Ljubljana School of Graphic Arts

also: Ljubljana Graphic School · Ljubljanska grafična šola

school movement 1955-1970 Ljubljana Slovenia

The Ljubljana School of Graphic Arts gathered Slovenian printmakers around the Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts, founded in 1955, and the Academy of Fine Arts in Ljubljana. Growing out of wartime partisan graphic work, it broke deliberately with social realism and aligned Slovenian printmaking with Western European modernism. Its artists treated the print as an autonomous art form rather than a reproductive craft, and pursued technical mastery of traditional intaglio processes such as etching and aquatint. The school's most active period ran from 1955 to 1970, and its success made Ljubljana one of the leading international centers of graphic art, with a body of at least ten thousand works. Today it is considered one of the most successful art currents in Slovenia's history.

The Tribuna of the Uffizi (Zoffany)
The Tribuna of the Uffizi (Zoffany)Public domain (credit: Johann Zoffany) · source

Defining characteristics

  • Technically exacting intaglio printing: etching and aquatint pushed to virtuosity
  • The graphic sheet as a finished, autonomous artwork rather than reproduction or illustration
  • Modernist structure and abstraction in place of social realist narrative
  • Tonal depth and densely worked plate surfaces, with line and texture carrying the image

Key figures

  • Božidar Jakac (1899-1989) — Printmaker and teacher who helped found the Ljubljana Academy and initiated the 1955 international graphic arts biennial
  • France Mihelič (1907-1998) — Painter-printmaker known for surrealist figurative paintings and prints
  • Bogdan Borčić (1926-2014) — Prolific painter-printmaker and educator, among the school's most versatile artists
  • Adriana Maraž (1931-2015) — Graphic artist who won the Grand Prix of the Norwegian International Print Biennale
  • Tinca Stegovec (1927-2019) — Printmaker and painter of the internationally known Ljubljana Graphic School

Example works

  • Portrait of France Prešeren — Božidar Jakac (1940)
  • Following the Traces of the 4th and 5th Offensive (Po sledovih 4. in 5. ofenzive) — Božidar Jakac (by 1947)
  • Kolona v snegu (Column in the Snow) — France Mihelič (by 1949)

Sources

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