The colors of the Mediterranean Painting

Academic painter, restorer of paintings and statues. Branko Korez studied painting at the Academy of Visual Arts (Akademija za likovno umetnost) in Ljubljana. The artistic creativity of Slovene painter Branko Korez from Maribor is strongly rooted in his pre-academy days when his desire for spontaneous emotional statement through gesticulative expression took precedence over the need for adherence to the formal rules of artistic expression. It is interesting that the desire to once again revitalize the spontaneous is becoming increasingly visible in his work, from the possible clichés of liberated self-expression to a kind of return to his own pre-academy, primal style. Despite his widely varying work, which sometimes gives the impression of having been created by different artists, we can nonetheless discern certain consistent reference points which define the artist's personal, parallel-abstract and figurative language as a reflection of his ambivalent creative personality. Among the most often observed such points is without doubt his constant dealing with opposites, both on the visual and the content level, while at the same time striving for their reconciliation. The artist therefore allows the coexistence and simultaneous effect of contradictions, even at the expense of homogenous stylistic expressiveness. We thus find contrasted: the line (contour or drawing) with molded plastic (tone or colored) surface, rich colorism with mono- or bi-chromatism, gaudy colors with non-variegated, spontaneous gesticulation with geometric, linear precision, curved lines, angular forms with smooth lines (for example an angle against a semi-circle), straight lines with diagonal, dynamic with static composition (action versus net), symmetry with asymmetry, compositional construction with deconstruction, all of which characterize the transition into an area of subject expression. Here, the fundamental dilemmas are, above all: the search for balance between order and chaos; the rift between sense and despair; where to draw the line between emotional and rational creativity; to what extent the conscience has a right to dominate the subconscious; when to continue and when to terminate active participation; and finally, the still-relevant problem of the opposition of the abstract to the mimetic or the figurative. This is because Korez assigns the same meaning to a triangle as he does to the human figure or other mimetic forms.