Process – Marino Baldini

Eugen Varzić, a highly prolific author, showcases his unique expression of metaphysical space and color in his oil paintings on wood, featuring recognizable city landmarks that he knows intimately through composition and planned placement of figures. If not for the series of large, transcendentally sized works with prevailing focus on figures in the style of Leonardo, Raphael, and Nazarene artists, one could already speak of defined and completed wholes, a body of work that is advanced, far beyond the artist’s years of studying fine arts at the Pedagogy Faculty in Rijeka.

The fact that Eugen is still exploring, evident through his constant creation and the numerous works produced for a painter of his age, results in separate series of compositions, with an artistic expression particularly noteworthy in the metaphysics of medium-sized spaces and colors. While series of sketches for larger dimensioned scenographies, with distinctive pop-art features, and other works won’t be exhibited in this presentation, they still bear witness to how Eugen’s work can provide unexpected excursions due to the diversity and richness of interests in his oil paintings, where various experiences intertwine alongside comic book influences.

The artist is familiar with the cultural ambiance of the Slavonian plains, and its melancholy is discernible in the spatial fragmentation, reminiscent of the interwar Padska school and atmosphere. In this sense, the metaphysical depth of expression in these works is suggested, representing him in Slavonski Brod. However, beyond Slavonski Brod and the Pannonian region, the figures in our paintings can also be connected to an important Slavonian monument in the artist’s hometown, Đakovo. Indirectly or directly, the works of Seitz and other followers of German Nazarenes, alongside Caravaggioesque ambiances and perhaps, to a lesser extent, High Renaissance painters, could have sparked Varzić’s interest, provoking a reaction in his recognizable exploration. In such collections of surrealist inclination, the texture and morphology of the pastose or glazed layers of the exhibited works testify to the care and attention to detail and craftsmanship.

The process of creation, evident in the works presented to the audience in his hometown, the environment from which he embarked on his highly active journey, is just one episode, but a very significant one. It belongs to the time when he defined his own creative aspirations, alongside continuous searching, studying, and exploring, until the moment when his expressive process gradually gains the desired dimension from its current contours. This, of course, does not diminish the value of the exhibited works here, the works that were created during a crucial process for every artist.

In this constant endeavor, we rightfully expect new surprises and exhibitions from him.