Silvester Plotajs Sicoe - Punk kubizam

Virtualna izložba | Virtual exhibition

Silvester Plotajs Sicoe
Punk kubizam
Punk Cubism

12. prosinca 2022. – 2024. ... a tada in vivo — December 12, 2022 – 2024 ... and then in vivo

Silvester Plotajs Sicoe - Otkrivanje boljeg svijeta
Slikar se u svojem autorski vrlo specifičnom stvaralaštvu afirmirao već u prvom desetljeću novog tisućljeća, nakon što su njime u početku dominirali umjetnici koji su u svojim inačicama apstraktnosti tražili originalni ulazak u sferu sublimnog. Možemo li onda napisati da je Plotajs protagonist nove (anti)pop-generacije: generacije kojoj je primaran hedonizam, a kreativni impuls uvijek prisutan i koja svoja daljnja polazišta pripovijedanja osigurava slikama javnih idola i drugih fetišiziranih ljudskih i životinjskih likova, privatnog konvencionalnog inventara? Svugdje i uvijek osjeća se latentna prisutnost ljudske egzistencije, njezino djelovanje i angažmana; takva je slikarska refleksija uvijek pozitivna i dakako zrači gotovo apoteozno uzdignutim koloritom.

Jesu li tragovi novog ekspresionizma, ako pomislimo na Nove divlje (Neue Wilden) s njemačkog kulturnog prostora i njihovu slovensku parafrazu skupine slikara koji su se na zajedničkim izložbama nazivali Divlji u srcu, prisutni u Plotajsovu slikarstvu? Možemo napisati pozitivan odgovor s obzirom na slikarevu poetiku koja ne pristaje na ideologiju spomenute, gotovo povijesne njemačke skupine, nego se prepušta vlastitim, proživljenim pričama koje se dakako stilski i neizravno mogu naslanjati na noviju povijest umjetnosti.

U tom smislu, primjerice, shvaćamo i umjetnikov skovani izraz punk-kubizam – takozvanu seriju slika nastalu između 2020. i 2022. godine. Punk kao glazbeni žanr tzv. supkulture svojim je remiksom očito ostao u Plotajsovoj svijesti i danas: kao reminiscencija na kubizam pojavljuju se geometrizirani likovi, kako oni koji oblikuju sam slikarski prostor, tako i oni funkcionalni koji podržavaju estetsku, kubističku perspektivu radnje.

Rezimirajmo dosadašnje Sicovo stvaralaštvo. Emotivna razigranost, neprestana naracija bez ideoloških premisa – u svim tim kvalitetama Sicoe je suveren: zagledan u suvremenost koja se ipak može izjednačiti sa suvremenošću ovog trenutka, a koja ne izbjegava slike u njihovoj deklariranoj medijskoj pojavnosti, gdje slikareva umjetnička afektiranost, tragački stav, otkrivanje istine u blještavom ludilu koje današnji svijet inače bilježi u stvarnosti onoga što se u njemu događa. Sicoe od toga zna pobjeći, ne samo povremeno izbjeći, od njega se zna i sakriti i sažeti autorskom, usudim se reći, romantiziranom gestom. Gestom obogaćenom istinskim poetskim zanosom uz vjeru i viziju boljeg svijeta koji umjetnik gradi na i dalje prkosnim ostatcima civilizacije. Svijet koji u njegovim slikama čuva i potiče, ako ne i otkriva bezgraničnu vedrinu, oslobađa našu maštu i budi nas izvan povremene subjektivne zlovolje i prepušta nas uživanju par excellence.

Silvester Plotajs Sicoe - Discovering a Better World
The painter established himself in his very specific work already in the first decade of the new millennium, after it was initially dominated by artists who, in their versions of abstractionism, were looking for an original entry into the realm of the sublime. Can we then say that Plotajs is the protagonist of a new (anti)pop generation: a generation for whom hedonism is the primary and ever-present creative impulse, and which secures its further narrative starting points through images of public idols and other fetishised human and animal figures, the private conventional inventory. Everywhere and always one feels the latent presence of human existence, its action and engagement; such painterly reflection is always positive and naturally revealing in an almost apotheosically exalted colourfulness.

Are there traces of New Expressionism in Plotajs’ paintings, if we think of the Neue Wilden from the German cultural space and their Slovenian paraphrase by a group of painters who called themselves Wild at Heart (Divji v srcu) at group exhibitions? We can write down a positive answer, keeping in mind the painter’s poetics, which does not adhere to the ideology of the aforementioned historical German group, but rather indulges in its own, experienced stories, which, of course, can also draw stylistically and indirectly on the recent history of art.

In this sense, for example, we can also understand the artist’s coining of the word “Punk Cubism” – the title of a series of paintings created in 2020/22. Punk as a musical genre of the so-called subculture has clearly remained in Plotajs’ consciousness even today, with its remix: as a reminiscence of Cubism, there are geometrised figures, both those that form the painterly space itself as well as the functional ones that support an exemplary, cubist perspective-conforming flat surface.

Let’s summarise a walk through Sicoe’s creativity so far. Emotional playfulness, a cool narrative without any ideological premises – in all these qualities Sicoe is sovereign: he is attentive to a modernity that can still be assimilated to the modernity of the moment, and that does not shy away from images in their proclaimed media manifestation. Here Sicoe’s artistic concern, his search for the truth in the glitter of madness, which is otherwise recorded by today’s world in the reality of what is happening in it, comes to the fore. Sicoe knows how to escape it, not just occasionally avoid it, he knows how to hide from it and sum it up with an authorial, dare I say romanticised gesture, a gesture enriched by a true poetic exaltation, together with faith and a vision of a better world, which the artist builds on the still defiant remnants of civilisation. A world that in his paintings preserves and encourages, if not reveals, a boundless serenity, that unleashes our imagination, that awakens us past our occasional subjective moodiness and leaves us to enjoyment par excellence.

Silvester Plotajs Sicoe rođen je 12. travnja 1965. u Ljubljani. Diplomirao je 1988. na Akademiji likovnih umjetnosti u Ljubljani pod mentorstvom prof. Emerika Bernarda i nastavio diplomski studij kod mentora prof. Gustava Gnamuša za slikarstvo i prof. Lojzea Logara za grafiku. Godine 1990. nastavlja akademsko usavršavanje kod profesora Martina Tissinga na Minerva Art Academy u Groningenu u Nizozemskoj. Od 1992. radi kao slobodni umjetnik. Dobitnik je više nagrada: studentske Prešernove nagrade 1987., Priznanja Sveučilišta u Ljubljani za važna likovna djela na području slikarstva 2009. godine, Priznanja Rihard Jakopič 2013. i Nagrade Rihard Jakopič 2021. Sudjelovao je na više skupnih i samostalnih izložbi u Sloveniji i inozemstvu. Djeluje kao slobodni umjetnik u Ljubljani.
www.plotajs.com
IG: @s_p_sicoe
Punk kubizam, 2021
Kruh je moj art, 2018

Silvester Plotajs Sicoe was born on the 12th of April 1965 in Ljubljana. He graduated in 1988 at the Academy of Fine Arts of Ljubljana, mentored by Professor Emerik Bernard. He continued his graduate studies with mentors Professor Gustav Gnamuš for painting and Professor Lojze Logar for graphic arts. In 1990 he attended further academic training by Professor Martin Tissing at the Minerva Art Academy in Groningen, the Netherlands. Since 1992 he has worked as a freelancer. He received multiple awards: The Prešeren Award in 1987, Recognition of the University of Ljubljana for important works of art in the field of painting for the year 2009, Rihard Jakopič Recognition in 2013 and the Rihard Jakopič Award in 2021. He took part in multiple group exhibitions and exhibited his work independently in Slovenia and abroad. He works as a freelance artist in Ljubljana.
www.plotajs.com
IG: @s_p_sicoe
Punk Cubism, 2021
Bread is My Art, 2018