Rudi Pergar
Rudi Pergar
(1936)
Rudi Pergar was born on April 3, 1936, in Predmeja. He graduated from high school in Ajdovščina in 1957 and earned a degree in painting in 1963 from the Academy of Fine Arts in Ljubljana under Professor Maksim Sedej. As an art educator, he taught at the Milojka Štrukelj Primary School in Nova Gorica from 1964 to 1978, after which he transitioned to restoration work.
In 1981, he became a full-time employee at the Institute for Monument Protection in Nova Gorica, later renamed the Institute for the Protection of Natural and Cultural Heritage (ZVNKD). Two years later, he enrolled in a specialization in restoration at the Academy of Fine Arts, where he earned the title of restorer-specialist in 1985. As a restorer for ZVNKD, he carried out numerous restoration projects in northern Primorska, particularly in sacred buildings, including the memorial church in Javorca. Since 1968, he has been a member of the Union of Associations of Fine Artists of Slovenia. He was also part of the international group 2xGO, which connected Slovenian and Italian artists across the border. From 1968, when he held his first solo exhibition in Kranj, he presented his paintings and graphic works in solo exhibitions in Milan, Nova Gorica, Koper, and Ljubljana. He participated in numerous group exhibitions at home, in cross-border regions, and abroad. For his long-standing work in restoration and cultural heritage preservation, as well as his artistic achievements in painting, he received the France Bevk Award in 1997.
“… I am always searching for light …”
Work
Academic painter and graphic artist Rudi Pergar created a vast and diverse artistic opus over a career spanning more than fifty years. His work, composed of various stylistic phases, reveals his constant responsiveness to stylistic and technological changes in art during the second half of the 20th century. His creation was also influenced by his deep knowledge of medieval painting and old techniques, which he acquired through the restoration and copying of frescoes. In his early exploration of non-figurative painting in the 1960s, warm and radiant colors took center stage, applied to the painting surface with “spontaneous, expressive strokes.” By the late 1960s, however, his focus shifted to geometric abstraction as an “overtly rational artistic discipline that avoids all emotionality and expressiveness.” A turning point came in the early 1980s: influenced by the New Image movement, Pergar replaced pure color fields with figurative painting in his distinctive bright color palette. He drew inspiration from avant-garde movements of the 1920s and abstract expressionism of the 1950s. In the 1990s, landscapes emerged as an inexhaustible source of inspiration in his work. He particularly enjoyed depicting the Primorska region, capturing everything from the mountains and the Soča River to the sea.
Portal
1974 | serigraphy, paper
Structure C
1980 | serigraphy, paper