Pregledni rad
https://doi.org/10.31664/zu.2021.108.04
The Leonid Šejka’s Cabinet of Curiosities
Milena Jokanović
; Filozofski fakultet Univerziteta Beogradu, Beograd, Srbija
Sažetak
A rich opus of artworks, but also the literary writings of the artist Leonid Šejka were created in Belgrade during the 1950s and 1960s. Although he was one of the founders and active members of the Mediala group, this artist’s work is very characteristic and represents a unique phenomenon in the whole Yugoslav area of this period. Using the concept of the cabinet of curiosities (Wunderkammer), a phenomenon characteristic of the early modern age, this paper presents one of the possible interpretations of Šejka's overall creativity and activities. By analysing his artworks and writings, and referencing some of the conclusions of art historians who have interpreted his individual artworks and art series or phenomena specific to his work, this paper shows that Šejka's opus, way of life and understanding of the world should be viewed as a whole, as a constant path to creating some kind of a modern cabinet of curiosities. Šejka's artistic behaviour is comparable to the work of some modern artists of the 20th century, and the poetics that were nurtured in the context of Dadaism and Surrealism. Finally, this approach of Šejka's opened the way for contemporary artists-collectors in the former Yugoslavia, who today openly use the settings of the cabinet of curiosities. The first part of the paper defines the very notion of the cabinet of curiosities as a historical model of collecting, an assemblage of objects representing the microcosm, a picture of its creator’s world, and gives a brief overview of this phenomenon as present in Renaissance and Baroque Europe, but also of its subsequent transformations caused by a change of attitude towards knowledge and the creation of modern museums and archives. However, the revived interest in pre-modern systems of collecting and representing knowledge in the early 20th century encouraged art historians and critics to connect the cabinet of curiosities with some artistic avant-gardes of the 20th century, which is when the work of artists like André Breton, Joseph Cornel land others was intensely interpreted and connected to this notion. Another term. that needed to be defined more closely for further interpretation of Šejka's work is the notion of a garbage heap. Therefore, in the next segment of the text, the garbage heap is interpreted as a phenomenon of the consumer society, but also as a space for wandering for modern cityscape strollers who are ultimately the ones who collect discarded everyday objects from piles of garbage. The found objects are as often as not introduced into the art world by creative individuals to whom, as this paper demonstrates on the basis of the artist's artworks and writings, Šejka also belongs. The paper further reveals several layers of how the models of collecting and arranging the collection, as well as the motives and meanings characteristic of historical cabinets of curiosities can be recognized in the work of this artist. The third part thus analyses an object, or rather a multitude of objects collected from the garbage heap as a significant starting point for Šejka's work, but also for his writing on art and other thoughts about the world he lived in, and that is why this artist can to some extent be compared to a Renaissance collector, someone who creates their image of the world with the help of various objects. This segment emphasizes the artist's need to embody his personal microcosm, both through groups of objects introduced into artworks such as those in the series Mrtva priroda [Still Life], Skladišta [Warehouses] and others, and through literary records of his reflections on the world and the symbolic value of objects in it. Finally, the paper reaches the conclusion that Šejka saw himself as a multiple personality dedicated to collecting, classifying and finally arranging his collection. Another argument for applying the notion of the cabinet of curiosities to the interpretation of Šejka's opus is his attitude towards the Renaissance and the understanding of the world that is characteristic for that period. That is why this paper continues with an analysis of Šejka's return to the principles of Renaissance painting in his artworks such as the Soba [Room] series, of the use of motifs and symbolic elements characteristic of the early modern age, as well as the artist's opinion that the ideal world, closest to human needs, is to be found in the Renaissance and the principles of humanism. Finally, the paper draws the conclusion that Šejka viewed his entire opus as a unity of his search for himself. For this artist, painting was ultimately a “technical means for marking, emphasizing and recording wondrous and significant phenomena in nature”, and we cannot observe it as separate from Šejka's personality that is looking for such wonders in his environment and tried to present them in his painting. Thus Šejka's entire journey, each of his phases and systems, must be seen as a continuous ascent towards the goal (as the artist himself saw the exploration of the material world) of collecting and arranging into categories a series of sometimes very different, mutually juxtaposed objectsin the collection, or rather the artist's expressions in painting, drawing and writing—which represent their creator’s image of the world.
Ključne riječi
Leonid Šejka, cabinet of curiosities, collection, object, garbage heap
Hrčak ID:
270736
URI
Datum izdavanja:
1.7.2021.
Posjeta: 750 *