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Olivera Gavric Pavic
Research of the three-dimensional mosaic forms
WHITE PORTRAITS AND BLACK STARS
My first experiences in mosaic were plastic, like relief’s. I felt mosaic as a
sculptural form, maybe because of the square shape of stones. We, students
from The Academy of Arts in Belgrade used cement mortar in so called direct
method of mosaic execution. This way of working has allowed us great freedom
and immediately visible results of work. So my mosaics in nineties, executed by
direct method, were rough, expressive, with the natural stones of irregular
shapes. There were many opportunities for enjoying in experiment.
At that time I was inspired by poetry of Federico Garcia Lorca, his Poema
del cante jondo and also by works of Romanian sculptor Constantin Brancusi.
These two artists took me to a completely different starting point.
White, oval, with the centrifugal forces of attraction
You well know modern art of Constantin Brancusi. One of his principle of art was:
“The essence of things should be presented reduced, expressive and clear”. And
his life moto was:“ Express Yourself as God, order as a king, work like a slave”.
(foto of K.B. sculpture The-newborn) I could not reach this smooth
rounded form of Brancusi sculpture, but I tried to create something similar,
something that reminds us of the birth. (foto of my mosaic The-newborn ) Trying
to be as much as possible minimalistic and reduced, I carefully choose specific
kind of white stone. Transparent structure of onyx was excellent. I have tried to
show object that grow, the white ellipse with the centrifugal forces. The elements
are moving inward. From this work I derived many more white mosaics, with a
strong third dimension, usually some kind of portrait.
On these mosaics (The White Portrait I and II) you can notice this vertical
form, like some plant in bloom, something that grows. It is expression, kind of
play between close oval form and vertical dispersed form. They could be called
flowering portraits.
Next work, “The Princess X“,still follows the spirit of Constantin Brancusi
and his works as Mademoiselle Pogany , Sleeping Muse etc. My Princess X is
not provocative like Brancusis sculpture because I had in mind real princess. The
figure of my princess is something fantastic, superhuman and a little terrible, like
in Japanese stories. (mosaic Princess of the River )
Black ellipse with centripetal forces of separation
As Brancusi guided me to compress the form, the poetry of Federico
Garcia Lorca inspired my to crunch, to break the form. Even as a student I read
about Flamengo songs. This songs also appear with the name Cante jondo or
„Deep song” and they can be divided into several types: Siguiriya, Solea, Saeta
and La Patenera. All of them describe pain of the soul, sorrow, longing,
loneliness and lamentation over the dead. But I have not looked at it so dark.
Some of my oil paintings have a name as “Solea” or “Solea transforming into the
grasses” and there is same mystic animal with horns. (foto of my oil painting from
1990) In his poem Solea, Lorca said:
“Dressed in black cloaks
thinks that the world is tiny
and the heart is immense.”
These verses illustrate my feeling at that time and my youthful idealism.
Similar atmosphere was present on my mosaics, too. (mosaic Morning
and Evening) What I won’t to say becomes clearer looking at the detail. There is
movement toward the outside, centripetal forces this time, something so different
from the completed unique form of Brancusi’s sculptures.
Then my research in three-dimensional mosaics turned to Christianity. I
created many works with the theme of Christ crucified on the cross. All of them
have visual centripetal forces of separation, reduced colours, mostly black and
grey. A very important thing appeared on these mosaics. The background of
mosaic appeared without tesseras. Instead, somewhere remains relief of cement
mortar. But somewhere there are only armature and surface left. (detail of
mosaic Dead Christ II, 1998 and detail of mosaic Head of Christ III, 1999) I
purposely show only the details because I want to describe the process of
creation that is identical in various subjects.
Finally we come to the mosaic that best represents this mode of work in the form
of black ellipse and visual separation. The mosaic is dedicated to Federico
Garcia Lorca and the title is “You are my Star”. It is a portrait of a woman who
disperses like the stars in the cosmos. I used black irregular stone with a hint of
green and red. It is dedicated to Lorca as the poet of love and extreme sensitivity
burned in the realities of life. Therefore, the figure of a woman-star in the whirl of
expression flies in all directions.
The return to Lorca
After fifteen years of work on mostly indirect method mosaics, with
demanding Christian themes, I wanted to come back to expressive, black mosaic
with smashing form. I brought more light. The direct model for this my new works
were mosaics “You are my Star” and “The-newborn”. Suddenly I found myself in
a freedom and my loved abstract expression. The game begins again.