Engineer Painting

It could be said that each painting has a story behind it long enough to fill the pages of a whole novel. For some artworks, however, this is more accurate than for others. In Zeljko Vitorovic’s paintings, similar to Edward Hopper’s, the viewer is presented with a frozen representation of reality. There is a scene in front of him which is not the most interesting, tragic or dramatic one, but rather one before which many things have already happened and after which many things are about to happen (mostly bad things). Zeljko Vitorovic’s oils represent the mirror of the 21 century. We get the impression of commercials for the products for which we are not quite sure what they appear to be, trailers for dark movies of the post-communist ambient, pursuit for others and one’s own self, and the place of man in this world. Most of the works are painted in hyper realistic style or rather photo realistic style (the figures are stiff, frozen between two movements), while others are more expressive in style, with harsh gestures which reveal anger and cry for a different and better life, as an alternative to the sterile and dreary reality. Mr. Vitorovic depicts absent minded intellectuals, lost in the chaos of the working class life, eating a poor meal and stale bread. He represents people who are entertainers in the moments when a false and paid show is over and when they are all alone by themselves, looking at their miserable lives, emphasized by the empty glasses of beer and empty plates. Some of the paintings are deconstructions of the noir esthetics – moments like gazing through Venetian blinds or a man and a woman both facing the “movie camera”, while not seeing each other’s eyes since their contact would reveal too much. The protagonists of his paintings are looking at the shiny surfaces of the rustic socialist decorations. Unfortunately, there are no signs of their reflections there. Very often protagonists are looking or even pointing at something but the object of this gaze is never shown and most probably doesn’t even exist. Instead, it reveals their striving to find meaning in the world. Zeljko Vitorovic’s drawings are counterpoint to his paintings. Anti-utopian vision of the society which is present in his paintings is contrasted with the mystical and distant Nature in his drawings. Nature is eternal, unlike all past, present and future social tendencies and personal ups and downs.