(Trnje, 5.12.1950 - Virlog, 30.6.2012)
At the end of the 20th century, Janez Hafner established himself as a central representative of landscape painting in Slovenia. After graduating from the Secondary School of Design in 1969, he enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Ljubljana. Four years later, he graduated with Janez Bernik, and then continued his studies with Didek and Kiar Mešek. After completing his education, he taught art at the Elementary School in Železniki.
He painted mainly with acrylics, occasionally replacing them with oil paints and charcoal. He developed his painting skills more intensively in the 1970s. He focused mainly on figurative art, which he designed according to the principles of new realism. In the 1980s, he listened to the principles of genius loci and focused on the native Škofja Loka landscape on his canvas. He painted the surroundings of Škofja Loka with Križna gora and Crngrob, which had already gained a respectable reputation during the time of the Slovenian Impressionists. He spent most of his life in the village of Virlog, where he set up his studio. New realism was replaced by relaxed compositions with a restless stroke and extremely expressive color. This time is considered the artist's green phase, as he built the landscape with a wide variety of shades of green, as shown in the picture above. In doing so, he built and gradually deepened an artistic space that is open to infinity. To achieve the best effect, he used a wide brush with which he roughly applied layers of colour.
Although the landscape in his artworks is almost completely decomposed, the central motif can still be recognised in them. These unusual green compositions are supposed to represent an apocalyptic image in which human distress is reflected. He intensified the theme in the next phase, when he replaced the landscape with an urban landscape. At that time, his images tended even more towards abstraction. He was interested in the spiritual sphere of the world, in which the original nature is disappearing more and more quickly. Foreigners enter it as disturbing factors that shatter the ideal of a pure and untouched landscape without any human intervention. In these images, the artist found his refuge, and at the end of his career he returned to the pure and untouched nature of the Slovenian highland landscape. At that time, he devoted himself to winter motifs. Janez Hafner was a great fan of Slovenian impressionists. He found Ivan Grohar to be particularly excellent. Throughout his life, he attended meetings of cultural societies, such as the Škofja Loka Artists' Association, and he also participated in the Association of Slovenian Fine Artists' Societies. He exhibited his artwork at 29 solo and 62 group exhibitions in Slovenia and abroad. He received seven awards for his work, including the Ex Tempore award three times and the Prešeren Award for Gorenjska in 1986.
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Janez Hafner se je ob koncu 20. stoletja uveljavil kot osrednji predstavnik krajinskega slikarstva na Slovenskem. Po končani Srednji šoli za oblikovanje, leta 1969, se je vpisal na Akademijo za likovno umetnost v Ljubljani. Štiri leta kasneje je diplomiral pri Janezu Berniku, nato pa je s študijem nadaljeval še pri Didku in Kiarju Mešku. Po koncu izobraževanja je poučeval likovni pouk na Osnovni šoli v Železnikih.
Slikal je predvsem z akrili, občasno pa jih je zamenjal z oljnimi barvami in ogljem. Slikarske veščine je intenzivneje razvijal že v 70ih letih. Osredotočil se je predvsem na figuraliko, ki jo je oblikoval po načelih novega realizma. V 80ih letih je prisluhnil načelom genius loci in se je v slikarskem platnu osredotočil na domačo škofjeloško krajino. Slikal je okolico Škofje Loke s Križno goro in Crngrobom, ki je že v času slovenskih impresionistov dobila ugleden renome. Večino življenja je preživel v vasici Virlog, kjer si je postavil atelje. Novi realizem so nadomestile sproščene kompozicije z nemirno potezo in izjemno ekspresivnim koloritom. Ta čas velja za umetnikovo zeleno fazo, saj je krajino gradil z najrazličnejšimi odtenki zelene barve, kot je to prikazano na zgornji sliki. S tem je zgradil in postopoma poglobil likovni prostor, ki je odprt v neskončnost. Da je dosegel najboljši učinek, je uporabljal širok čopič s katerim je na grobo nanašal barvne plasti.
Čeprav je v njegovih umetninah krajina skoraj povsem razgrajena, je v teh še vedno mogoče razpoznati osrednji motiv. Te nenavadne zelene kompozicije naj bi predstavljale apokaliptično podobo v kateri se zrcali človeška stiska. Tematiko je stopnjeval v naslednji fazi, ko je krajino zamenjal za urbani pejsaž. Takrat so njegove podobe še bolj težile k abstrakciji. Zanimala ga je duhovna sfera sveta, v kateri vse hitreje izginja prvotna narava. Vanjo vstopajo tujki kot moteči faktorji, ki razbijajo ideal čiste in nedotaknjene krajine brez kakršnih koli posegov človeka. V teh podobah je umetnik našel svoje zatočišče, na koncu kariere pa se je vrnil nazaj k čisti in nedotaknjeni naravi v slovenski visokogorski pokrajini. Tedaj se je posvetil zimskim motivom. Janez Hafner je bil velik ljubitelj slovenskih impresionistov. Še posebej odličen se mu je zdel Ivan Grohar. V svojem življenju se je udeleževal srečanj kulturnih društev npr. Združenja umetnikov Škofja Loka, sodeloval pa je tudi v Zvezi društev slovenskih likovnih umetnikov. Svoje umetnine je razstavil na 29 samostojnih in 62 skupinskih razstavah po Sloveniji in v inozemstvu. Za svoje delo je prejel sedem nagrad, med njimi kar trikrat priznanje Ex Tempore in Prešernovo nagrado za Gorenjsko, leta 1986.
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:
Damir GLOBOČNIK, Janez Hafner (1950-2012) -in memoriam, Loški razgledi, LIX/1, pp. 349-354.
Mira KALAN, s. v. Hafner Janez (1950-2012), Obrazi Slovenskih pokrajin, Kranj 2014, https://www.obrazislovenskihpokrajin.si/oseba/hafner-janez/ (3.7.2024).
Dragan J. KRIVEC, Janez Hafner-slike, Ljubljana 1990.
Agata PAVLOVEC, Janez Hafner, Škofja Loka 1984.
Barbara STERKE VURNIK, Janez Hafner: Med cesto in nebom, Škofja Loka 2008.
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