(Dragatuš, 28.11.1915 - Ljubljana, 28.11.1993)
Cita Potokar was a Slovenian painter and illustrator. In 1938, she enrolled at the Academy of Arts in Belgrade, but quickly abandoned her studies due to the approaching Second World War. She returned to Ljubljana, where she joined the underground OF. This was a bold and extremely dangerous move, for which the artist was imprisoned in Ljubljana prisons several times.
In 1943, she was sent to the Ravensbrück concentration camp together with other opponents of the regime. After liberation, she returned to Ljubljana. There, she graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in 1947. For most of her career, Cita made drawings for children's and young adult books. She prepared most of the illustrations for Branko Jurca, but she also collaborated with Zofka Kveder and Lojze Zupanec. Her oeuvre also includes portraits and vedute, as well as still lifes.
Cita Potokar's artistic expression is not uniform, but varies greatly. When she painted with oils, she strove for a realistic treatment of the motif, which she softened with the techniques of modern painting. She used unusual colors to emphasize the depicted figures. They were often unsmiling and excessively reserved, as if she were transferring the traumas of World War II into her artistic expression. The images appear rather silent and empty, as if she were drawing attention to the horrors they witnessed through people. Several works with camp themes have also survived in her oeuvre. These are more or less graphic works, as they were the only way she could capture the blackness. The horrors of war left a strong and extremely negative impression on the artist for the rest of her life. Cita spent most of the war trying to participate in the fight against the occupier, which ended very tragically for her. To ease the traumas from the past, she often depicted the theme in her works of art.
She felt obliged to acquaint people with the past, and in doing so she joined many other artists who attacked the past through art. They questioned the mass destruction of people and unjustified killings. In the last phase of her life, she worked as a freelance artist in Ljubljana. Despite achieving fame among post-war artists, she did not like to expose herself. She also did not want to cooperate with the regime, but preferred to spend her mature years away from the action. Cita Potokar donated many of her works to various state institutions. Unfortunately, they ended up in private collections and not in the places where they were originally intended. The artist rarely presented her works to the public. A major exhibition was only held on the occasion of her 70th birthday. In the 1960s, she was awarded the Levstik Award for the illustrations she prepared for the book Lizike za vse.
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Cita Potokar je bila slovenska slikarka in ilustratorka. Leta 1938 se je vpisala na umetnostno akademijo v Beogradu a je študij zaradi bližajoče se druge svetovne vojne hitro opustila. Vrnila se je v Ljubljano, kjer se je vključila v ilegalo OF. To je bila drzna in izjemno nevarna poteza, zaradi katere so umetnico tudi večkrat zaprli v ljubljanske zapore.
Leta 1943 so jo skupaj z drugimi nasprotniki režima poslali v koncentracijsko taborišče v Ravensbrück. Po osvoboditvi se je vrnila nazaj v Ljubljano. Tam je leta 1947 na Akademiji za likovno umetnost tudi diplomirala. Večino svoje kariere je Cita izdelovala risbe za otroške in mladostniške knjige. Največ ilustracij je pripravila za Branka Jurco, sodelovala pa je tudi z Zofko Kveder in Lojzetom Zupancem. V njenem opusu najdemo tudi portrete in vedute ter tihožitja.
Likovni izraz Cite Potokar ni enovit, ampak močno variira. Kadar je slikala z olji, je stremela k realistični obravnavi motiva, ki ga je omehčala s prijemi modernega slikarstva. Uporabljala je nenavadne barve, s katerimi je poudarila upodobljene figure. Te so bile večkrat brez nasmeha in pretirano zadržani, kakor da bi v svoj likovni izraz prenesla travme druge svetovne vojne. Podobe delujejo precej molčeče in izpraznjeno, kot da je preko ljudi opozorila na grozote, ki so jim bili priča. V njenem opusu se je ohranilo tudi kar nekaj del s taboriščno tematiko. Bolj ali manj gre za grafike, saj je le s pomočjo teh lahko ujela črnino. Strahote vojne so na umetnico do konca življenja pustile močan in izredno negativen vtis. Cita se je namreč večji del vojne trudila sodelovati v boju proti okupatorju, kar se je zanjo zelo tragično končalo. Da si je olajšala travme iz preteklosti, je tematiko pogosto prikazovala tudi v svojih umetniških delih.
Čutila se je dolžno, da mora seznaniti ljudi s preteklostjo, s čimer se je pridružila številnim drugim umetnikom, ki so preko umetnosti napadli preteklost. Spraševali so se o množičnem uničevanju ljudstva in neupravičenih pobojih. V zadnji fazi svojega življenja je ustvarjala kot svobodna umetnica v Ljubljani. Kljub temu, da je dosegla sloves med povojnimi umetniki, se ni marala izpostavljati. Prav tako ni želela sodelovati z režimom ampak je svoja zrela leta raje preživela stran od dogajanja. Veliko del je Cita Potokar podarila najrazličnejšim državnim ustanovam. Žal so se ta znašla v zasebnih zbirkah in ne na mestih, kamor so bila prvotno namenjena. S svojimi deli se je umetnica le malokrat predstavila v javnosti. Večjo razstavo so ji priredili le ob 70. letnici rojstva. V 60ih letih so ji za pripravljene ilustracije v knjigi Lizike za vse podelili Levstikovo nagrado.
Besedilo je za galerijo Porta Alpina pripravila Pia Župevec, dipl. um. zgod.
The text was prepared for the Porta Alpina gallery by Pia Župevec, B.Sc. art history
SOURCES/VIRI:
- Boris GRABRIJAN, Ljudje ob Kolpi: Cita Potokar, 27.11.2024, https://radio-odeon.com/novice/ljudje-ob-kolpi-cita-potokar-2/ (23.6.2025).
- Luc MENAŠE, s. v. Potokar, Cita, Evropski umetnostno zgodovinski leksikon, Ljubljana 1971, col. 1685.
- Asta VREČKO, Cita Potokar: V taborišču, 1946, https://galerija-bj.blog/2020/04/27/cita-potokar-v-taboriscu-1946/ (11.2.2025).
- Sarah DOLINŠEK, s. v. Ilustracije, Pojmovnik slovenske umetnosti po letu 1945, pp. 92-100.
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