Original scientific paper
"The Second Sculpture" in the Opus of Slavomir Drinković
Vinko Srhoj
; Odjel za povijest umjetnosti Sveučilišta u Zadru
Abstract
With his first one-man exhibitions in 1980, Slavomir Drinković, a Zagreb-Hvar sculptor immediately claimed public interest. The critics placed him among outstanding personalities of "The Second Sculpture" trend, among structuralist sculptors who mainly emphasize material and structure, the elementary features of a sculptor's procedure, and the original physical aspects of the material. The artists of "The Second Sculpture" became an unavoidable fact in the renovation of Croatian sculpture in the eighties. Comparing Drinković with other representatives of the trend, the author analyzes the kinships in procedure, use of material and conceptual closeness (i.e., with Sokić, Bijelić, Rašić...). At the same time he marks essential differences which separate Drinković form similar artists of the same generation, and their conceptual orientation.
Drinković's specific feature, which makes him different from Rašić, Bijelić, and Sokić lies in his sense for "chunkiness" of the material, for its natural structure, and not so much for conceptualization and the reshaping of the material typical of the three artists just mentioned. Also, Drinković has an express interest in the rustic, in the expressive potential of the surface, for relationship between the smooth and the coarse, full and empty, inner and outer. In that his sculptural expression is more classical and comparable to those sculptors who have not lost interest in modeling, and the joy of conquering physical forces holding the material, be it wood, iron, or clay, together. "This is the interest in connections with the mass as it changes under the fingers of the artist," and for the role reacquired "by volume, mass, space, tectonics, shape, and tactile values" (M. Susovski). This was noted in connection with Driknović's first exhibits, and it has remained a constant feature of his art. Drinković's participation in breaking the resistance of the material is not overemphasized; it is reduced to puncturing and scratching, drilling and hollowing, so that the intervention may result in a "disturbance," that stone may break along its "natural line," wood split under the pressure of a metal wedge, and bricks cave in under its own weight.
Furthermore, the author compares Drinković with the primordial elementary aspects of Brancusi's work, with some arte povera solutions, and especially with the work of the German sculptor Ulrich Rückriem. Drinković, simply, loves the materials (wood, stone, granite, steel) in their original form and rarely does he try to change and limit them in order to stress their "unnatural" aspects, or to satisfy a story. Some interventions in stone or steel may appear to be too aggressive bringing about breaks and cracks, but one should note that it is only a question of letting the materials play out their natural forces, and not of changing characteristics or uses of a material in order to illustrate some artistic idea. One may sooner say that characteristics of certain materials define the features of sculptures which come into being as if a posteriori, the material having been decided upon.
Breaks, cracks, hollows are those moments which have always interested Drinković, as he sees in them a beginning of a new dynamic situation, of a new order of things, of new circumstances of disconnecting and reconnecting. This is all a result of a man's action, his need to leave his imprint on the material, to change it, to guide it toward a symbolic use, and, in the end, to make it one's own and a part of a human space.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
166741
URI
Publication date:
15.12.2003.
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