The title of the exhibition “Reading Diary” may be misleading to the visitors, as it implies that the audience could expect art notes by artist Lena Kramarić based on the works she read from the rich literary oeuvre of Marin Držić. However, this artist from Zagreb currently residing in Dubrovnik created an unconventional reading diary, drawing inspiration from Marin Držić as a person and from his works as a starting point for building a personal and distinctive visual story.

Unlike the classic reading diary where an individual notes their thoughts, feelings and associations evoked during their reading, as well as comments and conclusions about the work, Lena Kramarić explores and artistically interprets the life, experience and literary oeuvre of Marin Držić. By studying various materials and factography on Držić’s life and work, the artist spontaneously chooses inspirational elements and parallels to her own life, thus building a unique story in which ideas gradually open up, cancel each other out or build one upon the other. Each motif is a trigger, a link or a foundation for the development of something new and personal. In this context, Marin Držić is not a framework within which the works are created, but rather the basis and incentive for work. Such an approach opens up a field of recognition of Držić’s modernity in today’s world through perennial antitheses such as reality and imagination, youth and old age, good, honest people (nazbilj people) and those who just appear as such, hypocrites (nahvao people). Lena is not focused only on one segment of Držić’s life or on a particular literary work, but rather perceives the author as an inspiration for a departure, a shift or progress, whereby everything she perceived, experienced and lived is interwoven with her personal iconography.

Drawings, paintings and books are the main elements of expression in the new cycle of works by Lena Kramarić. Drawing represents freedom of play and spontaneous creation. However, drawings are also a sincere and direct medium, and unlike paintings, they do not leave a significant margin of error for subsequent “beautification”. Thus, a drawing is often the result of a longer process in which the artist deals with this medium, which therefore results in a strong and concrete work of art. Paper as the base and text incorporated into the drawing are direct links between her works of art and the literary oeuvre of Marin Držić. Textual drawings enable complete freedom of thought and expression because parts of the script are covered or only partially visible, thus acting as indications, suggestions or associations. The text, figures and symbols that fill the background or the interstice between the characters often contain a critical commentary on today’s society or directly contemplate the world of Držić.

Lena Kramarić wishes to convey the sense of freedom embodied in the drawings into the medium of paintings as well, which is often burdened with the expectations of a quality finished work ready for being exhibited. The process and phases of how the painting came to be are visible due to the layered structure of the composition. Due to such an approach, the painting takes on the character of a drawing, in the context of its barrenness and direct communication. And while the literary work and the drawing have common constituent elements, the layered shaping of the painting points to the multifaceted aspect and complexity of life. The artist’s book, on the other hand, unites the character of the drawing and the richness of the painting into a unique reading diary. By binding the drawings into a smaller format book with an intimate character, Lena Kramarić provides an insight into her own creative process. The artist’s book also raises the following questions: what is the function of the book in modern times, what is an artist’s book, who reads art (and who writes it).

The world of Držić gave Lena Kramarić completely new and hitherto unexplored possibilities of expression. In every art piece, the artist deals with a concept, an idea, a vision, a sentence or a life motto that caught her attention and inspired her to create. The universality and timelessness of Držić’s reflections surpass stereotypical behaviours and expectations, and reveal a perspicacious observer with a developed ability for adaptation, which is manifested in Lena’s work through frequent references to strong social messages that Držić conveyed to the world through his literary works. And while humour is the main characteristic of Držić’s sharp writing, dreaminess is the key visual feature of Lena Kramarić’s paintings, and they are unified by the emotion conveyed in their primary expression. The restless spirit, versatility, rebellion, innovation, sense of justice and criticism of the world are the basis for modifying the artist’s personal artistic prism. Lena constructs the painting in layers, thereby intertwining that which is perceived and which is her own, forming structures filled with thoughts, wishes, plans and expectations on the canvas as she communicates her inner world using visual codes of the outside world.

The reading diary is defined by the author’s distinctive handwriting that abounds in recognisable colouring and method of shaping the human body, and by the specific layered construction of the painting. Female characters continue to dominate the compositions, functioning as the main means of work, i.e. a motif that creates the atmosphere, communicates information and stimuli from the outside world to the canvas. The leitmotif of a woman in the oeuvre of Lena Kramarić remains the principal medium for the projections of desires, fears and temptations, but in the context of the new cycle, it is observed through the prism of Držić’s world and preoccupations that become the thread that connects the world of then and now. For instance, the dress code ordinance from Držić’s times imposed itself as the main inspiration for the “costumes” in the art pieces, while the atmosphere of the carnival, present in many of Držić’s dramatic texts, defines the festive atmosphere of the paintings themselves, while Dubrovnik’s history and architecture take on the role of a kind of scenography of interpreted motifs.

Through the transformation of Držić’s words into her own artistic articulation, Lena Kramarić points to the modernity of Držić’s reflections, illustrating her own experience of today’s world. Although the characters in some of her works are dressed in modest and simple clothes according to the instructions from the ordinance, a whole series of works stands out due to naked female characters, thus creating a parallel with Držić’s provocation who used to always break the rules when dressing his characters.

The second factor that connects Marin Držić and Lena Kramarić is Dubrovnik. They both harbour mixed feelings for the City. The writer loved Dubrovnik and described it as the magical Arcadia, but also stressed that the City was governed by miscreants. On the other hand, Lena perceives Dubrovnik as the city of dreams, a refuge, as well as a prison. Although it was not her first choice, Dubrovnik eventually became her home, and it is precisely her life within the city walls that made her grow up, get to know herself and her role in the world. Thus Dubrovnik and its distinctive views serve as scenography in Lena’s drawings and paintings, showing the key locations in the City where Držić’s plays used to be staged.

The third key connection with Držić is certainly the festive, most often carnivalesque, atmosphere that defines the character of each city. Marin Držić managed to express contempt for the state and the government in his works, and his greatest power lied in sarcasm. Držić used humour to criticise the higher strata of the society in such a sophisticated manner that the gentry laughed at his works without realising that they were actually laughing at themselves. It is precisely the clash between the good, honest people and hypocrites and phonies that has been interpreted through the staged carnivalesque clash between order and disorder, cosmos and chaos, while the masks in the paintings of Lena Kramarić hide many meanings, faces and layers, so that the “pretence” of joy, fun and laughter conceals a much deeper picture of the sate of the psyche and the current state of the society. Držić also developed an entire bestiary that encompasses human tempers from a beastly mood, to anthropomorphisation and finally divinity. In this bestiary, Lena found several links to her earlier works. Thus the earlier motif of the little mermaid was inspired by the sea fairy from Tirena, who underwent a transformation, while the change in physical appearance also indicated a spiritual change in the context of reaching maturity and growing up.

The abundance of colours, collages, prints, floral and ornamental patterns, anonymous characters, specific frames, emphases on unusual segments of the human body such as knees and feet – all this characterises the distinctive artistic world of Lena Kramarić. The artist constructs her paintings layer by layer using a trial and error method, and success is realised by achieving the desired effect using the technique of painting, collage and drawing, which is the beginning and the end of every process. By establishing a dialogue with the character and work of Marin Držić, Lena merges the past and the present, people, customs and the character of Dubrovnik into a unique zeitgeist. The result of the achieved dialogue is discovered through the new cycle or works characterised by unusual compositions and perspectives. The surface of the canvas is richly filled with characters depicted in more or less detail. Despite the abundance of movement and events, the message conveyed by each work is clear and pronounced. For instance, the expression of the girl in the sumptuous pink dress with her back turned to the observer is striking, and her presence is clearly highlighted by her upright posture and loud tranquility. She is accompanied by female figures of different ages, whose circular movement symbolizes the cyclicity of life. The gradual building of the image and dominant movements within the painting determine the dynamics of individual compositions, and depictions vary from the coloristically saturated ones to completely purified, airy and gentle tones. The works are characterized by different patterns, textures and structures, their overlapping and protruding, as well as disappearing or emerging characters.

Within this wealth of diversity, one painting stands out significantly. The painting entitled Black has an air of simplicity and tranquility. An extremely reduced frontal view of a woman in a black dress in front of a black background with minimal sporadic details exudes a contemplative atmosphere. As if all the dispersed energy were united and all the interpretations, intertwining, research and thoughts were summed up in one strong, impressive work that stands out among all the others. The painting Black shows us how the distinctive world of Lena Kramarić came to be, became enriched and displaced by Držić’s influence, and how it resuted in liberation, opening up to the unknown and the transformation of iconography into a new, enriched vocabulary – a vocabulary that has remained largely distinctive, but again significantly different and refined with a new, but in fact old thesaurus.

Sonja Švec Španjol