Excerpt from Simoncic, Damjana. “Painter puts image on view: loving truth more than the glory,…” USA Today June 1996.
After finishing secondary school in Celje and Maribor, Slovenia, he decided to study art and went abroad. First, he went to Linz, Austria, where in 1958 he started his studies at the Art Academy from where he was graduated with honors from 1963. During the years at the Academy he participated in uncovering and conservation of 11th and 12th c. Frescoes in Bad Kreuzen Church by Grein: he also restored many oil paintings of classical masters.
He then went to America. In Cleveland he met France Gorse the well-known Slovenian sculptor, and together with the painter Miro Zupancic founded the Art Club “Lok” later in New York. This art circle was active until 1970 when Gorse returned to Europe. Mr. Vodlan recalls with great joy those days when the three artists put their art works into a van and took them to many exhibitions throughout the USA and Canada. Those were the years when they influenced each other artistically and gained from one another. Many Slovenians from New York loved coming to their studio for social gatherings and artistic intellectual debates. The bohemian period has a considerable impact on their creativity and it strengthened their friendship. The sadness, nostalgia, and longing for family and friends gave their works a special, deep seal of emotional bondage. But the struggle for a safer existence and the wild pace of modern life in the metropolis led Mr. Vodlan away from art for many, many years…
Now, the artist resides in Brodheadsville, PA, where he has his own studio and where he can dedicate every minute to art. His most recent works express strong dynamics in composition and colour. His artistic development from impressionism and expressionism, through cubism, surrealism, and abstract art confirms the truth that the aim of art is the search of the unknown. And during this constant search he has developed a unique personal painting technique similar to “al fresco” wall painting: the colours are applied to the specially ground-treated paper. The results are rich and vivid spectral colour and almost unlimited inner pigmental activity.
Dr. Jozica Jeraj wrote in the brochure given out in the exhibition in New York last October: “Vodlan’s paintings are festive, they awaken peace, and reflect the global, universal, psychic, and emotional dispositions that dwell deep within the painter’s heart. His paintings are untitled: it is up to the viewer to create his own visions to come up with a personal and emotional experience. Mr. Vodlan’s paintings always reveal new visions, originating from the painter’s subconscious, sublime creative ecstasy.”
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Articles on the Artist
- 1. Excerpt from Simoncic, Damjana. “Painter puts image on view: loving truth more than the glory,…” USA Today June 1996.
- 2. Excerpt from Gajsek, Vladimir. “Joze Vodlan Exhibits in the Krka Gallery in Ljubljana.” Slovenec 24 July 1996.
- 3. Excerpt from an interview with the academic painter Joze Vodlan: Stefanic, Bogomir Jr. “I Am Searching For The Light That Gives Inner Happiness.” Druzina 11 Aug. 1996.
- 4. Damjana Simončič: “Artist warmly embraced by his fatherland” Ljubljana, 15. July, 1996.
- 5.Excerpt from Jeraj, Jozica. “1996 Frescoes Retrospection.” Exhibition brochure 1996.