A small bronze statue of a dragon by artist Janez Boljka in the City Town Hall, Ljubljana.
The dragon is the symbol of the Slovenian capital. Ljubljana’s dragon on Dragon Bridge is comfortably the city’s most recognizable resident. Not only does he perch, with teeth bared and wings spread, on all four corners of the aforementioned arch, but his image also appears on the town’s coat of arms, flag, river walls, manhole covers, and even on the crest of the local soccer team. This sculpture is just a baby.
"Janez Boljka, Slovenian sculptor , painter and printmaker , * 21st June 1931 , Subotica , † 20th August 2013 , Ljubljana .
Boljka in 1956 graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design , where he also completed postgraduate specialist study graphics at Riku Debenjak (1961) and sculpture at the Karl Putrih (1959). He improved in Europe and traveling around the world. The artist remained in his city, Ljubljana, where he worked since his graduation and continue until the end of life. Ljubljana has left a number of public works. Janez Boljka was the nephew of Slovenian painter Miha Maleš and father of Slovenian painter Miha Boljka .
Boljka became known to wider cultural circles with his iron sculpture cycle, welding pieces of scrap iron and old weapons in a new form, which has received numerous imitators. This section of his work is recorded on film. He was to spearhead modeling sculptures of aluminum and parallel to the series of figures columnar Ribnicanov - hawkers , which was designed from different materials. Many of himself poured in bronze in the studio in the Rosental valley and in various foundries. He has worked in clay molds, models from Styrofoam or from the sculptural wax . He continued to create different motif series, which are several decades monitor his work and not succumbing to fashion stylistic currents.
Larger series, mainly in small plastic , which is intensively engaged in the seventies, the seated figure of individuals, couples, sometimes submerged in the large armchairs and with a strong erotic attributes. Favorites his acts , particularly women torsion . He was with the figures at which the base seared their shaded relief image. He designed a variety of standing figures, especially the series of painters. These are often characterized by an array of (mostly R. Jakopic and G. Stupica ). Similar figures are saxophonists , diverse writer Ivan Cankar with characteristic mustache and chrysanthemum . Frequently they Cankarjeva busts in different sizes and with different attributes. Later he devoted himself to various animal imagery: nosorogom, horses, monkeys, bulls, jaguar, less dogs, birds, particularly owl. They are mostly animal figures separate, sometimes are made in pairs, rarely in larger groups (eg. The monkeys). Frequently the human figures connected with animal heads. One of its major and numerous bronze figures in the public space is buffalo at the entrance to the Ljubljana Zoo . The sculptor is also a co-author of the image of national symbols of Slovenian euro coins . His bronze Pieta is the Ljubljana archdiocese October 2000 donated to Pope John Paul II on pilgrimage to Rome.
The first public bronze composition of those already in 1959 erected in the center of Ribnica . Partisan family standing on the bridge that leads to the castle. Ljubljana, capital of Slovenia , adorn many of his public monuments: the oldest and largest is the great monument of the National Liberation War on Zale (1965, architect Fedja Košir ), later a cylindrical monument Dobrovoljc World War 1 on Dvorni market (architect Nikolai Bežek , relocation and Matthew Vesna Vozlic). In the center are Jakopic bust before Jakopicevo gallery , reliefs Alojz Gradnik in Županciceva Street, Joseph Petkovšek the same named embankment or abstract composition from Museum of Modern Art. The more decorative sculptures from Ribnican with crown against former building smelt of supernatural large atomic Venus in the courtyard of the palace of the same. Compact dragon adorned with a fountain (drinking fountain) in Trubarjevi street, the fish are on the wall fountain in Nazorjeva street, with a relief plan is decorated monument Latterman Promenade in Tivoli (alienated), bull or buffalo in front of the Ljubljana Z Zoo , etc. At the Faculty of Arts at the wall of the corridor his portrait reliefs Vojeslava MOLET , Izidor Cankar and France Stele . For Goriška Brda in 1961 he created a bilateral relief monument national liberation struggle , which is located under the viewing tower in Gonjace and, together with the tower and the location of one of exceptional monuments, without pathetic figures and symbols.
As a graphic artist he Boljka first established with specific graphics Ljubljana graphic school with abstract motifs in brown tones for the copyright recognizable serigraphs newly constructed Iron cities, human figures, atomic Venus and especially the images of different animals. Pogoso motifs or details like his sculpture and drawings. In the mature period, with new technical possibilities, he returned to painting and developed his themes with new, distinctive color accents."
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