I like the idea of the postcard and feel nostalgic for them. This summer, several of my postcard sketches sent from Italy to our address in Croatia never arrived. I believe that someone, somewhere along the way, appreciated my works enough to keep them. This makes me confident to continue my postcard painting journey, though I may as well reconsider mailing them.
Postcard format sets the limit of space and my morning coffee (or, sometimes, my afternoon beach) sets the time limit. I also deliberately constrain myself with the choice of colours and avoid underdrawing. These limitations make me try to do less, while hoping to achieve more. I ask myself how much is enough for a painting to be (considered) finished. There isn’t a proper answer to that question. Sometimes my “sitters” have left the scene, so I stop. Or, sometimes we finish our coffee and must move on. Or, I stop when I am simply happy about it. I tried to be in that moment, while observing and enjoying painting what matters. While some of these postcards may look incomplete, for me, they have fulfilled the purpose. They are part of my everyday life and reflect my personal way to capture and communicate the essence of those moments.
I would like to thank IDEAA team, Senada Demirović, Slaven Aničić and Emina Isić for organising this exhibition in Mostar, together with the publication of this catalogue. My special thanks also go to the Pavarotti Center for hosting this exhibition.
Davisi Boontharm
Mostar, August 2023
on capturing the essence
painted cca. 43° N, 16° E; 7-8.2023
“I paint the Mediterranean, Herzegovina, Mostar, and in that
there is so much whiteness that I could not, neither as a human being nor as a painter, remain indifferent to the most obvious phenomenon of my home environment.”
“... I want to draw the air of Mostar ...”
Meha Sefić (1919-1988, the painter of Mostar)
from Š.Z. Serdarević, MOST No. 165, 2023_
N.B. words podneblje and zrak, used by Sefić and here translated as “environment” and “air” remain beautifully – untranslatable; DR
I
“I need to see what I paint”, Davisi Boontharm often tells me
and, she always paints what she sees, what is, at given moment, in front of her
she paints that very moment, precisely, in situ, there
her paintings exhibited here capture the moments lived, in June and July 2023, at cca. 43° N, 16°E
they arrest the Mediterranean light
as seen, as experienced, as felt ... people ... often at noon, in full glare ... some trees ... pets, perhaps
in these paintings, Davisi paints life
light gives life
light unveils life
II
Davisi paints cities
she is an artist, the talent of whom coexists with knowledges of a university professor, an architect and urbanist
she understands cities
while painting light, she paints cities and, while painting cities, she captures people there
cities are the people
III
cities and the people making them are always concrete, their bodies, their flesh and bones
the blinding Mediterranean summer sun reduces – or, rather, it elevates – the cities there to key ingredients
Davisi’s paintings capture urbanites, their daily routines, slowed down by the summer sun
IV
summer albedo, sharp Mediterranean glare performs a striking reductio ad essentiam
it exposes the essence of urban life, the quality searched by, but impossible to attain, by researchers
we might be able to see that essence only when blinded by the sun, only through our half-closed eyelashes
the essence of things is evasive, rarely clear
and that very quality allows our imagination to enter the scene
V
people
cities are spatial projections of society on the ground
cities are their citizens, actual citizens are those cities
concrete everyday lives, unveiled
urbanity
the quality of being urban, the capability of being urbane is the quintessence of the urban
Pythagorean fifth key which brings us beyond earth, air, fire, and water – beyond the existential four
VI
in her paintings exhibited here Davisi make us see what she has not painted
what is not on her paper, but what is out there, in the full glare of Mediterranean noon
her hand leaves traces of reality on the paper, the latent hints – dormant, as the power of Lēthē is
these paintings make us see what is not on that paper
Davisi has painted them ... in us
or, rather, she has allowed each of the viewers to complete the piece
the modesty of means – white 148 x 100 mm paper, pale colours and occasional pencil line – amplifies the message
(a digression)
in looking at these watercolours, a parallel with 俳句 Chinese and Japanese haiku (well explained by Barthes), could be of help: each of these beautiful notations from the site, as in those minimalist verses, is “an effort to discover, and not to re-cover”. Simply (alas, “simply”) “time at once, as-it-happens.”
“No haiku deals in generalities” and, as such, it is “absolutely hostile to our Western mentality, which always wants to interpret – with varying degrees of success.” In neither haiku written by Bashō, nor those here, pained by Davisi “there’s no interpretative relativity”. In them there poerfully is “ ‘nothing special’; things are translated in their neutrality, without being analyzed”, pure Joycean Epiphany: ‘the sudden revelation of the quiddity (Whatness) of a thing.”
VII
good art is akin to love
love (art) is never (only) in what it factually is, but in the totality that it actually does (in us)
art, good art, true art (whatever those pompous words might mean) happens in us, triggered by “the work”
it makes us seek, endlessly try but never manage to complete its message
the pleasure which art, good art, true art (whatever those words might mean) is in that search itself
VIII ... 八
that is what Meha Sefić was all about
that is what Davisi Boontharm is about
P.S.
Davisi’s immersions into Mediterranean “blinding intensity of air, stone and water” (M.S.) will continue in Mostar, and be exhibited at the occasion of 20th anniversary of the reopening of the Old Bridge, in June 2024
Darko Radović
(on the way to Mostar and 28.8.2023)
The catalogue of the exhibition designed by Slaven Ančić can be dowloaded here.