19. The peacock dance [1966]

The artwork "The Peacock Dance" comes from the most powerful decade in Lika Janko's work, namely the 60s, when she worked in a traditional painting technique, mostly oil on painting. In 1962, the painting "Self-Portrait with a Dog" provoked criticism from OHI, which caused the author to isolate herself from the official artistic life for a long time. From the mid-1960s, she began to experiment with the texture of the canvas by layering large amounts of oil paint and literally modeling the painting surface. In the same period, she began to work in the collage technique, with which she is recognizable in Bulgarian art - on the white background of the canvas she sticks colored stones, glass, beads, contoured by hemp braided ropes. The composition "The Peacock Dance" was created one year before the author's first solo exhibition in 1967 in Sofia, which was terminated prematurely, and it is very likely that it was included in it. After this year, Lika Yanko continued to paint, but did not exhibit her canvases until 1981. The artwork is distinguished by a complex color and clear imagery. The composition is divided into three vertical zones - a characteristic compositional approach, which the author applies in a vertical and horizontal version. Three stylized human figures are located in the elongated format of the canvas. Lika Yanko depicts the human figure in the manner of a child's drawing from an early age, when the child draws the so-called "cephalopod". This technique of depiction is particularly characteristic of the artist's image register, which connects it with the creation of life and the universe. The ornamentation of dots, parallel and zigzag lines is also inspired by the immediate perception of the child, who boldly handles the pictorial means. These strange creatures have a strong impact with their whimsical form, sensual dance and a special loneliness that runs like an invisible thread throughout Lika Yanko's work. Unlike most of her works, this one is immersed in a cold range of green, gray-blue and violet tones, with a yellow accent on the right side of the canvas, which makes it particularly interesting and valuable. The composition "The Peacock dance" presents all the characteristic features of Lika Yanko's painting work - richness of color, conventionality and syntheticity of images and an inimitable visual language. (S.N.)

Dimensions

width 45 cm, height 110 cm, custom 110 × 45 cm

Description

oil on canvas, signed and dated bottom right, in green, "Лика Янко, 1966“

Dating

1966

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