CROATIAN MODERN PAINTING 2008 - OSKAR HERMAN

Oskar Herman (1886 – 1974) Oskar Herman was already in the 1920’s ranked by critics among scarce artists «consciously standing aside in an isolated row, however at the same time consecrated». He was also named an artist of «slow pace» and «a recluse». In stormy times, Herman had without even once looking back, from the beginning of 20th century, been pacing as a recluse along his individual path, always toward the same goal – to reach spiritual feeling of the world through a full freedom of painting. This recluse painter of sublimated expression and deep humanity was almost constantly in contradiction with the contemporary world. His symbolism was out of times and the style symbolism, and expressionism was not developed in his time but considerably later. Herman’s paintings in their consistency (symbolism and expression) uninterruptedly and without any oscillations perseveringly grew in the direction of a climax, ripening along with a ticking of his biological clock. In his silent world he painted as was had to, as dictated by his vision of art, without taking any notice of art streams created by new generations. From1904 to1910 Herman was one of the famous four representatives of the (Kraljević, Račić, Becić, Herman), Munich Circle. Critics always left him out and wrote favourably about the three other representatives of the Munich Circle. However Herman’s contribution was at least to say, kept secret from the public, although more precisely Herman and Račić were architects of the art norm. They were the basis of Croatian contemporary art from the first half of the twentieth century. After the end of the First World War Herman returned to Munich, where with the exception of short visits to Paris and Berlin he lived until the escalation of Nazism in 1933, when he returned to Zagreb. During his stay in Munich he regularly displayed, with quite a bit of success, his works at one man exhibitions as well as participating at exhibitions of Munich Secession Art. In the war years (1941 – 1945), Herman joined partisan forces and was captured and confined in Calabria. After his release he joined the artists colony of Cozzano, a period marked in his life as a stand still in regard to his work as a painter and the actual come back to the artistic scene is possible to recognise in his opus as «a new creation of the world» (G. Gamulin). A painter’s vision, which has already been marked by out of the times suggestiveness, assuming ever stronger expressiveness, he grew consistently and perseverely. Figurative compositions full to the brim with existential charge, interweaving and dramatically touching human destinies, isolated characters stroll without any anchorage in a vast frivolousness space. A man and his inner world represent the main motives of Herman’s paintings, and a „Hermaniac“vision of a world unfolds with an unbelievable grandeur of colours. Colour in his paintings, as Boris Kelemen explained, transfers into a «fluid, living element penetrating into a very marrow of life», and in a newly created world there exists no chaos, only a deep melancholy, harsh tenderness and tranquillity. Just in tranquillity is the essential solution which in his artist’s vision brings a new dimension of expressionism, not seen until Oskar Herman came onto the art scene. But also when that expressive hermanian vision unfolds in nature, without the presence of man, as seen in the painting Two Trees at the Foot of a Hill from 1973, regardless of suppression, this composure strikes us with the force of spiritual radiation spreading from deep and sonorous harmonies of an effective colouristic game. This small landscape, as interpreted by G. Gamulin, represents a synthetic «conclusion» of Herman’s iconography of a landscape and his deep compassionate, human, expressiveness.