Exhibition Josip Pino Trostmann

About the exhibition

The two constants persisting in artistic creations by the Dubrovnik academic painter Josip Pino Trostmann are a particular technique and the motifs. Oil on canvas is the primary medium of choice that the author continually utilizes to express his fascination with the landscape that surrounds him as well as his symbiosis with all that which makes the Mediterranean recognizable.

His artistic opus is defined by motifs such as the Dubrovnik's stoned architecture, particularly the city walls, Dalmatian flora and fauna and still life. Another important characteristic of Trostmann's opus, aside from the above mentioned motifs, is that each of his paintings is suffused with luminance. The results of his fifty five years of tiresome fine art work clearly attest to this. Throughout the creative years Trostmann has succedded in creating a coherent system of intimistic landscapes and dynamized panoramas (vedutas). When considering his characteristic motifs, i.e. „Pino's“ well known Minčeta or his paintings of still life (most often a vase with flowers), one cannot but find that each is saturated with robust inner energy, that each droplet of paint emanates its own light and that each brushstroke radiates lifegiving dynamism.

Trostmann is principally a painter through and through, a colourist, and, in respect of the latter, a torchbearer of the Dubrovnik colouristic legacy. His series „The Joy of Summer“ is inspired by his native City of Dubrovnik; the City beneath the shimmering, blazing sun whose forts and citadels are backdropped by the shades of blues, greens and purples – the swirled accord accentuated by the interspersed reds and yellows. I am particularly drawn toward Pino's „Fauvistic Minčeta“ with expressionalistically swayed composition, exaggeratedly executed brushstrokes and strong colouristic overlaps. The looming yellows accentuate light and protrude through the glowing white of the summer sun predicating thus the painting's clue, while the noise of red, orange and other warm colours manifests the artist's keen sensibility toward chromatic substance. His portrayal of still life, that is, his arrangement of elements within such paintings, is quite impressive and moving. The sheer amount of concentrated lifeforce in the virtually live and breathing flowers, vases, pots and fruits within his crisp compositions more often than eludes us at first sight. However, once our eye is trained, and if we delve deep enough into the artist's notion of still life, we cannot but stand in wonder before all the subtleties Pino Trostmann successfully brought forth so as to breathe in an exuberance of life into the otherwise „dead“ elements.

The thought of Henri Matisse that „it is not enough to place colours, one beside the other; colours must also react on one another. Otherwise, you have cacophony,“ could quite properly be associated with the artistry of Josip Pino Trostmann. For our Dubrovnik artist „senses“ colours and colouristic vivacity that seems as if singing in an orchestra of most harmoniously arranged robust and opposing colours. The artist's fervor, springing from his moods and dispositions, coupled with his sense for the puls of life itself, enables him to keep creating remarkable scenes.

The undeniable authenticity of his artistry is what solidifies it at a distinctive place within the Croatian contemporary fine art world.

In addition to all that is said insofar, it is important to recognize that Trostmann's paintings are not displayed before us for the sole purpose of sharing our thoughts about them nor are they here to evoke an artsy discussion, if you will. Rather, they yearn to be really seen and eavesdropped on, much like the artist listens in to his deepest within, the wellspring of paintings characterized by strong feelings, eruptive energy and an exceptional colouristic scope.

About the author

Josip Pino Trostmann was born in Dubrovnik in 1938. He spent his childhood years in his hometown where he attended Ivo Dulčič's Evening School of Portraiture. Pino has joined the Croatian Association of Fine Artists subsequent to graduating from Zagreb Academy of Fine Arts in the class of I. Režek and Đ. Tiljak. His first solo exhibition was organized in Dubrovnik. In addition to being a painter he also worked as an educator.

Pino is one of the direct followers of the Dubrovnik colouristic legacy first established by Dulčić, Masle and Pulitika. His motifs include his native region and lyrical still life while stylistically his opus ranges between Impressionism and Expressionism. Insofar he has held hundreds of exhibitions, among the most notable ones being his solo exhibitions in Dubrovnik (Museum of Modern Art), Split (Milesi Palace, Art Gallery Kula), Budva, Zagreb (Klovićevi Dvori, Modern Gallery, Museum of Arts and Crafts), and Apeldoorn.

He was presented the Award of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts for his outstanding achievement in fine arts (2013). The most acclaimed monographs about Josip Pino Trostmann were penned by academician Tonko Maroević (2004), and mr. sc. Teo Trostmann (2013). Josip Pino Trostmann lives and creates in Dubrovnik.