Stojan Aralica (b. Škare,

Lika Lika () is a traditional region of Croatia proper, roughly bound by the Velebit mountain from the southwest and the Plješevica mountain from the northeast. On the north-west end Lika is bounded by Ogulin-Plaški basin, and on the south-east by ...

, 24 December 1883 – d.

Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...

, 4 February 1980) was a Serbian

Impressionist Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

painter and academic.

Biography

The life of Stojan Aralica can be followed through his studies in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

(1909–1914), a brief stay in Prague, advanced studies in

École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts The Beaux-Arts de Paris is a French ''grande école'' whose primary mission is to provide high-level arts education and training. This is classical and historical School of Fine Arts in France. The art school, which is part of the Paris Science ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, then period in

Zagreb Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slop ...

and his final move to

in 1941. He remained in Belgrade for the rest of his life, with the exception of his stay in

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

from 1946 to 1948. In the same way, as we can differentiate between the stages of his life, we can distinguish four clearly distinct periods in his painting opus: the Munich, Prague, Paris, Zagreb, and Belgrade periods. During his education in Munich portraits and nudes prevailed thematically, and were in a form close to academism and the late echoes of the Secession. The brief domination of form over color (1922–1925) was replaced by a period of artistic maturing, beginning with his arrival in Paris (1926). Joining the active local artistic mainstream, he turned away from the decorative and towards pursuing a purely visual interest. His formerly emphasized full-volume form was slowly disintegrating into colored surfaces. This significant turning point began with small nudes and still lifes painted in the studio of André Lhote, and the coloristic organization of his paintings was developed on the landscapes around the countryside Malakoff, Casisse and especially St. Tropez. The necessary refinement ended in the next, the Zagreb period (1933–1941) when Aralica rejoined the current trends in his home country. His technique, which was close to that of

fauvist Fauvism /ˈfoʊvɪzm̩/ is the style of ''les Fauves'' (French language, French for "the wild beasts"), a group of early 20th-century modern artists whose works emphasized painterly qualities and strong colour over the Representation (arts), repr ...

s, is particularly prominent in his seaside landscapes from

Dubrovnik Dubrovnik (), historically known as Ragusa (; see notes on naming), is a city on the Adriatic Sea in the region of Dalmatia, in the southeastern semi-exclave of Croatia. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations in the Mediterran ...

Orebić Orebić ( it, Sabbioncello) is a port town and municipality in the Dubrovnik-Neretva county in Croatia. It is located on the Pelješac peninsula on the Dalmatian coast. Orebić is directly across a strait from the town of Korčula, located on t ...

Korčula Korčula (, it, Curzola) is a Croatian island in the Adriatic Sea. It has an area of , is long and on average wide, and lies just off the Dalmatian coast. Its 15,522 inhabitants (2011) make it the second most populous Adriatic island after K ...

. Finally, the Belgrade period, especially between 1951 and 1959, can be considered as his creative zenith. By painting lyrical atmospheres with broad and layered impastos on a series of landscapes from Rovinj, Belgrade and more often Lika, he departed from the confines of intimistic painting, only to develop it to a monumental whole of universal significance. Although Aralica's work was always in touch with current trends of European art, in a narrower sense it still belonged to the same climes as that of domestic coloristic painters, whose art drew its strength and inspiration from their own, native soil. He contributed to the further development of contemporary art in the second half of the twentieth century with a series of significant works painted in the years after World War II.

External links

History of Painting in Serbia
1883 births 1980 deaths People from Otočac People from the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia Serbs of Croatia Burials at Belgrade New Cemetery 20th-century Serbian painters 20th-century Serbian male artists Serbian male painters {{serbia-painter-stub