Staying at Home with Zbirka UGM / Tanja Špenko - Entanglement − Plane
Staying at Home with Zbirka UGM / Tanja Špenko - Entanglement − Plane
Tanja Špenko (b. 1956) graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Ljubljana in 1979. This was a time stuck between the entrenched abstraction and conceptualism of the 1970s and the emerging new image of the 1980s. At the time, Tanja Špenko was passionately interested in the latest discoveries in physics and mathematics and studied them eagerly. She was also interested in geometry, especially in the exploration of space. Her painting objects (as she referred to them herself) are the result of the free transfer of these insights into the pictorial field. The painting objects by Tanja Špenko employ a rational design scheme based on a precise sketch, while the painter's treatment of the object with a handmade tactile surface suggests a unique, personal touch. This personal expression is based on striking contrasts in colour juxtaposed with white, on painting with archetypal geometric figures and on alternating full and empty planes. The objects hang freely in the space and rotate around their axes. If these painting objects seem to approach the so-called New Image by virtue of their playful, colourful, and odd character, they nevertheless emerge from a very different world, from one inspired by objective science.
