The Chaos of Our Time – Tatjana Arambašin Slišković

It seems that these paintings want to reveal to us the world of speed, technology, skyscrapers, cars, and the constant rush that characterizes our time. As the painter is also involved in photography, he often incorporates them into his paintings and redefines them with color, creating strange effects. Some of his works are installations, as besides photography, the images are enriched with sculpture (relief) that is installed within the picture frame. Two miniature paintings provide a view into their interior; through small openings, one can see the outlines of the Pope and a famous singer.

Aware of the changes in the world of painting and those in everyday life, Varzić confronts old paintings and their painters with today’s situation. In the center of the painting, we can admire the portrait of a woman representing Gioconda, but behind her shoulders, we notice the dense urban traffic among skyscrapers. In another picture, we recognize Velázquez’s Infanta, that is, her photograph creatively integrated into the image.

Among the paintings, there is also a portrait of Picasso, the artist who marked the painting of our century, behind whose figure, on a red background, we see a bull falling onto the land, fatally wounded in a fight. Eugen Varzić fought in the war as a volunteer, and that terrible experience deeply affected his thoughts. The memory of that time is surely represented by a painting depicting some soldiers and pilots, with the outlines of airplanes visible in the deserted sky. The painting that evokes the Last Supper fits symbolically into this cycle. All of this represents the world of the artist’s peers and the entire Coca-Cola generation (he uses cans for painting), the era of technology, and incessant wars. It is not wrong to claim that the artist paints his thoughts as they appear, as they emerge in the world that surrounds him, which surrounds all of us.