Croatian Association of Visual Artists of Applied Art, Zagreb, guest appearance in Zagreb City Museum
Selection and exhibition design: Ljerka Bosek-Kauzlarić
Poster design: Ivan Picelj
The work of Slavka Pribanić invites a lapidary definition: noble simplicity. The opus is, accordingly, complete and unique when it can thus be summarized in two words. But they conceal many virtues: spontaneous efficiency of the hand, developed sensitivity of craftsmanship, consistent grasp of matter, natural formative power, articulateness of ideas, clear reasoning about the teaming of the ceramic formation and its decoration, its form and its colour. Steadily and gradually, persistently and devotedly, Slavka Pribanić has established her rules of the game in order to reach, unpretentiously but decisively, the trade mark of her personality, the identifiability of her approach. In modelling Slavka Pribanić departs from the original, uses substance of the object and founds her interpretation on the meaning and logic of its primordial functionality. The decorative motif is strictly limited to the dimensional terms of the volume or plane. Her fancy develops a pattern which is simple, clear, suggested and elicited by the form of the vessel, a pattern which is developed and sustained in subordination, in a natural symbolic association with the form of the object. It follows the volume, moves it rhythmically, or determines the spread of the plane. The value of the motif, the logic of its adjustment, the sequence of its chain-like flow are balanced. Its product is disciplined, and poised. More often than not the motif seems to contain the note of a magic symbol. The vessel is consecrated by the ornament.
Such thinking and ideas naturally led Slavka Pribanić to a contact with the morphology of archaic, primordial, even folk decoration, openly evaluating and re-evaluating its system.
But even when she extends her repertoire, and opens up the walls of her vessels or rotates the motif with a free swing – it is always with the full assertion of the given surface. This summary retrospective of Slavka Pribanić is distinguished by clear comprehensive contours. Artlessness, simplicity and consistency of her approach determine the full scale of her personality and singularity.
Vanda Ekl, PhD
Biographical data
Born in Surduk. Vojvodina. Her engagement in ceramics dates from 1946. Attended LIKUM's ceramics courses. Additional art training in the country (two years in the studio of Pavle Perić, sculptor) and abroad. Study trips: France, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, Holland, Sweden, USSR, etc. Since 1950 has exhibited at the following exhibitions:
Individual exhibitions
Novo Mesto (Hall of the Milan Jarc Study Library)
Selce (Public Library)
Poreč (Romanesque House)
Poreč (Regional Museum)
Opatija (Juraj Šporer Pavilion)
Collective exhibitions
Dubrovnik (Sponza Palace)
Opatija (Juraj Šporer Pavilion)
Rijeka (Historical and Naval Museum)
Portorož (Tourist Centre Hall)
Poreč (Regional Museum)
Zagreb (Museum of Arts and Crafts, Art Pavilion, Privredna banka, Army Home Exhibition Hall, Gornji Grad Local Community Hall)
Belgrade, Subotica, Aranđelovac – Triennial of Yugoslav Ceramics
Abroad
Faenza
Bologna
Brussels
