The
exOfficial
(1924 - 2010)
Home Page
(The official Colini home page is www.Colini.net)
Virtual Exhibition
Virtual Exhibition
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TheexOfficial
(1924 - 2010) Home Page(The official Colini home page is www.Colini.net)
Virtual Exhibition
|
Colini marches to the beat of a different drummer. His images are from another time, another place. His is a magical world, it's landscape strange and haunting. The inhabitants of this never, never land are given to wearing odd uniforms, even armor. Sometimes they stand, silent and impassive. Sometimes they engage in unusual and puzzling tasks. Often they carry banners and pennants, even long spears. Some play instruments, some juggle, some pray. Always they are enigmatic.
There is a medieval look to Colini's work. The surfaces are smooth and the polish of the glazes lends a jewel-like glow to the panels. Forms are precisely drawn and very carefully rendered. While the scale is small, intimate, there is a sense of the infinite in the deeply placed, distant horizons. From the sharp, all pervading light of his foregrounds, Colini moves our eye gently to the wonderfully glowing haze of the deeply set background landscapes.
Yet the iconography, the meaning, of these carefully executed paintings remains obscure. Do they speak of a myth, a legend, some arcane rite long since passed into oblivion? We cannot tell. And that is the compelling aspect of these pictures. For it is the enigmatic quality which requires us to supply the meaning; to make explicit for ourselves that which is implicit in the work.
The centuries that separate Bosch from de Chirico disappear in Colini's oeuvre. The unnatural merges with the natural to become the supernatural. Weird beasts and birds take part in aberrant behavior, the figure of a half-man, half-horse serenades an exotic, nude female dancer. There are bishops and Cardinals, cats and lizards, lush flowers and stone walls and arches, all revealed to us with astonishing clarity.
Still we are left with questions. Is the world of Colini a
garden of earthly delights, or a nether world of perdition? Are the
distant cities a place of heavenly peace, far removed from the
seductions of the erotic nudes and the militancy of the soldiers? Or,
are these panels illustrations of long forgotten tales? Whatever is the
case, and each of us must decide for ourselves, Colini's work provides
us with a delight for both our eye and our mind.
Colini, born in 1924 in Kolin, Bohemia, first studied art with professor Kutil, then an exponent of German Expressionism. In 1943, Colini moved to Prague, where he was exposed to the work of the leading Czech surrealist, Karel Maly, a disciple of de Chirico.
Leaving Prague in 1947, Colini began a 12 year journey of self discovery, living in Switzerland, France, West Indies, South America, and Canada. In 1959 this sojourn came to an end in New York, where he took up his greatest challenge, that of distilling his rich and haunting life experiences into graphic images. Since then however, he is returning frequently to Germany and Italy where he feels equally "at home."
In 1972 Colini was invited to join the Gallery Schreiner in Basel -- which in those times was affiliated to the famous Gallery Peithner-Lichtenfels from Wien -- and thus was the focus of Ars Fantastica movement in Switzerland. Since his acceptance into this group, Colini's work has travelled to the major cities of Switzerland, West Germany and France.
Finally in the year 1975 Colini was accepted as a member in the prestigious "Kunstlergilde e.V" in West Germany. This important success opened the doors to the German art scene and Colini began to exhibit in the Gallery Koelner Kunst Kabinett, Gallery Scholler, and Gallery Blankenborgh. His work was accepted in the prominent "Inter Art Galerie - Cologne" and he joined "Phainesthai" a group of Koeln artists. He took active part in the evolution of the organization into the "Gruppe 82 Koeln".
He feels comfortable among his colleagues, enjoys the company of his friends, and participates every year in the "Salon D'Automne" in Cologne. Thus the transplant from "Koeln uff der Elbe" to "Koeln am Rhein" successfully took place and everything turned out fine...
At the end, when one comes through the full circle, one should arrive where one started. That is why I am so grateful for the chance to have the retrospective exhibition of my works in this august location, because it gives me the opportunity to finish my career where it began, on the shores of our river, within the sight of our cathedral. This is a rare privilege.
At this point, we should pause perhaps for a while and remember the faces of the comrades who started with us on the road many years ago, but who finished much too early or ended on distant shores... I was going to say how nice it would be if they would be here now, with us -- implying they are not here with us -- however, I wonder, can anybody really leave Kolin?
2004 Catalog Selectee PBS-TV Art Auction Pittson, PA 2002 1st Prize Summer Solstice Art Walk Scranton, PA 1999 Honorable Mention Visual Art Exhibit Moscow, PA 1989 Honorable Mention Regional Art Exhibition Hazleton, PA 1989 Honorable Mention Regional Art Exhibition Hazleton, PA 1988 1st Place Regional Art Exhibition Hazleton, PA 1987 2nd Place Regional Art Exhibition Hazleton, PA 1985 1st Place Juried Art Exhibit East Islip, NY 1968 1st Place Berkshire Museum Pittsfield, MA 1968 Honorable Mention Long Beach Art Assoc. Long Beach, NY 1965 3rd Place Malverne Art Assoc. Malverne, NY
For more information about Colini, please
contact the following:
The Old Vic Art Gallery
131 South Main Street
Alburtis, PA 18011
(610) 967-6618
For comments, please send EMail to
D2@gap.net.
This page, and all contents, are Copyright © 1972-2010 by
Vojen Wilhelm Cech, Scranton, Pennsylvania, USA.
Last Modified: Monday, October 18, 2010