Vasko Lipovac (14 June 1931 – 4 July 2006) was aYugoslavian andCroatianpainter,sculptor,printmaker,designer,illustrator andscenographer[3][4] and one of the most prominent artists of the region.[5] He is best known for his minimalist figuration and use of intense, unmodulated and often dissonant palette.[6] With the exception of his juvenile period ofgeometric abstraction, he remained loyal tofiguration throughout his whole career. Exceptionally prolific, he worked in various techniques and was equally skilful in using high-polished metal, polychromous wood,enamel,terracotta orpolyester to create his sculptures,reliefs andmobiles.[7]
Vasilije Vasko Lipovac was born on June 14, 1931, inŠkaljari, a small coastal settlement nearKotor inMontenegro. He was the youngest of five children in a very harmonious family of a prosperous merchant and ashipping agent Spasoje Lipovac and Antica Lui, the daughter of a respectable landowner Maksimilijan Lui.[8] He attendedReal Grammar School in Kotor, where his drawing teacher was Mato Đuranović (1895–1973), the painter who inspired his students with the bright, shiny colors of his works.[9]
After graduation, from 1955 to 1959 Lipovac attended the Master's Workshop of professorKrsto Hegedušić.[15] Thispostgraduate study gave many talented young visual artists, as diverse asMiroslav Šutej andMarina Abramović,[16] much needed freedom and opportunity to explore and use their artistic sensibility.[17][18] Shortly after joining workshop Lipovac started abstracting human figures, as well as their surroundings, to simple geometric shapes that became a hallmark of his work in following decades. Continuous strides towards radical stylization lead him to a short but very successful foray into geometric abstraction. Towards the end of Lipovac's postgraduate study the Workshop was visited byPeggy Guggenheim, who bought one of his works.[19] This episode was finished off at the end of 1950s with an exhibition in City ofYork Art Gallery, together with Ordan Petlevski. The exhibition was curated byHans Hess, and received a positive review fromHerbert Read.[20]
In 1959 he married Milena Matas, and they later had three sons.[21] He spent most of the 1960 in the army, and upon returning to Zagreb he spent a year (1964–1966) as an art editor assistant in the magazine “Chemistry in industry”, which was the only full-time job he ever had.[22][23] In 1965 he had the first solo exhibition, in theMuseum of Fine Arts in Split; the exhibition was curated byKruno Prijatelj,[24] with whom Lipovac established close collaboration over the next two decades, resulting in numerous projects and exhibitions.[25]
Since 1967, Vasko Lipovac lived and worked inSplit, Croatia, where theMediterranean climate inspired him to fulfil his poetic vision, and to create numerous works.[26] Four thematic units have been detected in the work of Lipovac, namely the Mediterranean, sports, the sacral and erotic.[27]
During the whole course of his active life he carried within himself the images of the native landscape of Boka Kotorska and the rich cultural heritage of his home town, while his education in Zagreb provided him with an access to the essential experiences of modernism and figurative autonomy, especially thanks to Kosta Angeli Radovani. So in his work, apart from the early abstract phase, he tried to affirm the contemporaryanthropomorphic and associative sculpture and figurative painting, succeeding in evoking the figures and ambiances of recognizably Mediterranean descent.[28] No matter how stylized, that figure is full of life, just like a human being who works, thinks, feels...[29]
Lipovac was twice part of the team, led by architect Branko Silađin, that conceived and designed national pavilions for theWorld Exhibition. He made paintings that flanked the entrance of thepavilion forExpo '98 inLisbon,[36] and designed the exterior of the pavilion forExpo 2000 inHanover, in his trademark minimalist style.[37] Both pavilions are considered to be among the best in their respective Expos, and the pavilion for Hanover Expo was included in the 2010 exhibitionArchitecture as Landscape: A Morphology of Contemporary Croatian Architecture atLondon Festival of Architecture.[38][39]
Exceptionally prolific and equally skillful in various techniques and using wide range of materials, high-polished metal, polychromous wood, enamel, terracotta or polyester to create his sculptures, reliefs and mobiles, his work encompasses many different art forms (drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking, design, illustration as well as set and costume design). As a result, he had almost 100 solo and over 200 group, juried, problem, conceptual, and important invitationalexhibitions in Croatia as well as abroad during his life.[40][41] He gained a great deal of deserved popularity with the wider public and earned an equally high esteem and recognition with the professional critics and received over twenty awards and honors for his sculptures, paintings, graphics, illustrations andpublic monuments. In May 2006, “Slobodna Dalmacija” awarded him with the lifetime achievement award.
Since the mid-eighties Lipovac has made several highly successful excursions into performing arts and won prestigious Marul award in 1991 for set design.[44] His works in theatre include set, costume and puppet designs:
Homer, L. Paljetak, The Travels of Ulysses, 1984–85, Puppet theater Pionir, Split - puppet and set design[45]
Plava murva, beach Girna Pošta on islandHvar (1990) - sculpture made by Ivo Milatić and Milivoj Čubre as an homage to Lipovac. It is made out of the blue painted mulberry driftwood found on the beach, and ritually repainted every year ever since.[53]
Tako lijepa (2004) - song from the album "Male Stvari" by hip-hop groupElemental.[54]
Tipkovnice u Zrak (2004) - song by rap group Dječaci (hr).[55]
Tour de Split (2012) - series of art interventions by Ivan Plazibat marking the spots of Lipovac's lost, destroyed and unrealized public art projects in Split.[60]
Nove boje Splita (2014) -art historian Tanja Štignjedec Sulić, expanding on Lipovac's 1970s work in the public art field, proposed community-basedurban regeneration project using colorful interventions inspired by artists characteristic palette.
An Archive of Stones, to be periodically activated, speculated upon, damaged and finally gilded with fiction (2015) - project by writer andcurator Chris Sharp exploring the use of stones in contemporary art. Among the works appearing in the archive is Lipovac'senvironmental artworkPearls on the rock of St. Andrew, located inRabac.[62][63]
Venem bez..., Split (2017) -graffiti made by unknown author in protest against the removal of the Blue Tree, iron sculpture erected in memory of Vasko Lipovac.[64][65]
Cyclists (2018) - animated short by Veljko Popović, awarded atAnnecy andHiroshima, was designed to pay homage to Lipovac.[66]
^Pavičić Prijatelj, Ivana (2013).Akademski slikar i skulptor Vasko Lipovac vraća se doma (in Croatian). Kotor: Pomorski muzej Crne Gore, Kotor. p. 4.
^Matanić-Živanović, Ksenija (2013)."Lipovac, Vasko (Vasilije)". In Slaven Ravlić (ed.).Hrvatska enciklopedija (in Croatian). Zagreb: Miroslav Krleža Institute of Lexicography.
^Pavičić Prijatelj, Ivana (June 14, 2011).The Erotic Homo Adriaticus: 38 Years of Sex in Vasko Lipovac's Work (Speech). Days of Open Atelier. Atelier Vasko Lipovac, Split.
^Martinović, Jovan (July 2013)."Hommage Vasku Lipovcu"(PDF).Jedra Boke (in Croatian):4–5. Retrieved3 July 2014.
^Martinović, Jovan (July 2013)."Hommage Vasku Lipovcu"(PDF).Jedra Boke (in Croatian):4–5. Retrieved3 July 2014.
^Galjer, Jasna; Medić, Ana, eds. (2019).Refleksije Bauhausa: Akademija primijenjenih umjetnosti u Zagrebu, 1949-1955 = Reflections of Bauhaus: the Academy of Applied Arts in Zagreb, 1949-1955. Zagreb: Galerija Klovićevi dvori.ISBN978-953-271-123-3.OCLC1178912922.
^Jelinčić, Frane (January 27, 1973). "S plohe u prostor".Studio – ilustrirana revija za televiziju, radio, film i kazalište (in Croatian). Zagreb:Vjesnik.
^Dabović Pejović, Mirjana, ed. (2016).Vasko Lipovac: očaravajuća nedjeljivost radoznalosti: Crnogorska galerija umjetnosti Miodrag Dado Đurić, Cetinje, septembar-oktobar = Vasko Lipovac: the enchanting indivisibility of curiosity. Cetinje: National Museum of Montenegro. p. 21.ISBN978-86-85567-60-5.OCLC1220878347.
^Zlatar, Pero (March 20, 1976). "Čudesne ptice iz ekrana".Studio – ilustrirana revija za televiziju, radio, film i kazalište (in Croatian). Zagreb:Vjesnik.
^Maroevic, Tonko (2014). "Vasko Lipovac – A Bridge Between Cultures".Montenegrin Academy of Sciences and Arts, Glasnik of the Department of Social Sciences.22: 87.
^Pavičić Prijatelj, Ivana (June 14, 2011).The Erotic Homo Adriaticus: 38 Years of Sex in Vasko Lipovac's Work (Speech). Days of Open Atelier. Atelier Vasko Lipovac, Split.
^Rošin, Jerko (March 3, 1974). "Oblik u prostoru, a ne riječ na tabli".Nedjeljna Dalmacija (in Croatian). Split:Slobodna Dalmacija d.d. p. 12.
^Cambi, Nenad (2007). "Vasku Lipovcu u počast, godinu dana poslije smrti".Mogućnosti: časopis za književnost, umjetnost i kulturne probleme.4–6:208–209.
^Kiš, Dragutin (1998). "Od Vasca da Game do Vaska Lipovca".Čovjek i prostor.530–531:44–45.ISSN0011-0728.
^Nadilo, Branko (2000). "Hrvatski paviljon na svjetskoj izložbi u Hannoveru".Građevinar.52:345–347.ISSN0350-2465.
^Modrčin, Leo (2010).Architecture as landscape: A morphology of contemporary architecture in Croatia. Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia.
^Belamarić, Joško; Gelemanović, Mirko (2007).Graphic Games. Split: Muzej grada Splita. p. 17. Archived fromthe original on 2022-05-29. Retrieved2014-06-27.
^Mohorovičić, Andro, ed. (1988).Treći trijenale hrvatskoga kiparstva (in Croatian). Zagreb: Gliptoteka Jugoslavenske akademije znanosti i umjetnosti. Archived fromthe original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved2014-07-29.
