A Burstof Light

The painter ReshatAmeti is not unknown to the Zagreb public, moreover, he has had a steady circle of followers since his exhibition at the Mimara Museum in 2017. An artist with a significant international career, this painter who lives inMacedonia developed a very profiled and recognisable style on the trail of lyrical, gestural and colouristic abstraction.

In spirit and sensibility favouring the lighting and colours of the Mediterranean, ReshatAmeti does more than transfer thesurface effects of light onto his paintings; his interest lies in some of the more complex dimensions of surrounding reality. We could say thatsome of his artwork in a particular way incorporates past, present and future because – for example in the From Traditioncycle – he refers to ethnographic and folklore elements, which become a sign and symbol in his paintings.

Many painters find it difficult to reconciledifferent art styles in a painting, an accentuatedgesturality and the lyricism of the pigment, but Ameti’s compositions are extremely harmonious and balanced with no sense of a structural break. Exceptionally strong in energy yet colouristically uniform, the paintings in all hiscycles revealhow the artist recorded the literal and metaphorical cracks in our universe, which we feel as the confrontationbetween two principles – primarily the material and the spiritual. In some earlier worksdarker tones predominate, but since 2004 the artist has continuallybeen working on the layered elaboration of several types of gestures and structures, which he summarises into uniform compositions inthe mostly primary hues of yellow, red and blue, and the black-and-white spectrum. We must also not disregardelements of what might provisionally be seen as Art Informelin the relief of the painted surface, abstract lumps of pigments, gluing paper and cardboard (the From Traditioncycle), which gives the paintings an additional relief-likestructure and enables different, richer reflectionsof light on the vibrantsurface of the canvas.

Some of Ameti’s paintings will in the context of contemporary Croatian art conceptually bring to mind similarity with thepainterly thinking of MatkoTrebotićin his approach toarchaeological landscapes and imprints of the Mediterranean, while the bursts of light and pigment on other canvases will evoke association with the work of VatroslavKuliš. However,composition on ReshatAmeti’spaintings is structured in a completely different way and isbased on one central structure ordiffused fragments that concentrically flowfrom the edges of the image towards the empty centrethat is the abode of light. Without fearing empty space in a painting, but also not favouring disproportionately unfilled spaces on a canvas, Ametiworks systematically at all levels – of metier and symbolism – to bridge the dualisms of this world. He even takes a step further: some of his paintings remind us of distant and unknown cosmic spaces, of cosmic landscapes where there is no human drama and aggression and everything is left to the higher laws of order, proportion and balance that exist in the universe. Even if he does sometimes address chaos, it is controlled chaos or thelavish, implosive energy of creating something positive, of new experiences and worlds.

This is what will be the most visible in the Burst of Light cycle where, despite the very dynamic gestural and colouristic sections, we feel a certain cosmic silence and distance, as if we were watching worlds that are not close to the terrestrial perspective. Perhaps the essence of this cycle is not only a search for symbolic balance but also for a contemplative establishment of quiet and peace – within ourselves and around us. From this position we can also understand the referenceto heavenly light, more required than ever.