Radovan Kunić - Prikupljanje vremena

RADOVAN KUNIĆ PRIKUPLJANJE VREMENA GATHERING OF TIME Galerija Prsten | 16. - 26. ožujka, 2017. | Prsten Gallery | March 16 - 26, 2017

PRIKUPLJANJE VREMENA Krajnji doseg drskosti kod Radovana Kunića jest kada svoje slike izloži. Daleko ispod, na toj zamišljenoj vertikali bezobrazluka, je unošenje ljubičaste boje. To je „urbano” ljubičasta, vrlo agresivna i miriše na Inat. Možda i on negdje na obzoru budućnosti vidi svoju Veliku sliku „Smeđa šuma na tmurni dan””, koja će kroz Skoro Ništa reći Skoro Sve, o svemu o čemu bi ljudi mogli uopće poželjeti razmišljati. Prizor bež i siv, jednolična mirna šuma uvelog lišća, bez dalekih planova i bez kontrapunkta. Blijedo i jednoobrazno, najdosadniji šumski prizor što se može zamisliti, a pršti od silne pojavnosti, titra i teče u bujicama prhke materije nabite postojanjem i sl. Samo po sebi, to je mjesto i vrijeme u šumi gdje bi SVI DRUGI LJUDI NA SVIJETU rekli: „Ali tamo nema ničega. Zašto bi to htio naslikati?” Strah ga je te slike, osjeća da nije spreman pa se okušava o izvedijivije ideje, manje idejno, a više likovno pompozne.

Na tome putu, po kojemu se baš i ne žuri, dogodi se da mu poneka slika preraste okvire intencije pa joj se i sam tako može radovati kao općem kuriozitetu. Na slici s krevetom, inače mirne graciozne monumentalnosti, krajnje desno iz kadra izlazi produžni kabel, potreban da bi lampice svijetlile (što su uopće lampice bez kabela?), a kut na zidu govori da možda nije imao pristupa većim prostorijama s velikim bijelim zidovima, već samo ovakvoj, ali nema veze, „još bolje”.

Osim toga, kakva je to arhitektura? Izgleda da se graditelj predomišljao ili bio nemaran, ali samo „malo”, ništa spektakularno, što je točno Hrvatska. Kontemplirajući nad ukupnim rezultatom, udaljujući se i prilazeći toj ambivalentnoj, smirujuće-uznemirujućoj slici, moguće je osjetiti nešto što se vrlo rijetko spontano sjetimo, a to je egzistencijalna zahvalnost.

Kako ne bismo mistificirali već ionako maglovite umjetničke moći, veći dio te energije je naprosto „uslikan” bojama kroz puno dana slikanja. Ostatak, onih 15 % čistoga šlaga, ono spiritualno trenje što se nije moglo predvidjeti, to je Novi Horizont, kojemu se i sam slikar raduje, jer ga ne poznaje, a nitko mu ni ne garantira da će se uopće kakav horizont otvoriti, ali ima privilegiju da ga ugleda prvi, ako se to ipak desi; zašto i ne bi, kada je mnogim drugim slikarima znalo uspjeti. Izuzev toga – pa to je uljana boja na napetom platnu; pored 500 godina korištenog slikarskog trika – miješanje tonova na uvijek svježoj površini (što on radi škrto, terpentinasto, ali neporecivo), tu je i sama boja, što, naravno, pršti od svoje „urođene” ljepote, kao što se na dobrom instrumentu može udariti bilo koji ton i zvučati će dobro i zanimljivo, ne u odnosu na drugi ton, nego na tišinu.

Kada sa slikom završi, „nadjene” joj ime baš onako kako ljudi nadijevaju imena svojim kanarincima ili skladbama bez vokala. Nije smatrao da slici treba ime, ali ne valja biti škrt, kažu. „Doda” joj, u

to ime – ime – i tako se sama slika i njen naziv međusobno ne objašnjavaju. Nekima će naziv slike pomoći da krenu s kontemplacijom, a i oni koje na izložbi slika riječi ne zanimaju, moći će doživjeti sve što „bi trebali”.

U isto vrijeme slično i suprotno od mračnog uma Petera Handkea iz „Trenutka pravog osjećaja”, čije se opsesije oko slučajno okupljenih „beznačajnih” predmeta nakon početnog ushićenja pokažu kao glasnici lažne nade, Radovan predmete „samo voli” pa ih pred nama „cijeni””, slikajući ih. Usred slikanja počinje voljeti i sliku zasebno, a voli i kada drugi ljudi vole tu sliku pa je moguća radost jednostavna i vjerojatna.

Možda je jednom dobio pismo, otvorio ga i vidio da je prazno. Pomislio je: “ali nema ničega,”” ipak držeći nešto u rukama. Shvati da je sama kuverta „sjajan” papirnati rad: u svaku kuvertu, pa i ovu, ugrađena je do SADA ukupna povijest rješavanja tog problema, sve je u savršeno racionalnom redu, nema dodane dopadljivosti, nitko nikome ništa ne pokušava „podvaliti”” – sve u svemu vrlo lako postignut društveni konsenzus oko vrlo očigledno zadovoljavajućeg idejno-oblikovnog koncepta; tek je vršak trokuta blago zaobljen, tamo oko može odmoriti, dobro je, odlično je. Prava feštica oblika.

Podignuvši pogled, opazi tanki bijeli poklopac visoko na bijelom zidu, nasluti prekrivenu malu nišu, ispunjenu neorganiziranom petljom plosnatih crnih kablova spojenih žuto-zelenom izolir-trakom i bi zadovoljan. Na kraju krajeva, od svih problema na ovome svijetu, na njemu je da proizvede plosnati predmet-sliku, što u ljudima mora „pobuditi” neki relativno rijedak osjećaj, po mogućnosti ugodan u širem smislu riječi, da može zadovoljiti bilo koga, kao što dobar radijator grije sve ljude u čekaonici, pomisli on književno pa krene premazivati oveću sliku, odustajuć od prizora lubenice*.

(*Mi ne možemo razumjeti zašto je odustao od lubenice, ali ne znamo ni zašto ju je uopće poželio naslikati pa je naše žaljenje za nenaslikanim suvišno, čak nepristojno. Činjenica da svi slikari ovoga svijeta do kraja ukupno raspoloživog vremena za slikanje neće naslikati više od djelića onoga što „bi trebalo” naslikati za njega i takve kao što je on veliki je idejni problem i zahtjeva određeno samo-zamračenje uma, ne bi li se najzad od nečega krenulo, što je ključni preduvjet da se išta stvori. Nije li to na kraju jedina razlika između ljudi – jedni „počinju od jednog kraja”, a drugi ne rade ništa.)

Bruno Velčić, mag.art

GATHERING OF TIME

The extent of Radovan Kunić’s arrogance is best displayed when he exhibits his paintings. Far below on this imaginary scale of arrogance is the introduction of purple. This is an “urban” purple, very aggressive and it smells like Spite. Maybe he also sees his Big painting “Brown Forest on a Gloomy Day” somewhere on the horizon of the future, the painting which will say Almost Everything through Almost Nothing, about anything people could even wish to think about. A beige and grey scene, plain peaceful forest of dead leaves, with no planes and no counterpoints. Pale and uniform, the most boring forest scenery one can imagine, and yet bursting with powerful appearance, vibrating and flowing in abundance of friable matter charged with existence, etc. In itself, this is the place and time in a forest where ALL OTHER PEOPLE IN THE WORLD would say “But there is nothing there. Why would you want to paint that?”. He is afraid of this painting, he feels that he is not ready, so he tries some other, more feasible ideas, less conceptually and more painterly pompous.

On this path, which he makes no haste on, some of his paintings sometimes go beyond his intentions, and thus he can delight in them as a general curiosity. In the painting with a bed, of otherwise peaceful, graceful monumentality, there is an extension cord coming out of the frame in the far right, required to turn the decorative lights on (what are decorative lights without a cord anyway?), and the corner on the wall says that he might not have had access to larger spaces with large white walls, but only to these ones, but never mind, “even better”. Besides, what kind of architecture is this? It looks as if the architect was changing his mind, or was sloppy, but just “a bit”, nothing spectacular, precisely what Croatia is. Contemplating the final result, departing from and approaching this ambivalent, calming-disturbing painting, one can feel something rarely felt spontaneously, i.e. the existential gratitude.

Not to mystify these already hazy artistic powers, the major part of this energy was simply “painted” with colours through many days of painting. The rest, the 15% of pure cream, the spiritual friction that could not have be predicted, that is the New Horizon, which the artist himself looks forward to, because he is not acquainted with it, and nobody even guarantees him that any horizon will open up, but he has the privilege to see it first, if it happens; and why wouldn’t it if it happened to so many other painters. Besides – it is oil paint on a tight canvas; besides using a 500 year-old painting trick – always mixing tones on a fresh surface (which he does in a stingy, turpentine-like way, but undeniably), there is also the colour itself, which, of course, is bursting with its “innate” beauty, just as on a good instrument one can hit any tone and make it sound well and interesting, not in relation to some other tone, but in relation to silence. After he is finishes a painting, he “gives” it a name, just like people give names to their canaries or tracks without vocals. He

did not think that a painting needed a name, but one should not be stingy, they say. He “adds” to it, on that account, a name, and thus the painting itself and its title do not mutually explain each other.

The title of the painting will help some to start contemplating, but the ones not interested in words at the painting exhibition, will be able to experience everything “they should”.

At the same time similar and opposed to Peter Handke’s dark mind from “A Moment of True Felling”, whose obsessions with accidentally gathered “trivial” objects turn out to be the bearers of false hope after the initial elation, Radovan “just loves” the objects, so he “appreciates” them in front of us by painting them. In the middle of the painting process he also starts to love the paintings itself, and he also loves when others love that painting, so the possible joy is simple and plausible. Maybe he received a letter once, opened it and saw it was empty. He thought to himself “but there is nothing”, still holding something in his hands. He realized that the envelope itself is a “great” paper work: each envelope, including this one, contains the total history of solving that problem THUS FAR, everything is in a perfectly rational order, there is no added likeability, nobody is trying to trick anyone, all in all an easily achieved social consensus on an obviously satisfactory idea-design concept; only the tip of the triangle is slightly curved, the eye can rest there, it is good, it is great. A proper little feast of forms. Looking up, he noticed a thin white cover high on a white wall, he sensed a small covered niche, filled with unorganized loop of flat black cables tied together with yellow and green duct tape, and he was pleased. After all, of all the problems in this world, it is up to him to produce a flat object-painting, which should “evoke” some relatively rare feeling in people, pleasant if possible, in a broader sense, which could satisfy anyone, just as any good radiator heats all the people in the waiting room, he thought to himself in a literary sense and started painting a larger painting, giving up on the watermelon scene*.

(*We cannot understand why he gave up on the watermelon, but we do not even know why he wanted to paint it in the first place, and so our regret for what has not been painted is redundant, even rude. The fact that all the painters of this world by the end of the total available time for painting will not have painted more than a fraction of what “should be” painted, for him and the ones like him is a major conceptual problem, and requires a certain self-darkening of the mind, in order to finally start from something, which is a key precondition to create anything. Isn’t this the only difference among people – some start “from one end” and the others do nothing.)

Bruno Velčić, MA in Visual Arts

O autoru:

About the Author:

Radovan Kunić rođen je 1987. u Rijeci. Nakon završene gimnazije upisuje studij na APURi gdje je, 2012. Godine, diplomirao kiparstvo u klasi prof.

Violića. Uz skulpturu, tijekom studija, povremeno se bavio i slikanjem koje se pomalo pretvorilo u kontinuitet, da bi po završetku studija postalo konstanta koja ga određuje u moru svih ljudi najrazličitijih zanimanja. Kao slikar, sudjeluje na međunarodnim likovnim kolonijama i rezidencijama i izlaže na brojnim skupnim i samostalnim izložbama.

Ponekad nagrađivan i priznavan, ipak najveća mu je nagrada kada netko njegovu sliku poželi gledati na svom zidu. Član je HDLU Rijeka i HZSU. Osim što neumorno radi slikarski posao u svom riječkom ateljeu, djeluje i kao vanjski suradnik u svojstvu asistenta na katedri za slikarstvo Akademije primijenjenih umjetnosti Sveučilišta u Rijeci. Živi u Matuljima.

Radovan Kunić was born in Rijeka in 1987. After finishing grammar school he enrolled in the Academy of Applied Arts in Rijeka from which he graduated in sculpture in 2012 in the class of Prof Violić. During his studies he was also involved with painting, which he continued to engage in, only to make it his defining practice, the one that differentiates him in the sea of people of different professions. As a painter, he has participated in international art colonies and residencies and exhibited in numerous group and solo exhibitions. He has been awarded and acknowledged from time to time, and yet his greatest reward is when someone feels desire to look at his painting on their wall. He is a member of the Croatian Association of Artists in Rijeka and Croatian Freelance Artists Association. Besides working tirelessly as a painter in his Rijeka studio, he also works as an Associate Professor, i.e. Assistant at the Department of Painting, Academy of Applied Arts, University of Rijeka.

He lives in Matulji.

Hrvatsko društvo likovnih umjetnika | Croatian Association of Fine Artists Galerija Prsten | Prsten Gallery Trg žrtava fašizma 16, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia | www.hdlu.hr Radno vrijeme: srijeda – petak 11 do 19h, subota – nedjelja 10 do 18h ponedjeljkom, utorkom i blagdanom zatvoreno.

Working hours: Wednesday to Friday 11am – 7pm, Saturday to Sunday 10 – 6pm, Monday, Tuesday and holidays - closed IMPRESUM | Nakladnik/Publisher: Hrvatsko društvo likovnih umjetnika/Croatian Association of Fine Artists, Trg žrtava fašizma 16, 10 000 Zagreb, hdlu@hdlu.hr, www.hdlu.hr | Za nakladnika/For the publisher: Josip Zanki | Upravni odbor HDLU/Executive board of HDLU: Josip Zanki (predsjednik/ president), Tomislav Buntak (dopredsjednik/vicepresident), Fedor Vučemilović (dopredsjednik/vicepresident), Ida Blažičko, Ivan Fijolić, Monika Meglić, Melinda Šefčić | Umjetnički savjet Galerije Prsten/Artistic board of Prsten Gallery: Tomislav Buntak, Suzana Marjanić, Koraljka Kovač Dugandžić, Branka Benčić, Ivan Fijolić, Josip Zanki, Ivica Župan | Ravnateljica/Director: Ivana Andabaka | Stručna suradnica/Associate: Mia Orsag | Predgovor/Preface: Bruno Velčić | Grafičko oblikovanje kataloga/Catalogue Design: Duje Medić | Fotografija/Photography: Ivana Jurić | Prijevod/ Translation: Zana Šaškin | Lektura/Proofreading: Zana Šaškin | Tisak/Printed by Cerovski | Naklada/Copies: 150 Izložba je realizirana uz financijsku potporu Ministarstva kulture Republike Hrvatske i Gradskog ureda za kulturu, obrazovanje i sport Grada Zagreba kao program Galerije Karas u Galeriji Prsten / The exhibition is financially supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic Croatia and by the City Office for Culture, Education and Sports Zagreb as Karas Gallery program in Prsten Gallery.