(Radovljica, 28.4.1910 - Jesenice, 23.8.1993)
Pavel Pirih was among the first students of the Academy of Fine Arts, now the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana, established after the war. He had acquired the basics of practical and theoretical knowledge of fine arts over twenty years earlier at the Vocational and Craft School in Ljubljana, where he attended the Department of Sculpture and Carving. His professor was Alojzij Repič. After the death of his father Ivan in 1925, Pavel Pirih returned to Radovljica for the sake of his mother Lucija. He got a job in the office of the road company, and in his free time he played in amateur theater and coached football at the Kres Radovljica club. During the German occupation, he collaborated with the Liberation Front, which is why he was arrested on June 24, 1942 and taken to refugee prisons and later to the Reichenau camp. At the end of 1945, after successfully passing the entrance exam, Pavel Pirih enrolled in the painting department of the Academy of Fine Arts in Ljubljana.
The year, led by the painter and graphic artist Božidar Jakac, had 32 students, including Milan Bizovičar, Vladimir Lakovič, Frančišek Oblak, Marjan Pogačnik, Ivan Seljak-Čopič, France Slana, Marijan Tršar. He was friends with Ivan Varlo from Kamna Gorica and Melita Vovk from Bled, who came to the academy in 1947, throughout his life. Pavel Pirih was among the older students who, due to the war or other life circumstances, were only able to continue their education after liberation. He graduated from the academy in 1949 and in 1950 got a job as an art teacher at the Prežihov Voranc Elementary School in Jesenice, and a few years later he accepted the position of professor of art history at the Jesenice Gymnasium. He started a family, and with his wife Zmaga they had sons Dušan (1954) and Pavle (1957). He continued his artistic creation. He rarely exhibited solo, but he participated in group exhibitions, mainly within the Dolik art society. The Dolik Exhibition Hall in Jesenice hosted the last, commemorative presentation of his works in 2004, at which the works of his son Dušan were also exhibited at the same time.
During his time at the Vocational School in Ljubljana, it is worth mentioning his sculptures in wood, which he most likely submitted for his final grade and represent a galloping horse and a seated boy with a fish. In 1933, he created an oil painting with a biblical theme (The Shepherd of God) as a wedding gift for his brother Franc. Two chalk drawings have also been preserved (a portrait of a classmate in profile, the renowned sculptor Zdenko Kalin, and a three-quarter portrait of a man with a beard, presumably Pirih's drawing professor, the painter Saša Šantel). Among the works from 1940, the portraits of his nephew Franc and the watercolors Nude by the Water and View from the Square are preserved. From 1946, Pirih's portrait studies of a young man, a girl, a woman and a man from different perspectives are preserved and are a school example of drawing with the required artistic elements. They were done in chalk. Smaller-format drawings, studies of the female and male nudes, have been preserved from 1947. The drawing, a portrait of the poet France Prešeren, which is now in the collection of the Gorenjska Museum in Kranj, was created in 1954. In 1952, the newspaper Gorenjski glas began publishing stories by the writer Ivan Ribič with his illustrations.
They were later published in the book Povesti z gora (Stories from the Mountains). In 1954, oil paintings with portraits of national heroes were created for the City Committee of the Association of Fighters in Jesenice. Today, they can only be seen in Franc Konoblj's book - Slovenka Pod Mežakljo so se uprli (Slovenian Women Under Mežakljo They Resisted). His watercolors from the 1960s and 1970s bring popular motifs from Radovljica and the surrounding area with fields, forests and mountains. His depictions of the Gorenjska landscape and especially its settlements also have documentary significance today. Pavel Pirih published his works as art or pictorial supplements in the Jesenice Anthology, he participated in the design of scenes at the Tone Čufar Theatre in Jesenice (the plays Hasanagica, Kranjski komedijanti) and led painting courses for children and adults at the Dolik art society.
Pavel Pirih je bil med prvimi študenti po vojni ustanovljene Akademije upodabljajočih umetnosti, danes Akademije za likovno umetnost in oblikovanje v Ljubljani. Osnove praktičnega in teoretičnega znanja o likovni umetnosti pa je pridobil že dobrih dvajset let prej na Strokovno-obrtni šoli v Ljubljani, kjer je obiskoval Oddelek za kiparstvo in rezbarstvo. Njegov profesor je bil Alojzij Repič. Po smrti očeta Ivana, leta 1925, se je Pavel Pirih zaradi matere Lucije vrnil v Radovljico. Zaposlil se je v pisarni cestnega podjetja, v prostem času pa igral v ljubiteljskem gledališču in treniral nogomet v klubu Kres Radovljica. Med nemško okupacijo je sodeloval z Osvobodilno fronto, zato je bil 24. junija 1942 aretiran ter odpeljan v begunjske zapore ter kasneje v taborišče Reichenau. Konec leta 1945 se je Pavel Pirih po uspešno opravljenem sprejemnem izpitu vpisal na slikarski oddelek Akademije za upodabljajoči umetnost v Ljubljani.
V letniku, ki ga je vodil slikar in grafik Božidar Jakac, je bilo kar 32 študentov, med njimi so bili tudi Milan Bizovičar, Vladimir Lakovič, Frančišek Oblak, Marjan Pogačnik, Ivan Seljak-Čopič, France Slana, Marijan Tršar. Z Ivanom Varlom iz Kamne Gorice in Melito Vovk iz Bleda, ki sta na akademijo prišla leta 1947, je prijateljeval vse življenje. Pavel Pirih je bil med starejšimi študenti, ki so zaradi vojne ali drugih življenjskih okoliščin prekinjeno šolanje lahko nadaljevali šele po osvoboditvi. Akademijo je končal leta 1949 in se leta 1950 zaposlil kot učitelj likovnega pouka na Osnovni šoli Prežihovega Voranca na Jesenicah, nekaj let kasneje pa je sprejel mesto profesorja umetnostne zgodovine na jeseniški gimnaziji. Ustvaril si je družino, z ženo Zmago sta dobila sinova Dušana (1954) in Pavla (1957). S svojim umetniškim ustvarjanjem je nadaljeval. Samostojno je razstavljal le redko, udeleževal pa se je skupinskih razstav, predvsem v okviru likovnega društva Dolik. V Razstavnem salonu Dolik na Jesenicah je bila leta 2004 tudi zadnja, spominska predstavitev njegovih del, na kateri so bila istočasno razstavljena tudi dela sina Dušana.
V času obiskovanja Strokovno-obrtne šole v Ljubljani velja omeniti njegovi skulpturi v lesu, ki ju je najverjetneje predložil za zaključno oceno in predstavljata konja v koraku in sedečega dečka z ribo. Leta 1933 je kot poročno darilo bratu Francu nastala oljna slika s svetopisemsko temo (Božji pastir). Ohranili sta se tudi dve risbi s kredo (portret sošolca v profilu, priznanega kiparja Zdenka Kalina ter tričetrtinski portret moža z brado, domnevno Pirihovega profesorja risanja, slikarja Saša Šantla). Med deli iz leta 1940 sta ohranjena portreta nečaka Franca in akvarela Akt ob vodi in Pogled s Predtrga. Iz leta 1946 so ohranjene Pirihove portretne študije mladeniča, deklice, ženske in moškega z različnih pogledov in so šolski primer risbe z zahtevanimi likovnimi prvinami. Izvedene so v kredi. Iz leta 1947 pa so se ohranile risbe manjšega formata, študije ženskega in moškega golega telesa. Risba, portret pesnika Franceta Prešerna, ki je danes v zbirki Gorenjskega muzeja v Kranju, je nastala leta 1954. Leta 1952 so v časniku Gorenjski glas začeli objavljati zgodbe pisatelja Ivana Ribiča z njegovimi ilustracijami.
Kasneje so izšle tudi v knjigi Povesti z gora. Leta 1954 so nastale oljne slike s portreti narodnih herojev za Mestni odbor Zveze borcev na Jesenicah. Danes jih je mogoče videti le še v knjigi Franca Konoblja – Slovenka Pod Mežakljo so se uprli. Njegovi akvareli iz šestdesetih in sedemdesetih let prinašajo priljubljene motive iz Radovljice in bližnje okolice s polji, gozdovi in gorskim svetom. Njegove upodobitve gorenjske krajine in predvsem njenih naselij imajo danes tudi dokumentarni pomen. Svoja dela je Pavel Pirih kot likovno ali slikovno prilogo objavljal v Jeseniškem zborniku, sodeloval je pri snovanju scen v Gledališču Toneta Čufarja na Jesenicah (predstavi Hasanagica, Kranjski komedijanti) ter vodil slikarske tečaje za otroke in odrasle pri likovnem društvu Dolik.
SOURCES/VIRI:
Pirihovo stoletje: [razstava likovnih del Ivana, Pavla, Ivana ml., Srečka, Pavla ml., Dušana in Luka Piriha, galerija Šivčeva hiša, 7. 2. – 28. 3. 2020]. Radovljica: Muzeji Radovljiške občine, 2020.
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