C E K U T A - About the Artist

C E K U T A - slikar - painter - magister umetnosti - magister of art

White Gallery Cekuta - Studio, Slovenija

RENATE POLZER

I met Jure Cekuta in l992 when I was preparing one of group exhibitions in Leibnitz. At that time the background of his painting was dominated by women's and animal motifs. The figural, but not naturalistic effect prevailed on the entire painting surface and reflected a characteristic, learned graphic technique of the painter. However, the human body did not mean only a painting object to Cekuta, but also a carrier of a painter's confession. In his "life art" cycle he painted women's bodies, which he presented with masterly photographs in the background. Jure's kindness and openness encouraged me to invite him to IMBS (=Internationales Maler- und Bildhauersymposion), i.e. International Symposium of Painters and Sculptors coming together every year for two-week workshops and regular group exhibitions. For several years I have been organizing all the activities for this symposium in Austria. In Jure, as a man and as a painter of expressive figural images, I found an interesting complementarity to almost exclusively abstractly creating artists of this symposium. He quickly joined the group; yet his work did not lose its artistic individuality in any way. I have still ever a live image of him as a real "prince of art" in the ground floor of Gleinstätten mansion where he "was a king" in the realm of his colour, papers, canvases and technical tools. Never has he refused a collegial assistance, therefore our discussions frequently ended with noisy artists' debates. Upon my remark that he has his "workshop" organized like Andy Warhol, he then reacted with an ironically sneering, but amiable smile (in his "workshop" Andy Warhol's was working in screen print technique with a group of assistants). In spite of traditional attitude established towards everything made by art, he had become unbelievably technically-minded in everything going in line with art. In contrast as to other artists, each one being caught in the style and line of his own, Jure Cekuta is open to new achievements. Today we come across computers in all levels of our life. This is, of course, known to Cekuta not only because of his numerous travels to the United States and his long stays in that country. Today we cannot work without up-to-date communications and marketing approaches. Jure Cekuta has included our IBMS into his documentary films and photographs, into internet and other hi-tech achievements. As a result, he has created a peculiar forum in the level of new media. On his invitation, the IBMS was organized , in l997, in the castle of Podsreda, belonging to Kozjanski park in Slovenia. The works created there have been given the stamp of that environment, far away from the busy world, and similar almost to a real isolation. Kozjanski park has bought one work of art from each artist for its permanent collection. As organizer of the meeting of such a large number of artists, Jure had little occasion to devote himself to creativity. But he solved this problem in the way of his own – i.e. technically. Thus there appeared painted women's figures on photographed groundwork with study of a motion. Then he scanned these shadowed photographs, upgraded them in the studio and presented them as computer graphics CGC (Computer Graphic Cekuta). In his recent painting Cekuta has been reducing the intensity of a human figure. Details have somehow disappeared in favour of a stronger texture and forms have been integrated more intensively into the background of a picture. Human body and details are built into a picture in such a way that they cannot be defined at the first sight. Graphic details are no more visible on larger canvases and pictures are more picturesque and homogenous. In his characteristic on-a-large-scale style he acts businesslike, too. The idea of "art world" links philanthropic goodwill with goal to approach art to a wider circle of people. It was already in the past that he directed his artistic creation to humanitarian purposes. Among others, he organized a charitable action for Maribor Hospital, he is a co-founder of "Humanik" company in Ljubljana, he organized the project "For a humane tomorrow". It is also with "Art World" project that he wants to link his colleagues into an art forum in order to near the art to wider public by means of the new technology. Organizing of workshops and symposiums within the framework of the newly appearing "art village" project will require much time and personal engagement from Jure Cekuta. I wish and know, of course, that he will find it for his personal growth and creativity.

By Renate Polzer, M.A.

RETROSPECTIVE by

Professor Barbara Saromines-Ganne Chair, Arts and Humanities Division

University of Hawaii

Leeward Campus Hawaii, USA

Looking back over the last 25 years it hardly seems possible that I have been following the work of Jure Cekuta for such a long time. But now that there is a retrospective of his work I realize that there have been many changes and exchanges which have allowed me to see and critique his work over such a long period of time. But upon refection it is the 90's that have brought about the biggest

changes and this has all had to do with technology. Let's begin in April of 1994 when Jure Cekuta came to Hawaii to have an exhibition of his work in the Foyer Gallery of the University of Hawaii on the

Leeward Campus. This was a special occasion because it was not only the first time we had had a one man show from a Slovenian artist but he was the very first visitor to come to Hawaii with a Slovenian passport since the nation had only been a country for little over a week at the time when he arrived. The exhibition was a great success and from that time on the college wanted to be able to somehow keep in touch with Slovenia and with the art of Jure Cekuta. This was next made possible by technology and thanks to the efforts of people from both Hawaii and Slovenia we were able to setup two video

conferences. The first one which took place in 1995. Prior to the video conference Jure had sent his latest work to the Leeward Art Department via the Internet. All the professors were able

to see it and afterwards to interview and talk to Mr. Cekuta about the work via video conference. This kind of exchange was new for us as a vehicle of visual communication.

The art professors thoroughly enjoyed the conference even though for us the time difference between Hawaii and Slovenia was significant. We all participated at 8:00 o'clock in the morning whereby in Slovenia it was 8:00 o'clock in the evening, a much more civilized time to confer. From that first video conference the next one that we were able to setup was done during 1996. It was live at the opening of

an exhibition that took place in Llubjiana. This exhibition was a presentation of Mr. Cekuta's work using the Plotter, a large format new kind of printer. During this video conference our art department invited students to attend so that they would be able to take part in this event, talk, ask questions and experience a live simultaneous exchange of ideas. Our only regret was our embarrassment at seeing all the people in attendance of the exhibition in Slovenia dressed elegantly in suits and evening clothes while here in Hawaii we were all wearing jeans and

slippers for our early morning adventure!

But by the end of the second video conference both faculty and students

alike felt that this kind of exchange was profitable and that we had all had a special kind of immediate exchange both visually and conceptually. The college would like to have further exchanges and we have even explored the possibility of a student exchange program which would foster further cultural exchange between Hawaii and Slovenia. In summation may I add that because Mr. Cekuta has remained on the

cutting edge of combining art with technology that we have been able to

benefit from that here in Hawaii. With the aid of new technology we have been able also to keep in contact and to exchange our ideas and thoughts. It is with pleasure that I have the opportunity to write and

verbalize these thoughts and explain them to all the readers of this

retrospective book.

With Aloha, Professor Barbara Saromines-Ganne

Chair, Arts and Humanities Division

University of Hawaii

Leeward Campus