We invite you to join us on Friday, April 14th at 6 pm for the opening of the new exhibition in Caserma gallery (Sečovlje Salina Nature Park). This time, we will be exhibiting the works of the academic painter and Prešeren Prize winner Milan Rijavec (1922-2018). The exhibition "Beauty", by the well-known colourist and master of watercolour, focuses largely on natural landscape motifs. The selection of paintings was prepared by the painter's granddaughter Nataša Rijavec. It will be accompanied by Lina Šoper Rijavec, and the artist's grandson Aljoša Rijavec will accompany the opening on the piano.
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
The exhibition exclusively features watercolours from different time periods. They are united by their beauty, fleeting and delicate. Both natural and artificial. Beauty as something universal, universal, without which there is no life, just as there would be no life without trees. The motivation is twofold. Trees are exhibited as a symbol of life, wisdom, prosperity and growth. They are complemented by several paintings of vessels. The ships themselves have always been considered a symbol of peace, hope, strength, life and death. The watercolour technique, seemingly light and fleeting, leaves deep traces in us and awakens the strongest emotions, just like the encounter with the mighty nature.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Milan Rijavec was born on June 5, 1922 in Bruna village near Mokronog. He spent his first years in Krmelj. He attended primary school in Šentjanž in Dolenjska. In 1933 he entered the lower secondary school in Ljubljana. In 1937 he enrolled at the teacher training college. At this time he began to paint watercolours. He got his first example from his father, who was also an amateur painter. At the beginning of the war, he was in the fifth year of the teacher training school.
Rijavič's interwar oeuvre was destroyed. After the liberation, he finished the fifth year of his teacher training and enrolled at the newly founded Academy of Fine Arts. He studied under professors Francet Mihelič, Slavko Pengov and Gabrijel Stupica. He graduated in 1949 and in the autumn of that year took up a job as an art teacher in Trbovlje.
In 1950, he enrolled in a painting specialisation course, which he did not complete due to illness. He was one of the founders of the Izlake-Zagorje painting colony and, in 1963, of the association of Zasavje artists RELIK. Both the colony and the association of artists still exist today.
After his retirement, he was able to devote all his time to painting. In 1971 he moved to Ljubljana, where he lived until his death. He was awarded several prizes for his work.
After constant short visits to Istria, he began to visit it every year for longer periods in the 1980s. During these visits he painted extensively.
He died in Ljubljana in September 2018.
