128 pages Hardcover; in English and Dutch
2007-08

Publisher: d'jonge Hond Publishers and Galerie Utrecht
Design: Gijs Dragt and Eric Morren
Writing : Edward Lucie- Smith

For more information please contact Galerie Utrecht

Description

' Fascinatie, afgrijzen, fragiliteit en chaos. Veel emoties worden opgeroepen bij deze eerste kennismaking met het werk van schilderes Maya Kulenovic (Sarajevo 1975). Met de imaginaire portretten nodigt Kulenovic de kijker uit emotioneel aan het werk deel te nemen.'

Nederlands- en Engelstalige, hardback,

28 x 28 cm 128 pagina’s, circa, 70 illustraties

nur 646

isbn 978-90-89100-45-0

prijs € 39,95

EXCERPTS

From the writing by Edward Lucie-Smith

'The word ‘realism’ is often very loosely used when it is applied to art, and especially when it is used in relation to painting. In the minds of many spectators, it implies something that is in some way related to photography, which has become the contemporary standard of realistic representation. No-one could describe Maya Kulenovic’s paintings as ‘photographic’, but their place in the realist tradition is nevertheless secure. Her work is realist in the way that Rembrandt and Goya are realist. They attempt to explore the essence of human existence, and often come up with uncomfortable truths. These truths are conveyed through paintings that fall into very specific categories, related to the old hierarchy of genres that was discarded by the pioneering Modernists. In Kulenovic’s work we find still life paintings, portraits [of a sort], landscapes and architectural compositions.'

......

'When one looks at these, one realizes that they are in fact the key to Kulenovic’s work considered as a whole. The still lifes, the architectural compositions and the landscapes are also, in their essence, attempts to identify and present a particular state of being. This quality is the thing that makes her work so haunting, and so unlike the work of any other artist of her own generation that I can immediately think of.'

From Introduction by Eric Morren

...

'Artists often reflect reality through the prism of their own experience and interests; some of them create utopias, some dystopias, while others combine the two. Kulenovic's work ranges her in the second category. Her paintings are representations of a psychological heaven and hell at the same time. Even though some of the themes are uncomfortable, there is a hope and beauty in them that is liberating. Her paintings are not desperate at all. Admittedly, there is a sense of mortality in them, as well as fear, but these two are not the conclusion, but a beginning of something unknown. They are questions rather than answers – but questions which are imposing themselves on the observer, and not giving him the option of ignoring them. Like staring into a dark abyss, without knowing what is beyond the shadow.'

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all images: copyright Maya Kulenovic 2003-09