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A Visit to Dušan Kirbiš’s Studio in Ljubljana Studio Visit–––Ljubljana Rachel Sukman Dušan Kirbiš’s studio is located in the outskirts of Ljubljana . On our way , we pass by Tivoli Park , and proceed to the end of the city , where the studio building is . A cherry tree towers at the front , with fruits the color of deep Bordeaux wine . We ascend to the second ֳ oor energetically , where the glass panes seem to touch the blue sky . Great light penetrates the high-ceilinged space so perfect for painting and suitable for tall , high , “ portrait" format works . Paintings lean against the studio walls , but there is no odor of oil paint in the air . The artist uses a large variety of materials , mostly acrylic , photographs , shellac , and beeswax . Along the wall on the left there are shelves laden with tins of paint , pigments , glues , and tools in different sizes and hues . This colorful congestion is not visible in the works themselves , but it reinforces the precision and power of Kirbiš’s color and material choices . When he comes to the large-scale canvases , inlaid with squares of black , gray , and white , his decisions are clearly rational . The canvases resemble carefully crafted chessboards , sketched with delicate , sensitive brush strokes and with metaphoric layers of paint that produce a sense of materiality , repetition , and depth . There is no painting without words . Kirbiš fits a caption to each work ; at times , a mere word or two . “ My art derives from semiotic processes , " he says . Despite the tension elicited by the words , whose entry into the work pushes the visual dimension aside , he nevertheless always returns to the literary image . “ In this process I find myself in the realm of ascetic minimalist art , and the sublime ֳ ickers through the multiple meanings of word , material presence , painting , and mental space . " We read the words and word combinations which have infiltrated the paintings out loud , translating from Latin to English and Hebrew . Silence engulfs the room , as words and phrases such as “ First Light , " “ Twilight , " “ Speaking Subject , " “ Passion , " “ Darkness , " “ Silvery Words , " “ Prima Material , " and others , assume dramatic meaning . Their presence against a quasi-abstract backdrop triggers poetic associations . In the other space of the studio we come across a 1992 painting of a wide black cross wounding the surface , as it were . The color of the ground changes between yellow , black , and orange , and it is dotted with small images of red apples , meticulously Dušan Kirbiš was born in Jesenice , Slovenia , 1953 ; lives and works in Ljubljana . He graduated from the Ljubljana Academy of Fine Arts ( ALU ) . Lived in Berlin for five years , where he studied with renowned artist Georg Baselitz , and then worked in New York for a year . Today he is a professor of art and color theory at the University of Ljubljana . His works are in the collections of Moderna galerija / Museum of Modern Art and Museum of Contemporary Art , Ljubljana , as well as in other important national collections , and several public and private collections in Europe and the USA .
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