Exhibition
1. 2. to 29. 2. 2016

We kindly invite you to the opening of the exhibition entitled MIHA MALEŠ: Illustrations of Mách's poem May, exhibition curator Brede Ilich Klančnik. The exhibition will be on view until February 29, 2016 on the first floor of the Celje Central Library.

Miha Maleš (*6. 1. 1903, Jeranovo nad Kamnikom – †24. 6. 1987, Ljubljana). He studied at the sculpture department of the School of Arts and Crafts in Ljubljana, the Academy of Arts in Zagreb, the private school Zu St. Anna in Vienna, and completed his studies in 1927 at the graphic arts department in Prague.

He established himself in graphic art, where he experimented with a wide variety of techniques, drawing, illustration, oil painting and church fresco painting. He realized his ideas in ceramics, tapestries and stained glass techniques. He also dabbled in photography. Maleš's artistic narrative is distinguished by an elegant and light line and a soft lyrical feeling. He especially liked to draw from the rich folklore tradition of Slovenians and other nations, because it offered him a vibrant, vivid color palette. In his graphics, especially monotypes, and painting, he followed the Fauvist painting principle in the search for harmony of form and rhythm, and lyrical and decorative order.
Maleš received several awards and recognitions for his work – the most important of which was the Prešeren Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1977. In 1980, he donated 2,634 of his works to the Kamnik Cultural Center. Seven years later, Kamnik repaid him for the donation with a gallery that bears his name and prepares occasional thematic exhibitions from the rich donated collection.

A good part of Maleš's oeuvre is connected with books. He was not only involved in illustration, the original visual companion to word art, but also paid special attention to book decoration and, last but not least, to publishing, selling and distributing books, which he brought to light in his own Bibliophile publishing house in Ljubljana, Pod turnom, no. 5. At this address on the edge of Tivoli, the first Slovenian art magazine Umetnost was also born, which was published between 1936 and 1944. On the pages of his magazine (volume IV. 1939/1940 – listopadu, no. 3), Maleš recommended, in addition to numerous graphic folders and other book editions, a bibliophile edition of Mach's poem Maj, for which he designed original illustrations in 1939:
In these difficult times, it came as a comfort and a reminder. the most beautiful poem by the greatest Czech poet KARLA HYNKA MÁCHE MAY Slovenianized by Tine Debeljak, illustrated and furnished by Miha Maleš
In a full-page advertisement, the publisher added comprehensive information about the valuable book: "This monumental work was published in a bibliophile numbered edition of two hundred and fifty copies. The book is accompanied by a signed hand engraving of the poet, made after the poet's newly discovered caricature and new scientific findings about the poet's true image. The poem is accompanied by forty original illustrations by M. Maleš, which are in the first part zincographies after pen drawings, in the second original linocuts and in the third original hand engravings. It is printed in several colors on real light antique paper. Bound in half-leather and in domestic cloth. The price for the original copy is 260 dinars. -. It can be ordered from the Bibliophile Publishing House in Ljubljana..."

In the promotional text, Maleš talks about pen drawings, original linocuts and engravings and emphasizes multi-color printing, which is why we are surprised to encounter original templates that are larger than the book format. The story is originally only in black and white, whether it is a subtle pen drawing that accompanies the verses in the first and second cantos (in the print the line is colored red) or expressive linocuts that illustrate the dramatic events in Intermezzo I, the third canto and Intermezzo II. In the final, fourth canto, the drawing is engraved in a black matrix (changed to a blue background in the book) and we again encounter the light contour line that is so characteristic of Maleš: his original illustrations of Mách's verses thus reveal to us masterful approaches and the use of various techniques that fit the depiction of mood in the dramatic poetry of the great Czech poet – Prešeren's contemporary.