Excerpt from Gajsek, Vladimir. “Joze Vodlan Exhibits in the Krka Gallery in Ljubljana.” Slovenec 24 July 1996.
Joze Vodlan, the American Slovenian successful painter, exhibits his European and American works in the Krka Gallery in Ljubljana. He graduated from the Linz Academy of Fine Arts in 1963, did some important restoration works in Austria and afterwards immigrated to the USA. Working together with the sculptor France Gorse and the academic painter Miro Zupancic, lead to the foundation of the Lok Artistic Circle which was fairly popular in America and enabled them to exhibit collectively. Joze Vodlan dedicated his numerous talents to work as a graphical designer for a number of demanding American companies where he showed a considerable sense for the advertising aesthetics. As a painter he has been active since 1958 when he was twenty years old and already conceived some notable art works. In 1966 he graduated from the New York School of Visual Arts and has since gone through various art stages: from the academic realism to the geometrical abstraction and expressionism.
Dr. Jozica Jeraj wrote about his painting: “Joze Vodlan’s paintings are festive, they awaken peace and reflect the global, universal, psychic, and emotional dispositions that dwell deep inside the painter’s heart. His paintings are untitled: it is up to the viewer to create his own vision to achieve a personal and emotional experience.”
The present exhibition totally confirms Vodlan’s visionary talents expressed by sensibility for the colour and line, a refined sense for the composition and a strong creative force. The viewer is linked to his paintings in a particular Slovenian Way, seized also in the post-impressionistic and expressive manners.
The art historian Damjana Simoncic wrote: “A painting becomes alive when it dematerializes itself before our eyes: now being transparent and without limits it is left totally to the viewer’s imagination and interpretation. This is a moment of truth when deep inside us we feel the same as the artist. It is to seek this truth that we came to the exhibition of Joze Vodlan’s paintings.”
The many-sided artistic truth reveals the unity of the artist’s creative force and his expression, in other words, his personal integrity. From the behavioral artistic sample we can assume that the viewer somehow melts within Vodlan’s paintings in the way of the immanent artistic truth, but together with his personal view he realizes in his own way also the painting itself.
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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.