Goran Trbuljak
Goran Trbuljak, Zagreb, 24 November 2021
“The main thing is, it makes me happy”
“45 Years of Non-Painting”: a motto that’s quite typically ironic and simultaneously proclaimed with dry earnestness in the works of the Croatian conceptual artist and cameraman Goran Trbuljak, who consistently sabotages all notions of virtuosity, significance, and—yes—art. To him, something like a catalog of his works is, above all, “very difficult.” And even though he’s very obviously quite well versed in the history of modern art, he doesn’t really want to inscribe himself onto it. A case of chronic Bartleby-ism? Trbuljak speaks of his fascination with Jerry Lewis—who truly was a master when it came to abstaining from mastery…
“The main thing is, it makes me happy”
“45 Years of Non-Painting”: a motto that’s quite typically ironic and simultaneously proclaimed with dry earnestness in the works of the Croatian conceptual artist and cameraman Goran Trbuljak, who consistently sabotages all notions of virtuosity, significance, and—yes—art. To him, something like a catalog of his works is, above all, “very difficult.” And even though he’s very obviously quite well versed in the history of modern art, he doesn’t really want to inscribe himself onto it. A case of chronic Bartleby-ism? Trbuljak speaks of his fascination with Jerry Lewis—who truly was a master when it came to abstaining from mastery…