(Žiri, 23.8.1925 - Žiri, 7.6.2010)
Ivan Gluhodedov was a Slovenian painter of the 20th century, who throughout his life was mainly engaged in depicting the Slovenian landscape. He was born as the second of ten children to his mother Štefanija Peternelj and a Russian refugee who arrived in Žira in 1921. They lived in the former Štalarjeva house. Due to the financial deficit in the family, Ivan could not enroll in painting studies, but instead got a job at the Alpina factory. There he worked as a shoemaker and modeler.
He was already an exceptionally good drawer at a young age. He began painting after 1954, when Jože Peternelj introduced him to the world of fine arts. Even then, he did not enroll in a painting academy, but learned art practices on his own. Together with Jožef and Konrad Peternelj and Janez Sedej, he is today classified as one of the Žira naive artists, who were amateur painters. This label first appeared in France for self-taught painters, but in Slovenia it had a rather negative meaning for a long time. When Ivan painted, he did not rely on contemporary art. Modernity was too aggressive for him and destroyed a person's peace of mind, so he preferred to reach for older examples.
His style is a kind of response to modern abstraction, which destroyed everything objective. With his artistic expression, Ivan merged more with his surroundings, as his paintings represented the homeliness and beauty of the Slovenian landscape to the local population, while at the same time being easier for them to understand. Through his artistic images, he established a particularly respectful attitude towards his family and homeland, to which Ivan's father had fled. His images are supposed to evoke a romantic perception of the world and emotions. He took 18th-century Dutch painting as a model, which was expressed mainly in his still lifes. These are filled with a multitude of finely painted details, from which the painted light reflects. Ivan's oeuvre reflects a diverse range of motifs. He mostly painted landscapes, portraits and still lifes that contain hidden symbolism.
Stylistically, he approached realism from the beginning, which he cultivated until the end. In the second phase of his work, one can notice a tonal gradation and more thoughtful compositions. He painted in earthy tones with oil paints or watercolours. He occasionally used contrasting colours to break up the monotony and diversify the tonal scale. Throughout his life, he participated in group exhibitions across Slovenia, and he exhibited his works independently in Žiri in 2005. Three years later, he was awarded the Žiri Municipality Award, as he is said to have brought joy to many homes with his images.
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Ivan Gluhodedov je bil slovenski slikar 20. stoletja, ki se je skozi vse življenje ukvarjal predvsem z upodabljanjem slovenske krajine. Rodil se je kot drugi od desetih otrok materi Štefaniji Peternelj in ruskemu beguncu, ki je leta 1921 prišel v Žiri. Živeli so v nekdanji Štalarjevi hiši. Zaradi finančnega primanjkljaja v družini se Ivan ni mogel vpisati na študij slikarstva ampak se je zaposlil v tovarni Alpina. Tam je delal kot čevljar in modelar.
Že v mladih letih je izjemno dobro risal. S slikanjem se je začel ukvarjati po letu 1954, ko ga je v svet likovne umetnosti popeljal Jože Peternelj. Tudi tedaj se ni vpisal v slikarsko akademijo ampak se je umetnostnih praks izučil kar sam. Skupaj z Jožefom in Konradom Peterneljem ter Janezom Sedejem ga danes uvrščamo med žirovske naivce, ki so bili ljubiteljski slikarji. Ta oznaka se je za slikarje samouke najprej pojavila v Franciji, pri nas pa je še dolgo časa imela dokaj negativen pomen. Kadar je Ivan slikal se ni oprl na sočasno umetnost. Sodobnost je bila zanj preveč agresivna in je rušila duševni mir človeka, zato je raje posegal po starejših zgledih.
Njegov slog je nekakšen odgovor na moderno abstrakcijo, ki je rušila vse predmetno. S svojim likovnim izrazom se je Ivan bolj zlil z okolico, saj so njegove slike lokalnemu prebivalstvu predstavljale domačnost in lepoto slovenske pokrajine, hkrati pa so jim bile lažje razumljive. Preko likovnih podob je vzpostavil posebej spoštljiv odnos do svoje družine in domovine, v katero je pobegnil Ivanov oče. Njegove podobe naj bi vzbujale romantično dojemanje sveta in čustva. Kot vzor je vzel holandsko slikarstvo 18. stoletja, kar se je izrazilo predvsem v njegovih tihožitjih. Ta zapolnjuje kopica nadrobno naslikanih detajlov, od katerih se odbija naslikana svetloba. V Ivanovem opusu se zrcali pester nabor motivov. Največkrat je slikal krajine, portrete in tihožitja, ki vsebujejo prikrito simboliko.
Slogovno se je že v začetku približal realizmu, ki ga je gojil do konca. V drugi fazi ustvarjanja je mogoče opaziti tonsko stopnjevanje in bolj premišljene kompozicije. Slikal je v zemeljskih tonih z oljnimi barvami ali akvareli. Občasno je uporabil kontrastne barve, da bi z njimi razbil monotonost in popestril tonsko lestvico. Skozi vse življenje se je udeleževal skupinskih razstav po Sloveniji, samostojno pa je dela razstavil v Žireh leta 2005. Tri leta kasneje so mu podelili nagrado občine Žiri, saj naj s svojimi podobami v marsikateri dom prinesel radost.
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:
Ančka KAVČIČ, Štiri generacije družine Gluhodedov obujale spomine na prednike in se veselile druženja, Žirovske stopinje, III/4, Žiri 2013 p. 14.
Stane KOSMAČ, Žirovski občasnik, 2005, XXXV, pp. 94-95.
Ana Marija MIKLAVČIČ, GLUHODEDOV Ivan (1925-2010), Obrazi slovenskih pokrajin, Kranj 2020, https://www.obrazislovenskihpokrajin.si/oseba/gluhodedov-ivan/ (3.7.2024).
Uredništvo, Slikar Ivan Gluhodedov, Žirovski občasnik, 2005, XXXV, pp. 73-80.
Ivan ŽAKELJ, Ivan Gluhodedov- ljubitelj vsega lepega, Žirovski občasnik, 2019, XXXX, pp. 193-194.
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