Staying at Home with Zbirka UGM / Miha Maleš - Morning in Tivoli
Staying at Home with Zbirka UGM / Miha Maleš - Morning in Tivoli
Miha Maleš (1903–1987), a cosmopolitan who expanded his knowledge of painting and printing by studying all over Europe, helped shape the landscape of Slovenian art and its cultural milieu for over five decades – not only as an artist, but also as a writer and a publisher of bibliophile book editions, particularly of the Umetnost (Art) magazine, the only pre-war fine arts magazine in Slovenia. Maleš discovered his art credo in the colourful, linear works by the masters of the Paris School, namely Matisse. The subjects he approached had their origins in the ethnological heritage of Slovenia. The power of Maleš’s art lies in the harmonious unison of line and colour. The splendid, colourful character of his prints heralded the emergence proper of the colour print in Slovenia. The Morning in Tivoli sheet presents a moment of rhythmic decorative beauty, when the sunlight optically separates the thick greenery of the trees in Ljubljana’s Tivoli park, a scene the artist witnessed on his way to the studio. Maleš’s art combines a light decorative touch and virtuoso arabesque–like drawing with a soft, lyrical atmosphere.
