Jakob Savinšek
Encyclopedia
Jakob Savinšek, was a Slovene sculptor, illustrator
and poet
.
n town of Kamnik
, then part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (now in Slovenia
), where he spent his youth. After finishing secondary school
in Ljubljana
, he studied medicine
at the University of Ljubljana
. In the late 1930s and early 1940s, he studied drawing under the tutorship of Rihard Jakopič
and sculpture under the supervision of Karla Bulovec Mrak. During World War II
and the Italian occupation of Ljubljana
he was imprisoned in the Ljubljana Castle
for collaborating with the Liberation Front of the Slovenian People
. In 1942, he was later sent to the Gonars concentration camp
. He was released after the Italian armistice in September 1943. A devout Roman Catholic, he decided to join the Slovenian Home Guard, an Anti-Communist militia collaborationg with the Wehrmacht
against the partisan resistance. He deserted before the end of the war, thus securing himself an indulgent treatment by the new Titoist regime.
Between 1945 and 1949, he studied sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Ljubljana. In the 1950s he emerged as one of the most prominent Slovenian sculptures of the younger generations, together with Drago Tršar, Boris
and Zdenko Kalin. He continued his studies in Vienna
, Italy
, and Switzerland
.
In the late 1950s, he entered in conflict with the foremost Slovenian sculptor of the time, Stojan Batič
, and founded his own artistic circle, composed not only of young and talanted visual artist, but of literates and theatre people such as Dino Radojević, Andrej Hieng
and Herbert Grün.
He died in Kirchheim
, Germany
, while attending a sculptors' workshop.
(especially the works of France Kralj), but gradually turned to his own modernist style, in which he played with the volume of sculpture. He also produced some aquarels, graphics and illustrations.
His most famous sculptures are the monuments to Julius Kugy
in the Trenta Valley
(in Bovec
municipality), to Ivan Tavčar
at his mansion in Visoko
and the monument entitled War and Peace in Celje
. He was also a renowned book illustrator. Among others, he illustrated books by Slavko Grum, Miran Jarc
and Alojz Gradnik
. The latter admired Savinšek's work and the two developed a close friendship.
Savinšek also wrote poetry throughout most of his adult life, but never published it. His manuscripts are kept in the National and University Library of Slovenia
. The first collections of his poems was published in 2003 by the literary magazine KUD Logos, edited by the philosopher Gorazd Kocijančič.
Illustrator
An Illustrator is a narrative artist who specializes in enhancing writing by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text...
and poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
.
Life
Savinšek was born in the Upper CarniolaUpper Carniola
Upper Carniola is a traditional region of Slovenia, the northern mountainous part of the larger Carniola region. The centre of the region is Kranj, while other urban centers include Jesenice, Tržič, Škofja Loka, Kamnik, and Domžale.- Historical background :...
n town of Kamnik
Kamnik
Kamnik is the name of a municipality in Slovenia as well as the town that serves as its administrative, cultural, economic, and educational center. The municipality is in north central Slovenia. It encompasses a large part of the Kamnik Alps and the surrounding area...
, then part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (now in Slovenia
Slovenia
Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...
), where he spent his youth. After finishing secondary school
Gymnasium (school)
A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...
in Ljubljana
Ljubljana
Ljubljana is the capital of Slovenia and its largest city. It is the centre of the City Municipality of Ljubljana. It is located in the centre of the country in the Ljubljana Basin, and is a mid-sized city of some 270,000 inhabitants...
, he studied medicine
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
at the University of Ljubljana
University of Ljubljana
The University of Ljubljana is the oldest and largest university in Slovenia. With 64,000 enrolled graduate and postgraduate students, it is among the largest universities in Europe.-Beginnings:...
. In the late 1930s and early 1940s, he studied drawing under the tutorship of Rihard Jakopič
Rihard Jakopic
Rihard Jakopič was a Slovenian painter. He was the leading Slovenian Impressionist painter and theoretician. Together with Matej Sternen, Matija Jama and Ivan Grohar, he is considered the pioneer of Slovenian impressionist painting.- Life :Jakopič was born in Ljubljana, then part of the...
and sculpture under the supervision of Karla Bulovec Mrak. During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and the Italian occupation of Ljubljana
Province of Ljubljana
The Province of Ljubljana was a province of the Kingdom of Italy and of the Nazi German Adriatic Littoral during World War II. It was created on May 3, 1941 from territory occupied and annexed to Italy after the Axis invasion and dissolution of Yugoslavia, and it was abolished on May 9, 1945, when...
he was imprisoned in the Ljubljana Castle
Ljubljana Castle
Ljubljana Castle is a medieval castle in Ljubljana, Slovenia. It is located on the Castle Hill overlooking the old town.- History:According to archeological surveys, the area of the present castle has been settled continuously since 1200 BC, when the first settlements and later fortifications were...
for collaborating with the Liberation Front of the Slovenian People
Liberation Front of the Slovenian People
On 26 April 1941 in Ljubljana the Anti-Imperialist Front was established. It was to promote "an international massive movement" to "liberate the Slovenian nation" whose "hope and example was the Soviet Union"...
. In 1942, he was later sent to the Gonars concentration camp
Gonars concentration camp
On February 23, 1942 the Italian fascist regime established a concentration camp in Gonars, a town with approx. 4,600 inhabitants near Palmanova in the Province of Udine in northeastern Italy.Most of the prisoners were from present day Slovenia and Croatia...
. He was released after the Italian armistice in September 1943. A devout Roman Catholic, he decided to join the Slovenian Home Guard, an Anti-Communist militia collaborationg with the Wehrmacht
Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
against the partisan resistance. He deserted before the end of the war, thus securing himself an indulgent treatment by the new Titoist regime.
Between 1945 and 1949, he studied sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Ljubljana. In the 1950s he emerged as one of the most prominent Slovenian sculptures of the younger generations, together with Drago Tršar, Boris
Boris Kalin
-Biography:Kalin was born in Solkan, which was then a suburb of the Austro-Hungarian town of Gorizia and is now part of Nova Gorica, Slovenia. He attended the technical secondary school in Ljubljana and continued his studies between 1924 and 1929 at the Zagreb Academy of Fine Arts with the...
and Zdenko Kalin. He continued his studies in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, and Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
.
In the late 1950s, he entered in conflict with the foremost Slovenian sculptor of the time, Stojan Batič
Stojan Batic
Stojan Batič is a Slovene sculptor.Batič was born in a working-class family in Trbovlje, Slovenia, then part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.Already as a teenager, he worked in the cocal coal mine....
, and founded his own artistic circle, composed not only of young and talanted visual artist, but of literates and theatre people such as Dino Radojević, Andrej Hieng
Andrej Hieng
Andrej Hieng was a Slovene writer, playwright and theatre director.Hieng was born in Ljubljana in 1925. He studied at the Academy of Performing Arts in Ljubljana between 1948 and 1952 and worked as a theatre director in Kranj, Celje and Ljubljana...
and Herbert Grün.
He died in Kirchheim
Kirchheim
Kirchheim may refer to several places:*in Austria**Kirchheim, Austria*in France* Kirchheim, Bas-Rhin, a municipality in the Bas-Rhin department*in Germany* Heidelberg-Kirchheim, a district of the city of Heidelberg in Baden-Württemberg...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, while attending a sculptors' workshop.
Work
Savinšek dedicated himself mostly to figural art, with a preference in psychologically analytic portraits and women nudes. At the beginning of his career, he was influenced by the tradition of Slovene expressionismExpressionism
Expressionism was a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radically for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas...
(especially the works of France Kralj), but gradually turned to his own modernist style, in which he played with the volume of sculpture. He also produced some aquarels, graphics and illustrations.
His most famous sculptures are the monuments to Julius Kugy
Julius Kugy
Julius Kugy was an Austrian - Italian mountaineer and writer of Slovene origin. He wrote mostly in German. He is renowned for his travelogues from the Julian Alps, in which he reflected on the relationship between man, nature, and culture...
in the Trenta Valley
Trenta Valley
Trenta is a valley in the Julian Alps in the northern part of the Goriška traditional region of Slovenia. The source of the river Soča and the settlements of Soča, Lepena and Trenta are located in Trenta. The Vršič pass connects the valley with the Upper Carniola to the east. The Soča flows...
(in Bovec
Bovec
Bovec is a small city and municipality in northwestern Slovenia. The city of Bovec lies in the Bovec Basin in the Soča Valley below the Kanin mountain in the Julian Alps.-Geographical location:...
municipality), to Ivan Tavčar
Ivan Tavcar
Ivan Tavčar was a Slovene and Yugoslav writer, lawyer, and politician.- Biography :Tavčar was born into a poor peasant family of Janez and Neža née Perko in the Carniolan village of Poljane near Škofja Loka in what was then the Austrian Empire and is now in Slovenia. It has never been entirely...
at his mansion in Visoko
Visoko (Slovenia)
Visoko pri Poljanah is a settlement in the Municipality of Škofja Loka in the Upper Carniola region of Slovenia.The Visoko estate in the Poljane Valley, is part of this settlement. It comprises two large farms, first mentioned in documents as early as the 13th century. The Kalan farm was organized...
and the monument entitled War and Peace in Celje
Celje
Celje is a typical Central European town and the third largest town in Slovenia. It is a regional center of Lower Styria and the administrative seat of the Urban Municipality of Celje . The town of Celje is located under Upper Celje Castle at the confluence of the Savinja, Ložnica, and Voglajna...
. He was also a renowned book illustrator. Among others, he illustrated books by Slavko Grum, Miran Jarc
Miran Jarc
Miran Jarc was a Slovene writer, poet, playwright and essayist.Jarc was born in the town of Črnomelj in White Carniola, in what was then Austria-Hungary in 1900. He was sent to school in Novo Mesto, and between 1918 and 1922 studied Slavic philology in Zagreb and Ljubljana, though he never...
and Alojz Gradnik
Alojz Gradnik
Alojz Gradnik was a Slovenian poet and translator.-Life:Gradnik was born in the village of Medana in the Goriška Brda region, in what was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire and is today in the Goriška province of Slovenia. His father was a Slovene from Trieste who came from a poor working family...
. The latter admired Savinšek's work and the two developed a close friendship.
Savinšek also wrote poetry throughout most of his adult life, but never published it. His manuscripts are kept in the National and University Library of Slovenia
National and University Library of Slovenia
The National and University Library is one of the most important national educational and cultural institutions of Slovenia. It was established in 1774 by a decree released by the Empress Maria Theresa. It is located in the centre of Ljubljana, in a building designed by the architect Jože Plečnik...
. The first collections of his poems was published in 2003 by the literary magazine KUD Logos, edited by the philosopher Gorazd Kocijančič.
See also
- Culture of SloveniaCulture of SloveniaSlovenia's first book was printed by the Protestant reformer Primož Trubar . It was actually two books, Katekizem and Abecednik, which was published in 1550 in Tübingen, Germany....
- List of Slovenian language poets
- List of Slovenian artists
Sources
- Andrej Smrekar, "Jakob Savinšek: ob dvajsetletnici smrti" in NR Po Svetu (August 28 1981).
- Short Biography on the Museum of Kamnik webpage
- Recension of Savinšek's poetry in KUD Logos magazine