In 1969, a young art student from Zagreb threw a series of frames into the Adriatic. They framed the sea temporarily before floating away (Sea Landscapes of Kvarner and the Southern Adriatic). In many ways, this action foreshadowed Goran Trbuljak’s ongoing obsession with the role of the canvas, charted here in “45 Years of Non-Painting.”
Trbuljak is full of inventive approaches to applying paint to its support as indirectly as possible. A Conceptualist who emerged from Yugoslavia’s New Art Practice group, his deeply personal investigations into the social position of an artist are unwavering in their critique. A4 sheets of paper nailed throughout the gallery bear Dadaist statements such as if this paper hangs in some gallery then it isn’t paper but a painting.
In the first room, small monochromes present minimalist guessing games. For 1#(4)b, 1986, Trbuljak painted the canvas from behind in ochre pigment which seeped through the front to create a pale yellow rectangle. In another, Untitled (sprayed from the side), 1988–92, a canvas covered in plexiglass bears four streaks, which have been sprayed onto the canvas through small holes bored into each side of its wooden frame. The result is a beguiling, windswept black-and-white abstract painting.
The second room is a study of what happens when a committed non-conformist suddenly finds himself “discovered.” By Trbujlak’s own admission, his later works shift from self-ironic to self-sardonic, and something is lost as he grapples with increased demand. In Big Composition IX, 2021, two brushes have been joined together and placed on top of two canvases mounted at a right angle so that both can be painted in one go. Where the earlier works shine with witty but measured dedication, the later works betray a mechanical haste that feels like a surrender of sorts.
