Pilon Gallery, Ajdovščina

Established in 1973, the Pilon Gallery houses a permanent collection of works by Slovene painter, graphic artist and photographer Veno Pilon (1896-1970), including a representative selection of oil paintings (landscapes, portraits and nudes) which rank Pilon among the most important modernist artists of Europe.

Beside the Pilon permanent collection, the Gallery gathers two further collections: The Friends of Pilon Collection and Vipavski Križ Collection. It prepares also an exhibition programme which includes painting, sculpture, print-making, architecture, design and photography. The Gallery website is very informative, also its part of the visual documentation.

In September 2009 a memorial plaque for Veno Pilon were solemnly put on the facade of his family home. The plaque is comprised of a relief by sculptor Anja Kranjc and accompanied with a text saying Here in his father's bakery, Veno Pilon made his best works.

History

The Gallery was founded after Pilon's son Dominique donated to the town of Ajdovščina his father's artistic legacy, a rich collection of art works and an archival collection comprising documents, manuscripts, correspondence, books and personal belongings as well as varied memorial material, including the literary legacy of Walter Bianchi. The collection was later enriched by purchases and other donations.

Background

Venue

The gallery premises consist of two houses, the first being the Pilon homestead, which also used to be the bakery of the painter`s father. The facades of the two houses, as well as the interior of the painter's homestead with all its architectural details, were preserved and renovated by Svetozar Križaj (1921-1996), who received the 1976 Plečnik Award for the renovation.

Collections

Pilon Collection

The works of Pilon Collection are arranged in chronological order and by art form: they start with his first art assignments at the secondary school in Gorica, and continue with views of Gorica and Ajdovščina (oil and watercolours) from the period before the First World War, drawings and watercolours from the time he was a prisoner of war in Russia, sketches from his travels and study in Prague, Florence and Vienna (with a special display case containing a selection of documents, photographs and letters), Pilon's graphic art production from his Prague and Florence period, portraits and still-lifes in different techniques, and one room entirely dedicated to his drawings. The last room (which was the painter`s studio) contains drawings and prints dating from his Parisian period until the late 1950s. The corridor features two sculptures - of the notary Artur Lokar and the writer Ivan Cankar - as well as some portrait drawings of Slovene artists. A photographic section in the attic displays Pilon's work in Paris from the 1930s onwards, including portraits, still-lives and vedutas.

Collection of the Friends of Pilon

The collection includes works of artists who are somehow connected with Pilon or the Pilon Gallery. First works were donated by artists to the collection before the establishment of the Pilon Gallery. In 1971 it included the work of twelve of Pilon's immediate friends and acquaintances. The enrichment of the collection happened after the first exhibition of works of the Friends of Pilon on the 10th. February 1978. Further works were gained from the periodic exhibitions prepared in the remembrance of Veno Pilon. The collection has steadily expanded in the last few years also due to the Castrumfoto International Workshop.

The complex collection comprises today around 500 works from the fields of painting, sculpture, print-making, drawing, photography, architecture and graphic design. Drawing (207) and print-making (208), including sketch books and folders with graphic prints, are clearly in the majority, whilst the less numerous painting (48), sculpture (10) stand out by the quality of their art.

Many great names of Slovene art history of the 20th century and their work is building the collection. Among others Ivan Čargo, Avgust Černigoj, Gabrijel Stupica, Miha Maleš, France Mihelič, Zoran Mušič, Vladimir Makuc, Štefan Planinc, Marij Pregelj, Janez Bernik, Bogdan Borčić, Drago Tršar, Edvard Zajec, Andrej Jemec and many others. Part of the collection are also some Pilons portraits (Božidar Jakac, Robert Hlavaty).

Vipavski Križ Collection

The Vipavski Križ Collection is the result of summer art workshops between 1988 and 1999 in Vipavski Križ which aimed formed as meetings of local and foreign artists to open the cultural boundaries in Europe of the Alps-Adriatic region.

Each of a total of ten workshops was led by a curator who chosen the artists and designed the exhibition. Nine of the selectors were established Slovenian curators as Brane Kovič, Iztok Premrov, Aleksander Bassin, Meta Gabršek - Prosenc, Judita Krivec Dragan, Breda Ilich Klančnik. One workshop was led by Laura Safred, the art critic from Trieste.

The collection arise from works each artist left to the gallery after the workshop was concluded. Altogether more than 100 works of various techniques and types comprise the collection build up of 82 artists belonging to different generations and nationalities, the great deal of them were Slovenes, others came from regions of Alps-Adriatic. The collection comprises also works of sculptures Dragica Čadež, painters Zdenko Huzjan, Zmago Jeraj, Erik Lovko, Dušan Kirbiš, Silvester Plotajs Sicoe and Borut Popenko, photographers as Joco Žnidaršič and Tihomir Pinter just naming Slovene artists. The list of all participants on the gallery website.

Exhibitions

Pilon’s Gallery organises approximately 10 exhibition of variegated thematic spectrum annually. Mostly it goes for exhibitions prepared by other Slovene institutions. Last years the Gallery cooperated also with Maribor Art Gallery (solo exhibitions of painters Zmago Jeraj and Polona Petek, both settled in Maribor), Koroška Gallery of Fine Arts (inclusive project the of Bogdan Borčić and Metka Kavčič), City Museum of Ljubljana (illustrations of Marij Pregelj), or Murska Sobota Gallery. The Gallery presented also by Marina Gržinić curated exhibition Not-quite/not-right: histories, bodies and concepts in contemporary photography featuring works of Tomaž Gregorič, IRWIN, Jane Štravs, Trie and Aleksandra Vajd and Hynek Alt.

The Pilon Gallery itself is also preparing exhibitions and events as sculpture workshop led by Dragica Čadež in the spring of 2009. Recently it featured also solo exhibitions of Lucijan Bratuš and Negovan Nemec and the work of the older generation of Slovene artists as Dušan Tršar and Vladimir Makuc. It exhibited also the work of the painter, photographer and puppet player Milan Klemenčič.

The gallery features also group exhibitions as the show of DLUSP (regional association of visual artists) or Slovene artist from Goriška between 1914 – 1945. It gives frequently the podium to the children art biennial Cici art (Cici umetnije) and since last decade to the international meeting of art photographers Castrumfoto International Workshop – in 2008 beside guests from abroad as Fabio Giacuzzo or Roberto Kusterle, Slovene colours were represented also by Jasna Klančišar, Boštjan Pucelj, and Nika Zupančič.

External links

Pilon Gallery website