of experience? To continue, if we take into account
certain theories, which elaborate on the question of prosthesis, accessories and substitutes, then the
problem with which the painting machine confronts us (if indeed we even notice it) is not only pertinent,
but is also in the domain that points to the natural unnaturalness of human nature – a chilling one and
one open to justified generalization. What if the supposed “authenticity” of the hand, which makes of
itself a brush and then rises to express itself in whichever way, is already marked by something
“inauthentic”? The denaturation (of the machine-as-brush) is therefore much more natural than we
might dare think.
Marko Jenko, PhD
BOGOSLAV KALAŠ'S STATEMENT:
“Whether a modern artist is aware of it or not, if it remains buried in his subconscious, a powerful voice
is ringing out from inside him: “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of
anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.”
Therefore, a work of art is only justifiable if it has some moral, social, or humanitarian significance. Thus,
as a rule, a work of art is not the final objective of an artist’s creative process. It is produced to awaken
the observer’s sensitivity to the dilemmas of contemporary society, and to spotlight all that is important
to the artist and what he feels a conscious, modern-day person should not be obliviously indifferent to. A
modern artist champions political justice and political correctness. Beauty is not valued today the same
way it was in traditional art. For the most part it is even undesirable, and frequently equated with
temptation, deception, and seduction. A modern artist does not strive to make a work of art, but focuses
on a variety of projects and actions.
A traditional artist starts from the conviction that the image is good and worthy of depicting, since it is
a reflection of reality. What is beautiful and harmonious is exalted, and therefore the artist’s true
objective. The roots of such an understanding of or approach to art stretch back to Hellenism, or to the
Classical era, and to humanism. The temple of Apollo at Delphi had the inscription GNOTHI SEAUTON or
KNOW THYSELF carved into it. Were we to try and expand on that, we might add: for the whole world is
hidden within you. For this reason everything an artist believes in, coupled with his life experiences,
shapes his artistic beliefs, his credo, which is the one constant in everything he does. He directs the
entirety of his knowledge toward the making of a work of art, which is his ultimate objective. The
fundamental question he is eternally concerned with answering through his art is the deeper meaning of
human existence.”
Bogoslav Kalaš
BIOGRAPHY:
Bogoslav Kalaš was born on 30 October 1942 in Ljubljana, where he graduated from the Technical
Engineering School in 1962. He went on to study painting under Professors Marij Pregelj, France Mihelič,
and Gabrijel Stupica at the Academy of Fine Arts in Ljubljana (1962–1966), and later completed
postgraduate studies in painting there under Professor Maksim Sedej (1968).
His studies completed, he went to work as an art teacher, taking his first position at the Šentvid pri
Stični elementary school (1968–1970). In 1970 he was granted the status of a freelance artist,
additionally teaching descriptive geometry part time at the Technical Engineering School in Ljubljana. In
1974 he took the post of art teacher at the Elementary School of Adolf Jakhel in Zalog (Ljubljana),
working there until he became employed full-time at the Academy of Fine Arts in Ljubljana in the
academic year 1982/83 (having previously served there as a non-tenured Associate Professor of drawing
and painting since 1979). He continued to work at the Academy until his retirement in 2009. In addition
to teaching anatomy in art and spatial design he also served as dean between 1983 and 1987 and again
between 1998 and 2005.
Worthy of note in the creative part of Kalaš’s biography is the fact that he developed his own painting
procedure or technique, which he calls aerography and has been continuously developing since 1971,
with a view to solving certain issues connected with the painting process. The technique is based on the
principle of transferring a motif (a photograph taken by him) onto a new support (canvas, paper, etc.)
with a mechanical device (painting machine) and paints. Another thing that stands out is his association
since the late 1980s with the visual art group IRWIN, in the projects or works Slovenian Athens 1983–
1987 (1987), L’État (a portrait of IRWIN, 1988 and 1990), and Was ist Kunst Slovenia (2000).
Kalaš’s career as an artist stretches over decades: he has been exhibiting since 1966, though not
particularly frequently. He had his first solo show at the Concert Studio of the Association of Slovene
Composers in 1972 in Ljubljana, and an extensive retrospective exhibition in 1996 at the City Art Gallery
Ljubljana. His technique and his explicitly traditional motifs (nude, still life, landscape, portrait, and genre
in the narrow sense of the word) meant that his work was not particularly topical for some time, which
made his group exhibitions relatively few; curators have only started including Kalaš’s works in group
shows (e.g., themed or survey exhibitions of Slovene art) with more frequency in the new millennium.
In 2006 he received the Rihard Jakopič Award for his oeuvre. He lives and works in Radomlje (near
Domžale).
The exhibition is supported by the Ministry of Culutre of the Republic of Slovenia
More about the exhibition.
Photos:
Photo is available at: Photo 1, Photo 2
Photo credits: Bogoslav Kalaš working in his studio in Radomlje, October 2015, photo by Živa Kalaš
Rožman©.
Information:
Andreja Bruss
Moderna galerija
Windischerjeva ulica 2 1000 Ljubljana
T: +386 (0) 12416 817
W: www.mg-lj.si
E: andreja.bruss@mg-lj.si
Follow us: