Vlado Martek

Vlado Martek (born 1951) is a Croatian artist whose work is based on visualising poetry. In his art pieces he works with poems and fragments of poems by putting them into collages, photographs, plots, graphics, sketches, drawings, art actions and agitations, graffiti and wallpapers. Vlado Martek lives in Zagreb, where he works as a librarian since 1979.

Life and Work

Vlado Martek was born in Zagreb (SR Croatia) where he studied Philosophy and Literature at Zagreb University. In the early 1970s Martek wanted more than writing poems. The first work he installed in public was a wallpaper-action with the photographer Željko Jerman and the art-student Boris Demur. In 1975 he founded the Group of Six Artists (Grupa šestorice autora) with Mladen and Sven Stilinović, Fedor Vučemilović, Boris Demur and Željko Jerman.[1][2] Active until 1979, they performed over 20 art pieces in Zagreb and launched the magazine MAJ/75 (1978 – 1984).[3]

Martek`s work is based on the discourse between art, philosophy and poetry. He is working with the negation and construction of words to create a reality behind the letters. He describes his work as Pre-poetry - the reduction and concentration of poem. In his own words: “Pre-poetry is controlling, an evasion into space before writing, controlling my head, my motives as to why I write, my responsibility, a tidying up before I write a poem. In that sense it is a provacation in language, by destruction but also construction.“ [4] Martek uses critical, ironic and analytic methods to question social structures in combination with a wide range of media and materials.

Solo Exhibitions[5]

Group Exhibitions[6]

Literature

References

  1. ↑ http://www.culturenet.hr/default.aspx?id=36661
  2. ↑ http://www.kuadgallery.com/artist/vlado-martek/
  3. ↑ http://www.poetryinternationalweb.net/pi/site/poet/item/21773/17/Vlado-Martek
  4. ↑ Stipančić, Branka: Vlado Martek – Poezija u akciji / Poetry in Action, Zagreb 2010, 36.
  5. ↑ http://www.aanantzoo.de/?q=content/vlado-martek
  6. ↑ http://www.aanantzoo.de/?q=content/vlado-martek

External links