Lojze Spacal 100LET - Biografia

first arrest and exile (internal) to Accetura, in south- between the victorious Allies and Yugoslavia on the
ern Italy, an experience that marked him, like other one hand, and defeated Italy on the other. Following
antifascists, forever. Spacal returned from Accetura an the liberation, he immediately joined those who were
artist, for it was there that he had discovered his pas- calling for the unification of all Slovenes in a single
sion for art. From his first amateur public artistic activ- State. Along with other activists from the Primorska
ity, painting stayed with him his entire life. Even later, region, he began painting, photographing and docu-
when he returned to his native Trieste after studying menting Slovene monuments and the roots of
art in various Italian cities, the secret police did not Slovene ethnic presence in this territory. Everything
leave him alone. His optimistic nature helped him sur- that these enthusiasts did in the months leading up to
vive the Fascist oppression, but images of this suffer- the signing of the Treaty of Paris is conserved in a
ing frequently crept into the motifs of his work. His great multitude of files kept by the Archive of the
human distress at this situation is thematically con- Republic of Slovenia.
densed in his works from this period and later.
The question of the future borders of Slovenia preoc-
The Second World War did not spare him either. The cupied Slovenes throughout the war, and there had
execution of Pinko Tomažič and his comrades outside always been a great deal of interest in this issue along
Villa Opicina in 1941, the burning of Branik, Komen the Ljubljana-Zagreb-Belgrade axis. For this reason,
and other Karst villages in February 1944, the shoot- following the capitulation of Italy, the annexation of
ing of 72 hostages in Villa Opicina in 1944, the hang- the Slovene Littoral to Slovenia was proclaimed, first
ing of 52 hostages at the music school in Via Ghega in Slovenia (16 September 1943) and then in Jajce, in
in Trieste in 1944, the concentration camp in the Bosnia (29 November 1943). Since everyone was
Risiera di San Sabba (a former rice mill) in Trieste, aware that it would be necessary to fight for this
the sending of prisoners to German camps, and Nazi proclamation in the international arena at the end of
and Fascist violence against the civilian population: the war, in January 1944 the Slovene National
all of these events marked him forever. He bore his Liberation Council, at that time the supreme political
own woes with a strong will, but was never able to authority, founded a Scientific Institute in Kočevski
accept the suffering of ordinary people. In the face of Rog. Under the aegis of the Institute, various experts
the bloody oppression that affected relatives, friends, collected material about the borders. Historians, geog-
acquaintances from youth associations and, indeed, raphers, lawyers, doctors, musicians, painters, engi-
almost the whole of Trieste society, Spacal could not neers and other intellectuals, each according to their
remain idle. Despite being under police surveillance, abilities, collaborated on preparations for the
he made every effort to join the resistance movement inevitable diplomatic dispute that loomed at the end
that was being conducted from a Slovene carpenter's of the war. With the liberation of the Slovene Littoral
workshop in Trieste. Since both the Gestapo and the and Trieste, in other words the liberation of the whol-
Italian political police were watching this workshop, ly Slovene hinterland and the ethnically mixed towns
this almost cost him detention in the Risiera concen- of Trieste, Gorizia, Monfalcone, Koper, Izola and
tration camp. It was only through the intervention of Piran, the last word had still not been spoken with
a prominent Triestine who admired his art that he regard to the postwar destiny of this area, and uncer-
managed to avoid this fate. tainty over whether it would belong to one State or
the other was to last another decade.
Spacal emerged from these cruel war years an artiste
engagé, an activist in the cause of peace and the coex- In May 1945, when the Scientific Institute moved to
istence of the different peoples of his native region. Ljubljana, the Trieste and Gorizia branches joined it in
Following the defeat of Nazism and Fascism in 1945, its work. The awareness that the state of tension had
he offered his services to the victors in the sphere not eased, and that the front between Italy and
where he was best able to help. He placed his brush Yugoslavia was still active, united the participants in
and his camera at the service of Slovene aspirations the scientific process and forced them to cooperate,
for national unification in a single country, a desire since they had to convince international experts and
that had been present in Trieste ever since 1848, and diplomats that the border agreed in Rapallo in 1920
joined other experts in the process of raising aware- was unfair and based not on ethnic arguments but on
ness of the indigenous Slovene presence in an area political considerations.1
which had become the subject of peace negotiations

49Življenjepis in bibliografija

To this end the Scientific Institute in Ljubljana, in con- departments and commissions, along with the work
junction with the Institute for the Study of of the other authorities, had a profound impact on the
International Questions at the Ministry of Foreign established administration in the region. Measures,
Affairs in Belgrade and the Adriatic Institute in Sušak, ordinances and laws derived from the reformatory
prepared several studies on the national and ethno- spirit of a new society. In the opinion of the reform-
graphic picture of the Slovene Littoral and Istria ers, it was the mistakes of the past that had led to the
before 1918, several papers on the Italian denational- horrors of the Second World War, and it was there-
isation policy from the Soča to Snežnik and from fore quite understandable that people should accept
Rijeka to Lastovo between 1918 and 1941, details of these attempts at reform with a good deal of under-
the Italian attack on Yugoslavia in 1941 and the war standing. A combination of circumstances meant that
crimes committed in the annexed Ljubljana and Rijeka the Provincial NLC only held full governing authority
provinces between 1941 and 1943, and copious data from 1 May 1945 to 12 June 1945. Following the
on Italian collaboration with the Germans in the bru- signing of the Belgrade Agreement (9 May 1945), it
tal reprisals in Istria and the Slovene Littoral. After the was stripped of its governing function and became a
end of the war it became clear both to politicians and mere advisory body, directing all its efforts towards
to the population at large that the determination of the struggle for the incorporation of the Slovene
the new border would not be decided by, for exam- Littoral and Trieste into Yugoslavia.3
ple, the fact that the Provincial National Liberation
Committee for the Slovene Littoral (the Provincial The leaders of the Provincial NLC understood that
NLC) had controlled the whole of the Slovene solid diplomatic experience would prevail, and that in
Littoral, except the major towns, from September the marketplace of international argumentation,
1944, or that on 1 May 1945 units of the Yugoslav knowledge and technical evidence would weigh more
army had defeated German and Italian forces and lib- than popular activism. For this reason, during the
erated the entire territory of the Julian March. summer of 1945, the Provincial NLC passed a reso-
Furthermore, some decisions of the Allies such as the lution on the foundation of a Study Section, the run-
expulsion of Yugoslav forces from Trieste, Gorizia and ning of which was entrusted to Dušan Rybař, Boris
Monfalcone in June, and the establishment of two Zajc, Roman Pahor and Angel Kukanja. In collabora-
parallel administrations - the Allied Military tion with the Department for Border Issues in
Administration for Zone A and the Military Ljubljana, headed by Lojze Ude, and the Institute for
Administration of the Yugoslav Army for Zone B of the Study of International Questions in Belgrade,
the former Julian March - suggested that at the peace headed by Fran Zwitter, the Section, along with its
conference the Allies were going to favour Italian experts and collaborators, threw itself into the prepa-
interests over Slovene aspirations with regard to the ration of the reports, brochures, books and other
Slovene Littoral and Trieste. These aspirations were material created in 1945 and 1946 as evidence of the
represented in the Slovene Littoral by the Provincial justifiability of claims for the unification of the
NLC.2 This was the highest administrative authority Slovene Littoral with the mother country. One of the
in the province and at the same time a political pillar first important tasks of the Study Section, besides the
of the new system based on the rule of the people amassing of a great variety of data and regular propa-
and a socialist ideology. A month after the liberation, ganda work, was the collection of signatures in favour
the Provincial NLC, with the provisional permission of the incorporation of the Slovene Littoral into
of the Allies, began governing the territory from Yugoslavia. This signature campaign, which took
Postojna to Trieste and from Bovec to the mouth of place in late August 1945, could be categorised as a
the Soča (the Isonzo), thus announcing in the most plebiscitary exercise designed to demonstrate,
serious way possible its presence in the Gulf of through weight of numbers, the will of the inhabitants
Trieste. The new government brought with it much with regard to the national affiliation of this territory.
that was new and beneficial, both in the economic The collecting of signatures throughout the Slovene
sphere and in the spheres of social security, health, Littoral and Trieste was done rapidly: within six days
culture and education, although owing to the brief the organisers had collected approximately 220,000
duration of this period many plans remained in the signatures. The Yugoslav delegates at the meeting of
embryonic phase. All of these changes and the refor- the Council of Foreign Ministers in London in the
matory work of the Provincial NLC, its sections,

50 Lojze Spacal

autumn of 1945 presented these signatures as one of cal/documentary nature, intended for the boundary
the proofs of the plebiscitary decision of the popula- experts and, of course, prepared in time for the
tion of the Julian March. One of the resolutions of the demarcation negotiations in Paris.
meeting in London was the decision to appoint an
international boundary commission of experts to The period of the preparations for the arrival of the
study the true situation on the ground in Primorska, international boundary commission also saw the plan-
to collect data on the Slovene, Croat and Italian pop- ning and organisation of two exhibitions. The first
ulations of the zone, and to prepare a proposal for the was designed to show the achievements of the nation-
drawing of the border between the two States. The al liberation struggle in the Julian March and Trieste,
basic criteria were also agreed: for the most part the while the second covered ethnology, geography, his-
border should coincide with the ethnic border. There tory and economy. The exhibited material consisted
now followed, from October 1945 to June 1946, a of objects and photographs demonstrating the extent
period of extraordinarily intensive work both in of Slovene settlement from the beginnings of Slovene
Trieste and in Ljubljana and Belgrade. Everyone was presence in this area.5 Naturally the preparation of
getting ready for the arrival of the international these exhibitions also involved intensive cooperation
boundary commission, which reached Trieste at the between Trieste, Gorizia and Ljubljana. We learn from
beginning of March 1946. a brief note sent by the Study Section to the Press
Office in Ljubljana that in late January 1946 Lojze
October 1945 saw the start of a campaign to docu- Spacal brought three photographs of Barkovlje to
ment the natural and local beauties of the Trieste and Pfeifer in Ljubljana for processing, and that these were
Gorizia areas. By order of the Press Office of the intended for the historical/ethnographic exhibition.6
National Government of Slovenia, the painter Lojze
Spacal and the photographer Marjan Pfeifer began The editor of Primorski dnevnik, Stanislav Renko, then
photographing natural and local sights of interest in selected material for the exhibition designed to present
the Trieste and Gorizia areas and notable examples of the national liberation struggle in Primorska and Istria,
popular culture within the borders of Zone A. As can and took it to Belgrade, where it was incorporated into
be made out from the documents of the study section the exhibition on the struggle of the Yugoslav peoples
for the Gorizia area, the painter Lojze Spacal (as men- that took place in Paris between 19 June and 15 July
tor), the photo-reporter Marjan Pfeifer, and Ludvik 1946. The exhibition was held at the Théâtre des
Zorzut, an expert on the places and people of the Ambassadeurs and accompanied by a brochure con-
Gorizia area, set off on their journey through Goriška taining numerous motifs from the Slovene Littoral.
Brda and other localities on 19 and 20 October Section II of the Archive of the Republic of Slovenia
1945.4 Their journey led them across the Brda hills contains a poster advertising this exhibition.7
and Vrhovlje into the valley of the Soča, across Kanal,
Čiginj, Volče, Kobarid, Bovec and on to Trenta, back The most important contribution of the Trieste Study
to Plave, and to Sveta Gora passing Solkan and Section was without a doubt its collaboration on the
Gorizia. The emphasis was above all on folk and formulation of the Memorandum of the Provincial
ethnographic curiosities that could be considered NLC, the aim of which was to persuade the interna-
characteristic of the Slovenes. The photographer's tional public that the Slovene Littoral was part of
lens captured houses, wells, individual items, individ- Slovenia. The Memorandum contained historical and
ual people, and the mountain world, the "paradise" ethnographic data, photographs, maps and other
of the poet Simon Gregorčič, around Kobarid and extremely valuable material that was supposed to
Bovec, all the way to Trenta and the highest mountain serve as a basis to help people elsewhere understand
peaks. They also prepared photographs for the Karst, that the Slovene nation was a historic nation. "This
Istria and the Vipava area. They also delivered their Memorandum was handed to the Inter-Allied
collected photographs to the Press Office in Ljubljana, Boundary Commission by the Provincial NLC for the
so that they would be available both to the depart- Slovene Littoral and Trieste" - this statement, in
ments in Trieste and Gorizia and to the Department Slovene, Croatian and Italian, appears on the first
for Border Issues in Ljubljana. The photographs were page of the Memorandum which a delegation of the
also used in the preparation of the various books, Provincial NLC, headed by France Bevk, handed to
brochures and reports, most of them of a histori- the members of the international boundary commis-
sion in March 1946 in Trieste. The full series consist-
ed of three parts: the first part of the Memorandum

51Življenjepis in bibliografija

contained a map of the Julian March with ethno- ment.10 In December 1946 a decree of the Presidency
graphic and economic sections; the second contained of the Provincial NLC for the Slovene Littoral and
a presentation of the struggle of the inhabitants of the Trieste appointed Lojze Spacal president of the
Julian March for freedom and the right to self-deter- Commission for the Erection of National Monu-
mination; the third part contained information on the ments.11
province and the peoples living there. The publication
was accompanied by 93 pictures and drawings. All the At the end of May 1946, when the work and the focus
sections consisted of individual sheets inserted into of attention shifted to Paris, the work of the Study
closed folders with hard covers. A selection was made Section diminished considerably, and by the end of the
from this extensive material for the Memorandum that year had ended altogether. An extraordinary period
the delegation submitted to the boundary commission. both for Slovene science and culture and for contem-
The Memorandum was also translated into English, porary Slovene politics was over. Following the dra-
French and Russian and submitted to the Council of matic events of 1945 and 1946, the Treaty of Paris was
Foreign Ministers in Paris in May 1946.8 signed on 10 February 1947. Part of Primorska was
incorporated into Italy (Val Canale, Slavia Veneta,
Once the boundary commission had completed its Resia, Gorizia and part of Goriška Brda/Collio);
work on the ground and left to begin preparing its another part went to Yugoslavia; and a third part went
report for the meeting of the Council of Foreign to the newly established Free Territory of Trieste.
Ministers in Paris (25 April to 16 May 1946), the
Provincial NLC decided to send a delegation of Notes:
Primorska Slovenes to Paris with a great variety of
material to try and convince the French public and the 1 The Scientific Institute of the Presidency of the Slovene National Liberation
world in general that this area was inhabited by Council was founded on 12 January 1944 and was based in Rog. Its president
Slovenes and Croats as well as by Italians. The dele- was Dr Fran Zwitter. For more on this see: France Škerl, "Znanstveni inštitut",
gation set off for Paris in late April 1946. It consisted Zgodovinski časopis, Ljubljana, vol. XIX-XX, 1965-66, pp. 31-61.
of representatives of Slovenes, Croats from Istria and
Italians, and was led by the writer France Bevk, the 2 Metka Gombač has written about the Regional NLC in her book Pokrajinski
chairman of the Provincial NLC. All were very active NOO za Slovensko primorje in Trst 1944-1947, Ljubljana 2003.
in forging personal contacts, in organising press con-
ferences and in promoting their views. They distrib- 3 The Belgrade Agreement dividing the Julian March into two occupation zones
uted brochures and reports printed in various lan- was signed by the Yugoslav Government and the Governments of the Allied
guages, they published a newsletter in which they Powers on 9 June 1945. Zone A, with its centre in Trieste, was taken over by
reported on conditions in the Julian March, they the Allied Military Administration, while Zone B, with its centre in Ajdovščina,
explained and demonstrated their positions with was assigned to the Military Administration of the Yugoslav Army.
regard to all current issues relating to Slovenes and
Croats in this territory. The French compromise pro- 4 AS 1816 District NLC for the Gorizia District, box 10.
posal still left some hope with regard to Gorizia, 5 The international boundary commission was appointed in September 1945 at
Goriška Brda (the Brda/Collio hills) and Monfalcone
(Tržič), so in July 1946 Dr Fran Zwitter, the expert his- the meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers in London. The job of the com
torian present at the negotiations in Paris, requested mission was to inspect the situation on the ground and then determine the
the Gorizia Study Section to prepare data and maps border. Between 7 March and 5 April 1946 the members of the commission
for the city of Gorizia and for Goriška Brda.9 visited localities in the two zones of the Julian March and then prepared
boundary demarcation proposals.
6 AS 1818 Regional NLC for the Slovene Littoral and Trieste, box 56.
7 Metka Gombač, "Razstava v Parizu", Glasnik ZRS Koper, No 3 (The Treaty
of Paris), Koper 1997.
8 Vlasta Beltram, "Spomenici", Glasnik ZRS Koper, No 3 (The Treaty of Paris),
Koper 1997.
9 AS 1818 Regional NLC for the Slovene Littoral and Trieste, box 13/II
and box 1/IV.
10 AS 1818 Regional NLC for the Slovene Littoral and Trieste, box 56.
11 AS 1818 Regional NLC for the Slovene Littoral and Trieste, box 10.

During its period of greatest activity - before and after
the arrival of the international boundary commission
- the Study Section in Trieste employed 14 people.
The Section was also known at this time as the
Institute for the Study of the Julian March in Trieste.
A surviving letter from this period, dated 18 May
1946, tells us that Lojze Spacal was relieved of his
duties at the Cultural Commission and appointed rap-
porteur of the historical and ethnographic depart-

52 Lojze Spacal

Lara Štrumej decorators, in inns, shops, at the shipyard and bakery
made the life of his family easier. He particularly liked
Biography working in the bakery. He made bread deliveries with a
donkey. Together with children of his age from other poor
1907 families he stole charcoal from trains and sold it until one
of his companions lost both his legs in an accident. As an
Lojze Spacal was born on 15 June 1907 in Trieste in apprentice at the shipyard he discussed social injustices
an attic room of the house at Rossetti Street No. 20, a and national oppression. He attended the meetings of the
prestigious address at the time. He was the oldest of three socialist circle at St James', deepening his anti-fascist opin-
children of Marija, née Novak, and Andrej Spacal, both ions and establishing connections with other individuals
from Kostanjevica na Krasu. His mother was a laundress who shared his views about antifascist activities.
and his father a stonecutter. His father at first worked in
the Aurisina quarries and later, after he lost his job, as a 1923-25
mason in Trieste.
He was founder and president of Zarja Youth Society
1910 in Roiano. He was also a founding member of many
other Slovene youth societies in Tomaj, Pliskovica and
His sister Dragica was born. Little Lojze spent many other villages. These societies organised meetings, short
happy days with his grandparents in Kostanjevica. He theatre performances and trips to the mountains, during
never forgot the many colourful images of saints on glass, which Slovene was spoken and Slovene songs were
works by different self-taught rural craftsmen, which his sung. Because of his anti-fascist Slovene patriotic senti-
pious ancestors, including his grandmother, had brought ments he was prosecuted by the fascist authorities and
from various pilgrimages. Perched on a high bed, he consequently imprisoned and exiled.
admired these images fixed on the white walls of his
grandmother's room with their blue, red and yellow 1925-27
colours glistening in the sunrays that penetrated the half-
closed shutters. Although the fascists abolished all youth societies,
they could not prevent young people from continuing
1912 their work. Spacal joined the most rebellious group con-
sisting of Ferdo Bidovec, Zvonimir Miloš, Alojz Valenčič
His sister Ana was born. and Franjo Marušič.

1914 1929

After war broke out, his father was called up to serve When the fascists arrested Bidovec, Miloš, Valenčič
in the army. Soon afterwards he died of typhoid. The life and Marušič, Spacal tried to avoid arrest by escaping to
of the already impoverished Spacal family became even Switzerland. At first he hid at the home of his uncle
harder after the father's death. The mother and children Anton, who had been transferred as a railwayman to
moved from the attic apartment in Rossetti Street to the Lombardy near the Swiss border. From there he tried to
suburbs of Trieste, to a small house in Lloyd Street, now make it over to Switzerland with police close behind him,
Campi Elisi. Not long after the father's death, Spacal's sis- but he was caught at the border and sent to the infamous
ter Ana died. The mother had Lojze educated at the Regina Coeli prison in Rome. There, he spent two
Slovene primary school of Sts Cyril and Methodius at St months in solitary confinement, waiting for the trial. The
James' church in Trieste. Despite the fact that the school artist often said that he began thinking about painting
was new and beautiful, he did not remember it fondly. while in prison. Then he and some other prisoners were
He could not forget the bitter encounters with his teach- sent to Trieste, where he was held in captivity for anoth-
ers who often resorted to corporal punishment. He er few months. Despite a lack of evidence, on 12 June
would have preferred to attend the Italian school where 1930 the Trieste authorities exiled him to southern Italy,
his friends were educated. to the village of Accettura in the Basilicata province.

1918 1930-32

Because his mother had difficulties providing for the In order to survive his exile, as well as financially
family, Lojze decided to quit school and contribute to the assist his mother and sister, he took up various jobs
family's livelihood with earnings from odd jobs. He was including photography. He asked his family to send him
proud that his modest earnings from working for interior

53Življenjepis in bibliografija

the old Leica camera that his uncle Anton had given him. ly from Poreč, and others. These teachers instilled dis-
He immediately set to work. He photographed weddings, tinctly modern aesthetic tendencies in their students.
communions, confirmations, funerals, various traditions During his studies he supported himself with odd jobs: as
and festivals, and he portrayed the locals. He quickly a substitute teacher at different schools, as a photogra-
gained their trust. He converted his modest rented room pher and in other ways. He had decided to study in
into a darkroom. But as an exile he soon lost his pho- Monza because he was hoping to secure employment at
tographer's licence and was forced to surrender his busi- the Trieste shipyard, where interior decorators were
ness to a local man. Disappointed, he found new employ- needed to furnish transatlantic ships. He soon began to
ment and income in the nearby carpenter's shop, where cooperate with the well-known Trieste ship decorator
he painted coffins. Because of a malaria epidemic, the Gustavo Pulitzer, who had worked with Avgust Černigoj.
carpenters were busy making coffins, many of which He studied privately at the Brera Academy in Milan,
were intended for children. Out of compassion for a where he mingled with the Corrente movement, which
deceased four-year old and her poor parents, and per- comprised most painters in Lombardy. Among them, he
haps also because of his memories of his own departed was greatly influenced by Arnaldo Badodi, Renato Birolli
little sister, Spacal, who was a carpenter's assistant, dec- and Renato Gatuso.
orated a coffin for the little girl, despite the fact that her
parents could afford only the simplest coffin. Decorated Spacal designed the cover of the book entitled Vesele
with butterflies and flowers, the coffin attracted general zgodbe (Merry Stories), published by Goriška matica
admiration. The artist continued to decorate coffins in (Unione editoriale Goriziana). Illustrations for the book
exchange for oil and wheat and gradually he gained even were contributed by several other artists.
the respect of the local authorities. But the realisation
that his life mission was painting, which was born while 1937
doing this work, was more valuable to young Spacal than
the reputation he enjoyed among the villagers. Therefore His first participation in a group exhibition of Trieste
during his exile he studied for his matriculation exam at artists held in Trieste.
the Venice art lyceum.
1938
On 17 September he was allowed to return home,
finally arriving in Trieste in October after a long journey. In May he met his future wife Milojka Vodopivec at a
Slovene youth gathering in Livek.
1936
1939
The certificate of the Venice art lyceum, where he
passed a private matriculation exam, bears the date 23 After three years of studies he returned to Trieste and
October 1936. Soon afterwards he passed a qualifying supported himself by drawing textile patterns. He
exam in drawing in Rome. explored various techniques from intarsia, cut, stained
and etched glass, different fabrics, lace, book design,
Occasionally he taught at various vocational second- poster and fresco.
ary schools and at the teacher's college in Trieste. He
was a substitute teacher because he could not obtain reg- He designed the cover of the book Osemnajst velikih
ular employment due to his "suspicious" political past (Eighteen Great Ones) by Andrej Budal, published by
and because he was not a member of the fascist party. He Goriška matica (Unione editoriale Goriziana). His name
was not comfortable with his role as a teacher as he was is given here as S. Spacal (Slavko Spacal).
convinced that an artist should concentrate fully on his
mission. 1940

He was friends with Pino Tomažič and his sister Dani, At Jerco Hall, where dances were held, he secretly pre-
with whom he often went on biking trips as we learn from pared his first exhibition, introducing himself to the Trieste
the novel Newlyweds from Rossetti Street by Fulvio public with linocuts and monotypes, some of which were
Tomizza. But this lasted only until police arrested Pino on 2 bought by Slovene intellectuals. A short text in the bilin-
June 1940. He was sentenced to death in December 1941. gual Slovene-Italian invitation was written by Vladimir
Milett. In the invitation, the artist called himself both
Spacal enrolled at the decorative art institute in Monza Slavko Spacal (Slovene) and Luigi Spacal (Italian). He
(Instituto Superiore Artistico per l'Arte Decorativa di said that his oil paintings were a substitute for a child's
Monza). He studied under Profs Semeghini, De Grada, dream that he was denied during his bitter childhood,
Pica, the architect Pagano (Pogačnik), who was original- whereas critics labelled them as "fantastic realism". Later
they were classified as works of magic realism.

54 Lojze Spacal

He designed the furnishings of the ships the Oceania drawing. After his release he was arrested again in Trieste
and the Neptunia. For each, he made eight decorative and sent to a labour battalion in Sarzano, Tuscany, where
wooden panels. The panels of the Neptunia featured he was enlisted and transferred to Forte de Marmi near
vedute - large scale cityscapes - of eight Italian cities. Viareggio. There he met his former teacher Pagano, who
was a reserve colonel. A socialist, Pagano supplied
1941 Spacal with illegal literature, including the socialist bul-
letin Avanti. He also allowed Spacal to spend several
He made a decorative panel for the ship the Saturnia. hours every day working on his art. But the good rela-
tions between the Italian army colonel and Slovene exile
1942 were exposed and Spacal was transferred to Ceccina in
southern Italy, where he stayed until the capitulation of
In February he held an exhibition at Galleria della fascist Italy. While in confinement, he read Italian litera-
Permanente in Milan together with six other artists from ture, particularly works by Massimo Bontempelli, and
Trieste: the painters Riccardo Bastianutto, Avgust also poetry by Federico García Lorca.
Černigoj, Adolfo Levier, Maria Lupieri and Anita Pittoni,
and the sculptor Ugo Carà. Spacal had already met 1943
Černigoj before the war, but later they maintained a spe-
cial relationship of friendly competition. The renowned On 10 May his son Savo was born in Dornberk. Until
art critic Agnoldomenico Pica wrote about the exhibition the end of the war, his wife remained with the child in
in the Milan art magazine Domus. He illustrated his arti- Dornberk, where her mother and sister Zdenka both
cle with a whole-page colour print of a painting by helped look after him. During this time Spacal lived at
Spacal. His favourable interest in Spacal's work Cassala Street No. 81 in Trieste, where he probably also
expressed in one of the leading Italian specialised art had his studio.
magazines opened the door of general art circles to the
artist. He began to send his works to various group and 1944
national exhibitions in Rome, Turin, Florence and
Venice. On 20 January Spacal's first major solo exhibition
opened at Galleria d'arte "Al Corso" in Trieste. In
Spacal was friends with Anita Pittoni; the painter autumn he held a solo exhibition at the gallery Il Milione
helped him sell his paintings in Milan and he met the in Milan. According to Boris Pahor, the first exhibition
writer Giani Stuparich among her friends. was particularly important for patriotic Slovenes in
Trieste, because "… in January 1944 Slovene under-
He made etched glass with naval motifs for the deco- ground activists passed secret messages about meetings
ration of the interior of the admiral's ship the Roma and to one another at Spacal's exhibition on the corso in
the warship the Vittorio Veneto. There were twenty Trieste…", whereas the second drew the attention of
square pieces of glass in the salons of the Roma and Italian art critics.
three round ones aboard the Vittorio Veneto.
He and his family moved to Sara Davis Street in
The priest Bernardin Godnič commissioned him to Roiano but he kept his studio in Trieste.
paint fresco and sgrafitto murals for the renovated interi-
or of the church of St George's in Gradno pri Kojskem, 1945
Goriška Brda. He enjoyed making the murals and,
according to Fran Šijavec, soon after he completed them Together with the architects Zorko Lah and Franjo
the artist admitted that he preferred frescoes to all other Kosovel he cooperated with the Liberation Front. Spacal
techniques and that he felt like a true painter only when and Kosovel were also members of the Liberation Front
he was standing dressed in a worker's overalls in front of monument protection committee. Members of this com-
a bare wall. mittee travelled to villages where locals wished to erect a
monument to the local victims of the war. They supplied
On 18 April he married Milojka Vodopivec of general advice, helped select the most appropriate loca-
Dornberk, Vipavska Dolina. She was from a patriotic tion and assisted with the revision of mostly already com-
family of Slovene teachers and was a teacher herself. pleted plans.
Slovene students from Gorizia and Trieste gathered at
their warm home in Dornberk and set out on moun- After the war, Spacal presented his works at a group
taineering trips together. exhibition of artists from the Littoral at Galleria d'arte "Al
Corso" in Trieste and at a group exhibition of artists from
Soon afterwards he was arrested and sent to the Trieste at Jakopič Pavilion in Ljubljana. As a political exile
prison camp at the Corropoli monastery in Abruzzi. He
spent several months there, during which he did a lot of

55Življenjepis in bibliografija

he had long been without a passport, so this was his first 1948
trip to Ljubljana. He met Oton Župančič and Prežihov
Voranc. Later he met and frequently visited Stane Kregar, His first participation at the Venice Biennial; he exhib-
Maksim Sedej and Marij Pregelj, with whom he discussed ited four linocuts from 1945-47 at the Italian Pavilion.
art. He exchanged drawings with Sedej and Pregelj. After
the war he rediscovered the Karst, a region that he loved He contributed a drawing for the cover of a volume of
in his childhood. He collected folk artefacts, images on short stories Moj tržaški naslov (My Address in Trieste)
glass, wooden statues and majolicas. He claimed that of by Boris Pahor, which was published by Gregorčičeva
all the things that he had seen and appreciated, he felt založba in Trieste.
most closely connected with folk art.
1949
He and Marijan Pfeifer were authorised by the Press
Office of the Ministry of the Slovene National He financed the publication of his first monograph.
Government to create a photographic record of natural, The Slovene edition featured a text by Boris Pahor and
ethnographic and cultural sites in the Trieste and Gorizia the Italian by Marcello Paoli. The monograph was sold
region of Zone A. On 19 and 20 October the painter and at the Štoka bookshop in Trieste and at the artist's studio.
photographer, accompanied by Ludvik Zorzut, travelled
to Friuli Venezia Giulia and shot several rolls of film with He participated in the artistic design of the exhibition
a Leica. Over a hundred photographs are preserved. Economic Activities of the Yugoslav Zone in the Trieste
They were printed at the photographic department of the Territory, which was set up in Koper. He designed the
Press Office of the Presidency of Slovene National ninth pavilion, which was dedicated to fishery and salt
Government. Their attribution remains unclear. making. He used enlarged prints of his photographs of
fishing nets, boats in Savudrija and other shots. He made
Gregorčičeva založba in Trieste published a play in and decorated several plaster consoles, decorated panels
three acts entitled Svet brez sovraštva (World without with shallow colour reliefs and designed posters for vari-
Hatred) by Mira Mihelič; the cover was designed by ous companies: Radiofonija, Bor, Riba, Arrigoni, Fructus,
Spacal. Zadružna mlekarna. Posters were also designed by other
participating artists, of whom the following are known
1946 today: Avgust Černigoj, Robert Hlavati, Rudolf Saksida,
Avrelij Lukežič, Jože Cesar and Avgust Andrej Bucik. The
He held a solo exhibition at Galleria d'arte Trieste. architect Franjo Kosovel also participated in the project.
Apart from a text by Giuseppe Marchiori, the tiny cata-
logue features a text written by the artist about his work, 1949-52
entitled "Moje naziranje" (My Views).
He held several exhibitions at the Scorpione Gallery
Gregorčičeva založba, Trieste, published two books in Trieste, either together with Slovene artists in Trieste
with his illustrations. He contributed twenty black and or on his own.
white illustrations for the book Triglavov polet (Triglav's
Flight) by Oskar Hudales and the cover and twelve black 1950
and white illustrations for the book Mladec Dragožit.
Zgodovinska povest za mladino (Young Dragožit: A He presented his works at the Exhibition of Paintings
Historical Tale for Young Readers) by Venceslav Winkler. and Graphic Prints by Trieste Artists at the Museum of
Modern Art in Ljubljana.
He designed the cover of Jadranski koledar (Adriatic
Calendar). 1951

1947 He financed the publication of a portfolio of twenty
woodcuts and linocuts with a Slovene text by France
On 21 December his second son Borut was born in Stele and an Italian text by Giuseppe Marchiori.
Trieste. The family moved from Roiano to Opicina,
Conconello Street No. 41, but he still kept his studio in 1952
Trieste, finally setting it up at Coroneo Street No. 1 after
the war. Until Spacal became well-established as an artist, He contributed several vignettes for Jadranski koledar
the family relied on his wife Milojka's salary, who (Adriatic Calendar); the publication also features repro-
worked as a teacher at the Opicina primary school. They ductions of Spacal's nine graphic prints and five draw-
lived there until 1963 when they moved to Trieste, ings.
Venezia Square No. 4.
He contributed a drawing for the first volume of col-
lected essays entitled Stvarnost in svoboda (Reality and
Freedom).

56 Lojze Spacal

1953 Yugoslav art scene for the artist. In the same year,
Slovene critics wrote about him extensively: both Zoran
He received an award for a graphic print at the 3rd Kržišnik and Emilijan Cevc in Naša sodobnost (Our
International Biennial of Contemporary Visual Art in Sao Times) magazine and Edvard Ravnikar in Arhitekt
Paolo. (Architect) magazine. The exhibition opened the evening
before the 1st International Biennial of Graphic Art at the
He made a carved panel for Banca di Napoli at Museum of Modern Art in Ljubljana. Spacal participated
Palazzo comunale in Trieste. in the Biennial and received an award from the Kmečka
knjiga publishing house. He participated in all the
He provided the artistic design for the second volume Ljubljana Graphic Art Biennials until 1999, always as
of collected essays, Stvarnost in svoboda (Reality and part of the Italian section.
Freedom); for the cover he used the same drawing as for
the first volume. He designed a glass mosaic entitled Rural Allegory for
the the Glavna zadružna zveza (Main Cooperative
1954 Association) building located at Tito Street (today
Slovenska Street) No. 41 in Ljubljana.
He held a solo exhibition at the Museum of Arts and
Crafts in Zagreb and at the Gallery of Fine Arts in Rijeka. In October he visited Paris and met Veno Pilon. He
only stayed in the art metropolis until January, however.
He painted a fresco of the sea at the First of May He saw it as decadent and he missed the Karst and its
Stadium in Trieste, a building by Edo Mihevc. During Bora winds. Later he often travelled to Paris and visited
renovation in 1997 the already paint-stained fresco Pilon, who surprised him with his simple lifestyle.
received significant damage, but it was restored with the
artist's permission the following year, so it still adorns the When architect Edo Mihevc created the interior deco-
wall as it did originally. rating of the Figovec Inn in Ljubljana, he used both orig-
inal graphic prints by Spacal and enlarged prints of his
Spacal was one of the founders of the Ljubljana other graphic works to cover the walls, as well as a fab-
International Biennial of Graphic Art; the first exhibition ric designed by the artist for the curtains and the uphol-
was planned for the following year. stery of the chairs and benches.
In the mid-1950s Spacal and his wife travelled to
He bought a house in Punta, Piran, in the immediate Macedonia. The artist was a member of a committee
vicinity of a church on the seashore. The house was ren- evaluating the local cultural heritage. His appointed driv-
ovated by his friend, the architect Edo Mihevc. By taking er took him to visit several places, of which he was par-
into account the local architectural tradition and the ticularly impressed by the old monasteries in the Lake
artist's own participation, Mihevc created a picturesque Ohrid area. The local medieval architecture, landscape
coastal atmosphere. The artist lived and worked several and culture in general fascinated him. Later he often said
months a year at the renovated house with a terrace that his experience of the Macedonian landscape had
offering a splendid view of the Savudrija peninsula, influenced his rediscovery of the Karst.
Strunjan, Trieste, Duino and Grado across the Bay of
Trieste. From there he often went to Savudrija and 1956
Sečovlje, where he observed fishermen and salt makers
at work, worked on his drawings and took photographs. He participated in the seventh Quadriennale of Rome
He organised exhibitions of his works and various recep- and received the award of the city of Rome, the Premio
tions in his new home, but only until the 1970s, when Cittá di Roma. His success did not go unnoticed: The
he renovated an old farmstead in Škrbina in the Karst Gallery of Modern Art in Rome purchased his painting
area. By then, mass tourism had already spoiled the orig- Sunset in Savudrija, while the Swedish gallery owner
inal atmosphere in Piran. Gradually he stopped going to and art dealer Selikowitz of Stockholm purchased forty-
that ancient town altogether. two paintings and eight wooden sculptures and set up
several exhibitions of Spacal's art in Sweden. Spacal
Spacal's preserved letters to Mihevc from 1954 speak worked for him for two years; he was supposed to send
of their friendship and confidence; the artist entrusted him another forty oil paintings.
Mihevc with the management of the funds in his bank
account in Slovenia. 1957

1955 He exhibited at Rive Gauche gallery in Paris and intro-
duced himself to the French public with a television interview.
He held his first large solo exhibition at the Museum
of Modern Art in Ljubljana; he exhibited paintings, graph-
ic prints and sculptures. The exhibition was a revelation
for the Slovene artistic circles and a breakthrough on the

57Življenjepis in bibliografija

Lojze Spacal and Zoran Mušič were invited to exhibit Cooperation with neighbouring Italy and with Forma
at the Bavarian National Museum in Munich. Spacal Viva of Portorož was planned, as well as the founding of
exhibited some 120 graphic prints from 1937-1957, an international school of graphic art and subsequently a
whereas Mušič chose to present 25 of his graphic prints. graphic art publishing house.

At the 29th Venice Biennial he exhibited eight wood- 1963
cuts with Karst motifs and received the prestigious Grand
Prix for drawing and graphic art. Spacal and his family moved from Opicina to Trieste,
to a narrow house with three floors at Venezia Square
He also received the top award at the 1st Triennial of No. 4. On the top floor he set up a new studio and
Colour Graphic Art in Grechen, Switzerland. moved his equipment from Coroneo Street, where his
studio had been based for many years. Despite interna-
He exhibited at the Göteborgs Konsthall and spent tional recognition and fame, he remained a simple, hard-
several months working in Sweden. His works were sold working and disciplined man, quiet and restrained, and
by the art dealer Selikowitz. completely dedicated to his work.

1958 Spacal was greatly respected as an interior decorator
of ships by the naval industries of Trieste and Italy in gen-
The architect Edo Mihevc again sought his coopera- eral. He won the public tender to furnish the transatlantic
tion: this time Spacal designed the decoration of pillars ship the Eugenio C; he designed a tapestry called
in the Hotel Palace in Ohrid, Macedonia; he opted for Enchanted City for the first class salon. His tapestry
carved-wood decorations. designs were brought to life by weavers in Novi Sad,
whom he trusted and greatly respected.
1959
He made a wooden collage for the lunette in the lobby
He won the public tender to furnishing the transat- of the renovated Tartini Theatre in Piran.
lantic ship the Leonardo da Vinci. He made three large
wooden panels for the first class restaurant. The panels 1964
measured a total of 30 square metres. When the ship set
out for its maiden voyage the following year, he was one The Slovene Cultural Centre in Trieste was completed
of the first passengers aboard. according to architect Edo Mihevc's plans; he intended to
have Trieste artists contribute works of art for the interi-
As an award winning artist of the Venice Biennale he or decoration. To this purpose, Spacal designed the tap-
held exhibitions at the Secession in Vienna; the exhibited estry Coastal City for the niche of the bar in the foyer.
graphic prints were later purchased by the Albertina of During the renovation of the theatre in 2001 the tapestry
Vienna and the Victoria and Albert Museum of London. was removed.

He received the Executive Council Award of the 3rd Boris Pahor's novel Mesto v zalivu (City in the Bay)
Ljubljana International Biennial of Graphic Art. was published, featuring four prints of Spacal's wood-
cuts: Morning in the Karst (1947), Bazovica (1945),
At the 3rd Italian Exhibition of Graphic Art in Venice Ruins in the Karst (1946) and Food for Partisans (1944).
he received the Grand Prix of the Ministry of Industry
and Trade for his woodcut Enchanted City. 1967
He held another exhibition in Vienna: he presented the
works he had created over the last two years at the The publishing houses Obzorja from Maribor and
Jakopič Pavilion. Založništvo tržaškega tiska from Trieste published a book
entitled Lojze Spacal with an introductory text by
Mladinska Knjiga published Boris Pahor's novel Kres Aleksander Bassin; the book was designed by Jože
v pristanu (Bonfire in the Harbour); he illustrated the Brumen.
cover and contributed two illustrations.
Director Jože Babič made a short, twelve-minute film
1962 entitled Barva spomina (The Colour of Memory) for
Viba Film production company. The script was written by
He exhibited his most recent painted wooden panels Giorgio Sestan and the expert consultant was Aleksander
and woodcuts at Mala Galerija in Ljubljana. Bassin.

The Piran Gallery, which was originally conceived of Mladinska knjiga published a portfolio of graphic prints
as a branch of the Museum of Modern Art in Ljubljana, from 1936-67, featuring texts by Zoran Kržišnik and Franco
was opened in Piran. Lojze Spacal coordinated activities Russoli. The portfolio was designed by Jože Brumen.
between Ljubljana and Piran. In summer the gallery was
to organise various exhibitions, but its main task was a
permanent display of contemporary Yugoslav art.

58 Lojze Spacal

The amateur film director and lawyer Pierpaolo Venier 1971
made a short experimental film, Spacal grafica (Spacal
Graphic Art), for the Asterisco Association in late 1967, He held another exhibition at Mala Galerija in
with which he wished to present Spacal's view of the Ljubljana, where he presented colour woodcuts from the
Karst and Istria. The film was shown as part of the special period 1966-1970 and the tapestry Karst Monument
selection at the Venice Film Festival the following year. from 1968.
A bibliophile edition of the book La Sacra Ostaria by
1968 Dušan Ferluga was published in Trieste; the cover fea-
tures Spacal's colour woodcut Karst Enclosure from
At the beginning of the year, Revoltella Museum 1957, whereas the book itself features works by five
marked the artist's sixtieth birthday with the exhibition Italian painters and Spacal's colour woodcut Still-life
Spacal: Opera grafica 1937-1967 (Spacal: Graphic from 1946 and Karst Woman from 1956.
Works 1937-1967); the total of 158 works were put on
display. The exhibition was accompanied by a portfolio 1972
of graphic prints resulting from international cooperation
between the publishing houses Scheiwiller of Milan and The Museum of Gorica marked the artist's 65th birth-
Mladinska knjiga of Ljubljana. The portfolio was printed day with a large exhibition at Kromberk Castle; in addi-
in 300 copies and was designed by Jože Brumen. Texts tion to 205 graphic prints, eight tapestries and seven
were contributed by Rudolfo Palluchini, Franco Russoli sculptures and matrixes were exhibited. On 17 June, the
and Giulio Montenero. On the opening night, 18 exhibition's opening day, the artist's home in Škrbina
January, the Slovene Club in Trieste dedicated a special was also open to the public.
event to the artist, during which the film Barva spomina
was screened; the guest speaker was France Stele. He designed a glass and stone mosaic for the lobby of
San Luigi primary school in Trieste.
Spacal designed a tapestry for the transatlantic ship
the Raffaelo. The publishing house Državna založba Slovenije pub-
lished Boris Pahor's book Grmada v pristanu (The Pyre
1969 in the Port) with a reproduction of Spacal's oil painting
Dog in Poreč from 1957 on the cover.
He bought a deserted farmstead in Škrbina in the
Karst and renovated it with his intuitive, inborn sense of During a long artistic crisis in the 1970s he visited
the rhythm, harmony, proportions and wholesomeness Accettura and the neighbouring areas with his wife. He
of Karst architecture and love for Karst heritage in gen- hoped that a visit to the once remote village in the mid-
eral, upgrading and transforming it into a harmonic dle of forests and fields, where the local population and
whole, where his spirit radiated from every detail. Later their rural life had reminded him of the people of the
he associated this undertaking with his duty to repay his Karst and where he received his calling as a painter,
debt to the Karst, a region where he always found inspi- would help him out of the crisis. Upon returning from his
ration for his artistic creativity and whose fast disappear- journey, he brought dozens of photographs of trulli -
ance due to new construction methods he sadly stone dwellings without windows and with a conical, dry
observed. In the following years he worked and spent masonry roof of flat stone, characteristic of Apulian tra-
summers there with his wife. He often organised various ditional architecture.
gatherings of Slovene and Italian artists, politicians, crit-
ics and curators at the house. 1973

In the late 1960s he purchased a Mamiya Super 23 He contributed stage design for the opera Nozze istri-
camera. He had previously used Rolleiflex, of which the ane (The Istrian Wedding) by Antonio Smaregli at
Rolleikin adaptor for Leica format film has been pre- Giuseppe Verdi Theatre in Trieste.
served.
The Motta publishing house of Milan published a port-
1970 folio of graphic prints entitled Fantasie carsiche (Karst
Fantasies) as part of the Il giorni colorati (Colourful
For his graphic print Moonshine in Savudrija he Days) series; the text was written by Giuseppe Marchiori.
received the Grand Prix of the 6th Blue Salon Biennial
Čovjek i more (Man and Sea) in Zadar. Glasbena Matica of Trieste issued a publication enti-
tled Orkester Glasbene matice - Trst 1953-1973
(Glasbena Matica Orchestra: Trieste 1953-1973); the
cover of the publication was designed by Spacal.

59Življenjepis in bibliografija

As an artist Spacal responded to the military coup in 1980
Chile. Even when getting on in years, he continued to be
deeply affected by various events across the world that Založništvo Tržaškega Tiska published the second edi-
changed the destinies of whole nations: the fascist tion of the poetry and graphic art portfolio Kosovel -
oppression of Slovenes and Second World War victims, Spacal: Kras-Carso-Karst. Fifteen graphic prints, original
the crushing of democratic forces in Chile in 1973 and woodcuts by Lojze Spacal, and fifteen poems by Kosovel,
later the wars in the Balkans. translated into Croatian, Italian and German, are accom-
panied by an essay by Ciril Zlobec.

1974 1981

He received the Prešeren Award for his graphic works After the completion of Edo Mihevc's most recent
and paintings. project, the Slovene Cultural Centre in Gorizia, whose
The Lipa publishing house of Koper published a book construction had begun back in 1974, the architect invit-
entitled Spacal in Kras (Spacal and the Karst) with an ed Spacal to work with him again. The artist designed a
introductory text by Zoran Kržišnik. A special feature of stone mosaic that adorns the wall of the atrium with
the book is Italo Zanniero's black and white photographs arcades connecting the theatre and sports hall and func-
of Karst architecture which, following an idea from tioning as an entrance to both of them.
Oskar Kogoj, are juxtaposed against graphic prints. A
year later the same publishing house in association with 1982
PB Studio Sas of Padua published an expanded Italian
edition called Il carso di Spacal ( Spacal and the Karst) He contributed stage and costume design for the per-
with an additional text by Giuseppe Marchiori. formance of Trittico by Antonio Illesberg at the Giuseppe
Verdi Theatre in Trieste.
The Centre of Graphic Art in Venice published a port-
folio of five silkscreen prints, Pietre del Carso (Karst The Mladinska knjiga publishing house published an
Stones), with a text by Virgilio Boccardi. extensive monograph entitled Lojze Spacal; the introduc-
tion was written by Gillo Dorfles, the foreword by Zoran
In the first half of the1970s Spacal bought a Yashica Kržišnik and other texts by Giuseppe Marchiori, Jure
Mat 124 G camera. Mikuž and Ina Stegen. The Italian edition of the mono-
graph was published by Arte e Pensiero in Florence and
1977 the American edition by Alpine Art in New York. The
monograph was first presented on 1 October 1983 in
Marking the artist's 70th birthday and 40 years of his Škrbina and later also in Trieste.
artistic creativity, three Trieste galleries - at San Giusto
Castle, in the great hall of the university and at Risiera - 1984
held a successful, popular exhibition called Luigi Spacal:
Mostra antologica (Lojze Spacal: An Anthology). The Friuli Venezia Giulia Region awarded him the
Golden Memorial Medal.
The Gruppo Giuliano Cronisti (Association of
Chronicles of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region) honoured 1986
him with the San Giusto d'Oro Award for his interna-
tional recognition as an artist and his contribution to the The Italian publishing house Venetemblemi published
cultural reputation of Trieste in the world. He was the the monograph Spacal. L'opera grafica 1935-1986, cata-
first Slovene recipient of this prestigious award. logo generale (Spacal: Graphic Oeuvre 1935-1986, A
Catalogue of Works) in 1,200 marked copies with an
1978 included graphic print. The Italian text was written by
Vittorio Sgarbi and was translated into Slovene, English
In Belgrade, the President of the Socialist Federal and German.
Republic of Yugoslavia Josip Broz Tito awarded him the
Golden Star Order of Merit for the Nation. In the early 1980s he bought a Praktica MTL 5B cam-
era, studio lights and a JVC video camera. Because he
1979 had difficulty mastering the video camera's functions, it
remained more or less unused.
He designed the tapestry Suspended Boats in
Savudrija for the Nuova Banca di Credito di Trieste .

60 Lojze Spacal

1987 sented him with the Bulino d'Oro Award for the most dis-
tinguished graphic art masters in the world.
On his eightieth birthday he received an acknowledge-
ment from the Slovene Cultural and Economic 1992
Association of Trieste: the Struggle and Work Award for
supreme artistic achievements that had drawn the atten- At Cankarjev dom Gallery, the exhibition Lojze
tion of the international public to his home area. Spacal. Kolaži - mešana tehnika 1963-91 (Lojze Spacal.
Collages: Mixed Media 1963 - 91) was put on display to
He became a corresponding member of the Slovene commemorate Slovene Culture Day. At this occasion, the
Academy of Sciences and Arts based in Ljubljana. artist expressed his joy at being able to exhibit in an inde-
pendent Slovenia.
Aljoša Žerjal, an amateur film maker, made a docu-
mentary about the artist's life, entitled Barva spominov To commemorate the artist's 85th birthday, a large
(The Colour of Memories). The script was written by exhibition was put on display at Galleria Palazzo Vecchio
Giulio Montenero. The film was made in Italian and, 2 in Florence and a portfolio was published featuring
although it was not yet completed, it was shown for the three of the artist's graphic prints and poetry by three
first time at the opening of exhibitions put on display to Italian authors.
commemorate the artist's 80th birthday at Tržaška knji-
garna Gallery and at the Slovene Cultural Centre in 1993
Trieste. It was later translated into Slovene.
He was awarded the Memorial Plaque of the Friuli
1988 Venezia Giulia Region.

At Štanjel Castle, a permanent exhibition of his works 1995
was put on display and the gallery was named after him.
The exhibition was accompanied by the publication of a He received an Honorary Premium for his artistic oeu-
monograph entitled L. Spacal: katalog razstave (L. vre and the Purchase Award of the special jury of the 21st
Spacal: Exhibition Catalogue) featuring texts by Jure International Biennial of Graphic Art in Ljubljana.
Mikuž, Ivan Sedej and Giulio Montenero. At the open-
ing, the completed film Barva spominov (The Colour of 1997
Memories) by Aljoša Žerjal was screened. The artist
donated 51 paintings, 78 graphic prints and a tapestry to Revoltella Museum commemorated the artist's 90th
the Municipality of Sežana. birthday with an exhibition entitled Spacal 1937-1997.
Sessant'annit di attività artistica (Spacal 1937-1997: Sixty
He held an exhibition at Galleria Grigoletti in Years of Artistic Work). On the last day of the exhibition,
Pordenone; the city awarded him a medal as their distin- 7th October, Pierpaolo Veniero's experimental film,
guished guest artist of the year. Spacal grafica, from 1967 was screened.

1989 1998

The Municipality of Sežana declared him an honorary The Slovene PEN Club, the Slovene Writers'
citizen. Association and the Association of Slovene Cultural
He accepted the proposal to run for the position of Societies in Italy published a selection of poems by
deputy to the European Parliament as a candidate of the Slovene poets living in Italy, entitled Duh po morski soli
Trieste Communist Party; as a reason for his decision he (The Smell of Sea Salt); the cover of the book, designed
stated his democratic awareness that matured in his by Marko Kravos, features a reproduction of Spacal's
youth, when he suffered social injustices and was impris- graphic print City at Night from 1951.
oned and exiled several times because of his anti-fascist
activities. 1999

On 23 September his first-born son Savo died at a He designed a motif for a renovated fountain in the
Trieste hospital. main square in Sales near Sgonico. The members of the
municipal council declared him an honorary citizen of
1991 Sgonico in gratitude for the bequeathed motif and
because he had acquainted the world with the Karst.
His painting City in the Mirror, a wood-and-cork work
made recently, was displayed in the lobby of the hall of He received a special award at the 23rd International
the Friuli Venezia Giulia Provincial Council. Biennial of Graphic Art.

In Venice, the Corbo e Fiore publishing house pre- Edina publishing house of Ljubljana published a book

61Življenjepis in bibliografija

of poems by Boris A. Novak entitled Odsotnost
(Absence), featuring twelve reproductions of Spacal's
graphic prints: Lunar Eclipse over the Karst (1968), Pale
Moon (1971), Archaeological Vine (1969), Partisan
Burial Ground (1982), Autumn Day (1967), In the
Fields (1964), Summer Night in the Karst (1967),
Window in the Karst (1973), Karst Barn (1971),
Moonrise in the Karst (1967) and Suspended Boats
(1972). The essay about Spacal was written by Zoran
Kržišnik and the essay about the poet by Aleš Debeljak.
The poems, essays and titles of graphic prints were trans-
lated into ten languages. Nova grafična mapa (New
Graphic Art Portfolio), featuring twelve graphic prints,
was also published.

On 14 April his wife Milojka died at the Auresina
hospital.

2000

On 24 April he attended the opening of his retrospec-
tive exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in
Ljubljana. Eleven days after the opening, on 6 May, he
died at the Auresina hospital. He is buried in Karst soil at
a small cemetery in Škrbina.

He was posthumously given the Jakopič Award, which
was received on his behalf by his grandchildren Tanja
and Martin Spacal. They donated the proceeds from the
award to the Museum of Modern Art in Ljubljana, along
with most of the artist's archives.

After the artist's death, in 2002, Slovenia TV and
Fatamorgana productions company co-produced a film
entitled Oko Krasa (The Eye of the Karst), directed by
Matjaž Žbontar, who also wrote a script. In addition to
old interviews with the artist, the film features a conver-
sation with Spacal that was filmed in Škrbina a few years
before his death. Texts were selected by Majda Hostnik.

62 Lojze Spacal

Zahvale

Pri orisu življenjske poti Lojzeta Spacala so mi bili v neprecenljivo pomoč spomini umetnikovega sina Boruta
Spacala, namenjeni skorajšnji knjižni izdaji, sorodnic Mare Dobrila in Zdenke Vodopivec Tomažič ter drugih,
ki so umetnika osebno poznali: mag. Metke Gombač iz Arhiva Republike Slovenije, Milana Pahorja iz Narodne
in študijske knjižnice v Trstu ter pisatelja Borisa Pahorja. K biografiji sta pripomogla tudi Dragica Ule Maver iz
Narodne in študijske knjižnice v Trstu, arhitekt mag. Marko Korosic, poznavalec opusa umetnikovega prijatel-
ja Eda Mihevca, ter Andrej Furlan z Inštituta Franceta Steleta na ZRC Slovenske Akademije znanosti in umet-
nosti v Ljubljani, ki je nesebično pomagal pri razrešitvi nekaterih vprašanj v zvezi z objavami v italijanskem
časopisju. Vsem se za njihovo pomoč iskreno zahvaljujem.

Narodni in študijski knjižnici v Trstu se zahvaljujem za izposojo Spacalovega albuma s fotografijami razstav in
vabil na razstave, Arhivu Republike Slovenije in dokumentaciji TV Slovenija pa za ogled filma oziroma tele-
vizijskih intervjujev z umetnikom.

Posebno zahvalo dolgujem umetnikovem vnuku Martinu Spacalu, ki je ves čas priprave zavzeto sodeloval, pri-
našal iz dedove zapuščine razne dokumente, stvari in družinske fotografije, tudi tiste, ki jih je našel pri sorod-
nikih, ter pomagal pri razreševanju marsikatere nejasnosti v zvezi z dedovimi aktivnostmi in življenjem nasploh.
Brez njegovih opozoril, nasvetov in posredovanja nekaterih doslej neznanih podatkov bi bila pričujoča biografi-
ja bistveno manj izčrpna. Za njegovo vselej ljubeznivo pomoč se mu najtopleje zahvaljujem.

Kljub vsej pomoči zgoraj omenjenih pa bi bila pot do nastanka pričujočega umetnikovega življenjepisa precej
težja in daljša, če kolegica Jana Intihar Ferjan pred tem ne bi naredila obsežnega, natančnega in zanesljivega
seznama umetnikovih razstav, nagrad, javnih del in bibliografije, objavljenega v katalogu Spacalove retrospek-
tivne razstave v Moderni galeriji leta 2000.

Lara Štrumej

Acknowledgement

In exploring the life of Lojze Spacal, I was greatly assisted by the memoirs of the artist's son Borut Spacal,
which will soon be published in a book; by his relatives Mara Dobrila and Zdenka Vodopivec Tomažič; and
by others who knew the artist personally: Metka Gombač MA of the Archive of the Republic of Slovenia,
Milan Pahor of the Trieste National and Study Library and author Boris Pahor. I was also assisted by Dragica
Ule Maver of the Trieste National and Study Library, architect Marko Korosic MA, who is a connoisseur of
the work of the artist's friend Edo Mihevc, and Andrej Furlan of France Stele Institute with the Scientific and
Research Centre of the Slovene Academy of Sciences and Arts in Ljubljana, who selflessly helped me solve
several riddles concerning published material from the Italian press. I wish to express my sincere gratitude to
all of them.

I also thank the Trieste National and Study Library for kindly lending me Spacal's album with photographs of
and invitations to exhibitions, and the Archive of the Republic of Slovenia and documentation department of
TV Slovenia for allowing me to view filmed television interviews with the artist.

My special thanks go to the artist's grandson Martin Spacal, who eagerly participated in the preparations, find-
ing various documents, objects and family photographs in his grandfather's estate, some of which he received
from his relatives, and who helped me solve many riddles concerning his grandfather's activities and life in
general. Without his directions, advice and assistance securing many previously unknown details, this biogra-
phy would be much shorter. I warmly thank him for his kind help.

But despite the assistance of all these individuals, writing the artist's biography would have been much more
difficult and taken longer if my colleague Jana Intihar Ferjan had not compiled an exhaustive, accurate and
reliable list of the artist's exhibitions, awards, public works and bibliography, all of which was published in
the catalogue of Spacal's retrospective exhibition at the Ljubljana Museum of Modern Art in 2000.

Lara Štrumej

63Življenjepis in bibliografija

Lojze Spacal Življenjepis in bibliografija

Katalog izdala: Gorenjski muzej in Moderna galerija

Za Gorenjski muzej: mag. Barbara Ravnik Toman
Za Moderno galerijo: Zdenka Badovinac

Uredniški odbor: Marko Arnež, Toni Biloslav, Tina Jazbec, mag. Barbara Ravnik Toman, Martin Spacal in Franko Vecchiet
Urednica kataloga: Barbara Kalan (Gorenjski muzej)

Avtorji besedil: Drago Mirošič, Zoran Kržišnik in mag. Metka Gombač
Lektoriranje: mag. Stanko Šimenc
Angleški prevod: Amidas, d.o.o., Ljubljana
Italijanski prevod: Sandro Kravanja, Mojca in Franka Cerkvenik

Življenjepis: mag. Lara Štrumej (Moderna galerija)
Lektoriranje: Tamara Soban (Moderna galerija)
Angleški prevod: Ljubica Klančar
Italijanski prevod: Sandro Kravanja
Preslikava slikovnega gradiva: Dejan Habicht (Moderna galerija), Arhiv Republike Slovenije

Bibliografija: Tina Jazbec (Galerija Lojzeta Spacala)
Podatki za bibliografijo: Moderna galerija, Jana Intihar Ferjan; Obalne galerije Piran, Nives Marvin; Televizija Slovenija, Iztok Premrov; Umetnikov arhiv, ki ga hrani Martin Spacal
Lektoriranje: Barbara Kalan (Gorenjski muzej)
Angleški prevod: Amidas d.o.o., Ljubljana
Italijanski prevod: Sandro Kravanja

Grafično oblikovanje: Marko Tušek
Priprava litografij: Repro-print, Kranj
Tisk: Pro Grafika, Žabnica
Naklada: 675 izvodov

Kranj, junij 2007

Izdajo kataloga so omogočili

Mestna občina Kranj, Zavarovalnica Triglav, d.d., Ministrstvo za kulturo Republike Slovenije, Istrabenz, d.d.,
Mercator d.d., Droga Kolinska d.d., Istrabenz hoteli d.d., Istrabenz plini d.d., Instalacije d.d., HIT d.d.,
Konstruktor d.d. in GIP ART, d.o.o.

Gorenjski muzej, Tomšičeva 44, 4000 Kranj, www.gorenjski-muzej.si
Moderna galerija Ljubljana, Tomšičeva ul. 14, 1000 Ljubljana, www.mg-lj.si
Galerija Lojzeta Spacala, Grad Štanjel, Štanjel 1a, 6222 Štanjel, www.kras-carso.si

Lojze Spacal na svetovnem spletu: www.spacal.net

CIP - Kataložni zapis o publikaciji
Narodna in univerzitetna knjižnica, Ljubljana

929Spacal L.
016:929Spacal L.

MIROŠIČ, Drago
Lojze Spacal : življenjepis in bibliografija / [avtorji besedil Drago Mirošič, Zoran Kržišnik in Metka Gombač ; prevod Amidas ...

[et al.] ; življenjepis Lara Štrumej ; bibliografija Tina Jazbec]. - Kranj : Gorenjski muzej ; Ljubljana : Moderna galerija, 2007

ISBN 978-961-6478-16-8 (Gorenjski muzej)
1. Kržišnik, Zoran 2. Gombač, Metka
233561600