CROATIAN VISUAL ART - DŽAMONJA

Dušan Džamonja, Metal Sculpture XX, 1961, Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb . The sculptures of Dušan Džamonja created a special and very original universe of shapes with results that exceed the spans and possibilities or conditions of rigid disciplinary requirements. However, during his schooling and in his talented beginnings the sculptor not only sovereignly mastered the well-established techniques but also created a series of powerful and impressive works of firm figurative expression. Born in 1928 in Strumica (FYR of Macedonia) he enrolled in 1945 into the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, as part of its first post-war generation, where during several years he could assimilate best experiences of three teachers - Croatian classic sculptors (Radauš, Kršinić and Augustinčić). He began working in his own atelier in 1953, just at the beginnings of the more liberal creative environment and gradual opening toward more modern achievements. His contribution to innovative procedures was great, even within the framework of monument tasks, which helped his affirmation in the country and abroad (in 1958 and 1959 he applied for creating works for Auschwitz and Dachau). In1957 Džamonja began to modify standard motifs with stylised variations of the theme of Wounded Deer and then continued by gradual abandonment of bronze in favour of concrete, wood, and metal with insertions of glass as central light nucleus. Accented rhythms of systematically threaded elements and especially harsh texture of surfaces gave to his works an aura of mythic, archaic and totemic world. By using welded nails nailed into wooden axis, he achieved even more dynamic and dramatic effects. Metal Sculpture XX is an especially relevant result of the mentioned procedure. Upon burning a wooden centre, there opened a powerful inner space of sculpture to which we get an insight through cracks and perforations in the cylinder shaped surface areas resulting in challenging parallelisms of straight threaded prickles on the inner side and by pewter connected nail heads on the outer side. In a way here a confrontation of organically playful outer side and geometrically regulated flow of the „menacing“ interior take place, in any case, an unusually complex outcome of otherwise simply shaped completeness. Tonko Maroević