The first exhibition to be opened at the 74th Dubrovnik Summer Festival is Lightness of Youth, a cycle by the recently departed Croatian painter and graphic artist Fadil Vejzović. Inspired by Dubrovnik’s famed Renaissance playwright Marin Držić and his comedy The Story of Stanac, the exhibition’s title references a line from the play. The opening will be on Tuesday, 11 July at 11 pm in the Sponza Palace atrium.
Držić’s The Story of Stanac is an outstanding portrayal of 16th century Dubrovnik society, especially the nightlife which becomes the main topic of Vejzović’s cycles. Through the 12 mixed media paintings done on paper, the painter brings his own interpretation of Držić’s Dubrovnik. He dealt with the main themes of the relationship between youth and old age, and the desire for eternal youth, for which Dubrovnik is the perfect set and setting. “ This is not the first time Vejzović addressed the motifs from Croatian Renaissance literature. His obsession with the Mediterranean and its literary archetypes is also found in the series of works dedicated to Fishing and Fishermen’s Talk and Hanibal Lucić’s poem No Other Nymph Upon This World. Lightness of Youth, however, is not merely an artistic response to Držić’s themes, but also a deeper consideration of human sexuality, life processes and constant need to dramatise one’s own existence.” – explains Saša Božić, author of the exhibition catalogue’s text.
Fadil Vejzović (1943-2022) was a Croatian painter, graphic artist, designer, and illustrator. He graduated from the Zagreb Academy of Fine Arts and completed his Graphic Arts and Painting postgraduate studies in Nuremberg. From 1969 he was an independent artist and a member of the Brezovica Group. He was an illustrator and graphic editor for the Start magazine, where he remained for ten years. His works were displayed at numerous exhibitions in Croatia and abroad and he received numerous major awards for his artistic work. In 1984 he received the 19th Zagreb Salon Special Award, in 1990 the Croatian Graphic Arts Biennial Split Award, and in 1993 the 17th Zagreb Graphic Arts Exhibition Award. In 2001 he received the Lalin Plaque at the 1st International Graphic Arts Salon Rab and since 2007 his works are displayed in the permanent collection of the National Museum of Modern Art in Zagreb.
The exhibition will be open for viewing until 30 July.