The exhibition offers an insight into the motifs that Maksim Gaspari (1883 – 1980) drew from the ethnographic heritage, in the first place those associated with national costumes, weddings, Grandfather Frost and beekeeping, and presents a rich collection of his picture postcards. It also notes the impact of Gaspari’s 20 years’ service as a restorer and draughtsman at the Ethnographic Museum (where he had direct access to the museum’s ethnographic collections) on his choice of motifs.

For more than half a century, Maksim Gaspari’s oeuvre co-shaped Slovenian people’s artistic taste and with it the nation’s attitude to heritage components, and the people’s national awareness. He helped identify the components that shape the national identity, and influenced how they were used and enhanced to facilitate internal and external recognition. He co-shaped the world of symbols and types, and left an indelible mark in other fields, such as education, pr opaganda, and public relations.

The common thread running through his art is the typification of certain elements of the traditional lifestyle, which Gaspari carefully studied and interpreted through his artistic vision. This comes through in every element he depicted, in the first place the landscape and the dressing style. Other than Bela krajina, the Alpine world distinctly dominates as a model for the entire Slovenian territory, whereas Prekmurje, Štajerska, Dolenjska, Karst, and the Littoral region remain largely absent from his work.

The critics proclaimed him the poet of rural traditions, a chronicler of a bygone age, and a romantic seeker of the nation’s specific visual expression. They saw his works as credible images of peasant life as it once was, and of the national riches. They appreciated the documentary expertise of depicted customs and traditions, costumes, and other components of folk culture, but ignored the artist’s proclamation that he would “achieve the utmost values of his art by typifying our national life” and that it was through ethnographic heritage that he shaped his unique artistic expression.

Maksim Gaspari’s work has stood the test of time and for many,their at-home art collection is not complete without at least one of his paintings. His enduring popularity persists also in the art market.

Likewise, they overlooked that the motifs he drew from the treasure trove of rural art, customs and traditions, folk songs and tales – in ethnologist Niko Kuret’s words – “express an idealized world through slightly reinterpreted folklore”. Many Slovenians have grown fond of the artist’s images of this world, and they took his paintings, picture postcards, and illustrations to heart, internalizing them as the finest depictions of their culture and way of life.

Bojana Rogelj Škafar, PhD, exhibition author and curator

The exhibition Maksim Gaspari: Shaping images of the nation was prepared by the Slovene Ethnographic Museum, represented by Natalija Polenec, director
Exhibition author and curator, project leader and texts: dr. Bojana Rogelj Škafar
Professional Associate: Robert Kužnik
Exhibition architecture and graphic design: Miran Mohar, Studio Ploca (Hana Marisa Mohar and Frane Stančić)