| Milica
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Others about Milica
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Braco
Bravacic
The
children of artists have always had a very unique opportunity to create
and overlap two reciprocal images – the one of their real
life experience with its creative reflection in the art work of their parents. When I think of
these two images, I refer to a whole kaleidoscope of actual situations versus those inspiring
moments which, as they appear on canvas, can uncover the essence of an artist’s
individuality.
I compare my father’s life with his artistic opus, and I come to
an equation: his personality has been fully affirmed through a skillful
exploration of the various creative disciplines with which he has always
been so passionately involved.
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My father’s painting hasn’t
been developed through a thorough consideration of the final results. Neither
has it ever reflected the anxiety imbued by the elusive nature of artistic
inspiration. On the contrary, he has committed himself to pictorial research,
in between other preoccupations, such as yacht design, architecture and
the composition of music. But it was always the visual he has eagerly returned
to, with the sparkle of an authentic visionary, with the eye of a true
professional, and, last but certainly not least, the heart of a child.
It is only lately that painting has prevailed over his other
activities, resulting in a more intrinsic and thus more enjoyable creative flow.
An
artist’s mind wanders through rich visual imagery and uses each and every
possibility to analyze a code of specific pictorial situations. In addition
to this process my father has always regarded his ideas as resources of Beauty
itself.
The temperas displayed in this
exhibition have been created mainly over the past five years. They were often
painted quickly, aiming for an instant reproduction of the interior images,
created with the utmost fidelity into the outside, “objective” world…if one isn’t
alert the image will pass by, even disappear, dispersing with no trace into
the nothingness from which it originated.
A
true artist can feel the modalities of his talent. In order to explore them
more completely he is keen to experiment and vary ideas and their technical
resolutions. If he takes no risks he can’t reach deeper, metaphysical spaces, in which the intellectualizing coquetry with himself
usually doesn’t bring the fruits he has been aiming to achieve.
As my father’s
artistic career developed in a radial, interdisciplinary way, his creativity
has been distributed into several fields, simultaneously perpetuating each
other. The outcome is an obvious summary of varied and layered artistic experiences.
This has ultimately helped him to orient himself more surely toward a clearly
defined visual concept, with highly structured technical requirements and broadly
stylized surfaces of dynamic color patterns in his painting.
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Great practicality is reflected in the economically treated spatial planes and skillfully
applied perceptual tricks, and his inclination towards experimentation is evident even from his
earliest, childhood tempera paintings.
As a boy, Bravacic was constantly attracted to the
beautiful scenery of Dubrovnik, his native town, as he admired it from his window. In itself, this
image is the ideal cradle from which to raise the creative mind. With the broken lines of the city
walls and simplified tonal scales, the town can easily be seen as an abstract skeleton of countless
variations, or a constructivist, decorative arabesque.
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My father plays with contradicting art forms and styles,
primarily investigating visual concepts as perceptive formulae or anecdotes. In an attempt towards
a more purely structured definition, he often uses the stylization typical in graphic design.
Composition becomes totally balanced, with outlines as functional guidelines; colors blister with
contrasts, even when the planes are multiplied and forms compete in their flatness. This strong
decorative effect attracts attention and wakens awareness to the similarly attractive pictures of
real life. Aren’t there compositions of shapes, forms and colors all around, waiting to be
recognized for their uniqueness? The ultimate experience of reality, though, is in our
hands. Thus the cultivation of perception becomes a highly valued principle. As a student
of architecture my father has become increasingly aware of the impact of visual culture as a
powerful means of expressing the complex cognitive apparatus. Guidelines given by the Bauhaus and
Post-Modern have oriented him towards the innovative and progressive movements of art. This frame
has appealed greatly to his appreciation of the intellectually curious and open-minded individual,
who is looking for a free form that favors the most experimental and original ideas in art.
Driven by the creative process, modern artists have gained liberties while deeply exploring
the real and surreal. By doing so they have changed and cultivated the spiritual orientation and
affected the awareness of their audience. In this light my father, Braco Bravacic, has
always been an uncompromising warrior for a happier and more complete world, in which people
appreciate, and thus better protect, the beauty of their environment. In his attempt to enrich us
he encompasses various modern trends and traditions, sharing the same aesthetic values as the
famous architects, artisans and artists of the golden period of Dubrovnik history…
In the end, isn’t the typically Renaissance embrace of the Functional and Beautiful the only
slavery that sets us free? Milica Bravacic, visual artist,
Aug. 2002
From the catalogue of the exhibition of Braco's work in 2006. |
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