6. 4. 2020–8. 11. 2019 Staying at Home with Zbirka UGM / Ivan Žabota - Company at Tea

Staying at Home with Zbirka UGM / Ivan Žabota - Company at Tea

Born in Prlekija at the end of the 19th century, the dramatic life story of Ivan Žabota ends in Bratislava, where he established himself as a respected portrait, landscape, and genre painter. His part in Slovenian art was rather episodical and related to the early 20th century, at the time the painting Company at Tea was created. Studies in Vienna, made possible through the patronage of Dr Fran Vidic, endowed Žabota with the foundations of the tonal approach to realistic painting he produced in the studio and that was characteristic of the greater part of his work. He proceeded toward a secessionist accentuation of light-related elements, especially in his portraits and genre work. One such work is certainly Company at Tea. A group of three men and a woman are seated around a table set for tea, absorbed in conversation. The painter has invited us to the bourgeois home of the Vidic family. All his attention here focuses on light-dark colour contrasts. Three men and a brightly lit female figure stand out from the dark background. The painter positioned the figures seated at the table into a standard triangle composition that concludes with a lamp above their heads. The scene conveys an atmosphere that is close to the intimism of Édouard Vuillard.