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Maksim Gaspari
by Marjan Marinsek
Maksim Gaspari (1883 -1980) is a unique phenomenon in Slovenian
art. In his artistic creations, he has preserved the rural culture
of past times. During his long life, he remained faithful to
his principle of "From Nation to Nation", which he already established
while studying at the Academy in Vienna at the beginning of
the twentieth century. In his immense opus of paintings, postcards
and literary illustrations, he developed his own style and established
his favourite motifs.
Countless are the numbers of his paintings in mixed techniques,
oil and watercolour, in which he captured the idealised rural
world, which was even then disappearing in front of his very
eyes: the world of the cheerful Slovenian man from winter to
spring and from morning till night. It is these motifs that
he came back to again and again during his long life.
 His paintings were purchased mainly
by intellectuals: doctors, dentists and veterinarians, who were
aware of the value of Gaspari's folklore motifs. Farmers were
not buyers. What would they do with a painting, depicting a
farmer, ploughing his field, or a painting of the Tenth Brother
or some other poor soul? But why do we say then that Gaspari
became one with the Slovenian people? It is in most part due
to the literary illustrations and postcards, which reached out
to all people.
The number of illustrations that Maksim Gaspari produced could
be made possible only by a man of extraodinary imagination and
exceptional drawing talents, a man with a special gift of God,
with a lot of will and hard-working discipline. Gaspari illustrated
at least 57 books, especially children's books, created 33 cover
pages for books and magazines, published his work in at least
41 newspapers and magazines, produced numerous advertising posters,
caricatures, honorary documents and diplomas, signets, pamphlets
and the like. Whoever is not familiar with his primary school
textbooks, which were published from 1912 until the Second World
War, Kette's poetry, Milicinski's Fairy Tales, The Tenth Brother,
Slovenian National Fairy Tales, Slovenian ballads and romances,
gentle, melancholy, rural illustrated headings, song-books and
almanacs? Whole generations, who would copy Gaspari's illustrations
and were enthralled by his motifs, were brought up with his
illustrations in Zvonsek, Vrtec, Naš rod, Ciciban and other
prints. Some copy his pictures to this day!
His postcards or greeting cards represent a special chapter
in his work, as they reached every Slovenian household like
tiny artistic swallows, while contributing to the artistic transformation
of people in the countryside and in the city. And it is in this
that we find the grandeur of Gaspari's mission; everyone could
afford a postcard for a small price - this small work of art,
which praised our home, depicted rural chores, national costumes
and national songs, day in, day out, wished merry Christmas
and Easter holidays and spoke a comprehensive language to all.
He created postcards throughout his life, from the first one
in 1902, to the ones he single-handedly produced in his old
age and sent to his friends and colleagues during his brief
vacations in Kranjska Gora. We have a collection of 392 original
prints. Even while studying in Vienna, he would send home hand-made
postcards, then came postcards, produced during the First World
War and the time of the Carinthian plebiscite. In the newly-formed
SHS state (the kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians, i.e.,
the pre-WWII Yugoslavia), which was formed in 1918, he embarked
on his productive publishing period, publishing various nationalawakening,
social, Sokol and Orli movements and Cyril- Methodius themed
postcards, especially ones with national motifs, which were
accompanied by verses from national songs.
In this period he also produced the greatest number of Christmas
and Easter greeting cards, although he had been making them
since the First World War. They became very popular everywhere,
especially by our fellow countrymen around the world. He managed
to preserve these ancient holidays in an antique spirit and
represent them in their folkloric uniqueness, with all the customs
that the Slovenian people established over the centuries: homesteads
in the snow, robust young men with dormouse skin hats in their
hands and Virginia cigars in their mouths, going to Midnight
Mass, mothers with children, scenes of birth, the Slovenian
Madonna, Gammer Winter, poor men and beggars, cribs in God's
corner, cradling the Child, families at Christmas tables, the
ritual of smoking, fiddlers and Koledniks, angels from the sky,
scuffling, New Year's Eve, the Three Kings, snowballing and
sledging… And to this day, just as swallows herald the spring,
these greeting cards herald the coming holidays, as they pour
into our homes in great numbers all around the world.
Gaspari, who wasn't aware of how many postcards he had painted
himself, was very happy when I began collecting them. Unfortunetly,
he did not get to see his first independent exhibition, which
took place in 1986 in Velenje, and never found out the actual
total number of the postcards he made. The postcards travelled
all around the world, wherever Slovenians lived: Austria, Germany,
France, Belgium, The Netherlands, the USA, (four times from
Cleveland to San Francisco), Brasil, Argentina, Uruguay, Australia
(Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Bright).
Currently, there is a major exhibition of Gaspari's paintings,
postcards, illustrations, prints and Gaspari's crib in the Festival
Hall in Bled, prepared by David Rjazancev from Bled and myself
as the author. The exhibition will be open from 10 January 2005,
every day from 10.00 to 19.00. This is the first time that such
a diverse opus by Gaspari will be on display. All admirers of
Gaspari's work hope that we will live to see the establishment
of a gallery devoted to Gaspari, where the entire collection
of this national treasure would be on permanent display.
Something particularly impressive is the Gaspari Crib, which
I only managed to obtain in the last few years. Gaspari painted
it on to sheets of paper soon after the formation of the new
SHS, and therein expressed all the enthusiasm for this new State
at the time. The crib has many features of Slovenian nationality:
Joseph and Mary are Slovenian peasants, dressed in traditional
Gorenjska costume; the shepherds are our old men in sheepskin
coats with tulips on their backs, while the shepherd girls are
graceful country girls, holding carnations and home-made doughnuts
on plates. The Three Kings, approaching the manger, are a Serb,
a Croat and a Slovenian, while behind them is a standard-bearer,
holding an SHS flag. Betlehem in the backgorund is reminiscent
of a mixed panorama of Kranj and Klagenfurt. The crib was not
well received in those days, supposedly lacking Betlehem spirit,
while today it is a testament to their era and is a great rarity.
Article abstracted from Sinfo.
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