Janez Bernik

Biography

Bernik’s exhibition record counts more than sixty solo shows, but his path began modestly: at a school of applied arts in Ljubljana.

He was born on 6 September 1933 in the village of Gunclje near Ljubljana (it is now part of the city), then in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. His elder brother was the literary historian and academician France Bernik. After the school of applied arts, in 1951 Janez entered the Academy of Fine Arts in Ljubljana and graduated in 1955 from the painting class of Maksim Sedej. He stayed with Sedej for two more years in a specialised painting studio, and from 1956 to 1958 took a two-year course in printmaking with Božidar Jakac and Riko Debenjak. In 1959 the French government awarded him a scholarship to work in Johnny Friedlaender’s print workshop in Paris. He also travelled to study in Italy, France and other countries.

From 1958 to 1969 Bernik worked as a freelance artist. In 1963 he received the Prešeren Fund Award for painting and printmaking, and in 1971 the Jakopič Award for painting.

In 1970 he began teaching drawing and painting at the same Ljubljana academy, and from 1979 he was a full professor there. He headed the painting department in 1976–1981 and again from 1985 until his retirement in 1996. He belonged to Group 69 and took part in all its exhibitions. In 1981 he was given the Prešeren Award, the main Slovenian state prize for achievement in the arts. In 1989 he became a corresponding member of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, and in 1993 a full member. From 1992 he was an external corresponding member of the Accademia di San Luca in Rome, and from 1996 a full member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts in Salzburg. The University of Ljubljana presented him with its gold plaque (1996) and, after his retirement, the title of professor emeritus (1998). In 2001 he received the Herder Prize in Vienna, and in 2003 a Slovenian state decoration, the Golden Badge of Honour of Freedom.

His interests were wide: painting, sculpture, printmaking, illustration, woven wall hangings, book design, poetry. His etchings and aquatints of 1952–1992 appeared as a separate book in 1993. He issued four print portfolios, among them “Katharsis ad infinitum”, with nineteen screen prints (1997), and “Samote” (“Solitudes”, 2002). His poems were published in two groups: the first in the monograph “Črte” (“Lines”, 1977), the second, “Triptih” (“Triptych”), in the catalogue of a 1985 exhibition and in the magazine “Nova revija”. In 2010 came the large “Nočni dnevnik 1959–2009” (“Night Diary 1959–2009”), and a year later a book of linear drawings, “Hvala, mama” (“Thank You, Mother”). Among his cycles are “Katharsis”, “Bližina samote” (“Closeness of Solitude”), “Ljubezen za nič” (“Love for Nothing”) and the series “Slovenska Guernica” (“Slovenian Guernica”, 2001), which Slovenian writers describe as a testimony to the fate of the Slovenes. I find that reading hard to check: I have no images of the series.

He took part several times in the Venice Biennale and showed his work in Klagenfurt, Milan, Rome, Paris, Berlin, New York and the main galleries of the former Yugoslavia. His paintings are held by galleries in Ljubljana, Maribor, Ajdovščina and Idrija. His prints are in collections in London, Vienna, Prague, Zagreb, Warsaw, Paris, Rome and Amsterdam, as well as San Francisco, Washington, New York, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo.

Janez Bernik died on 15 July 2016 in Prebold. The monograph “Izbrana dela” (“Selected Works”) appeared in 2023, after his death.