Josip Germ: exhibit upon the 150 years of his birth

On the 22 of February this year, 150 years is passing by from the day the painter Josip Germ was born. His life path was tightly connected with Novo mesto, where he played a significant role in the cultural history of this area. In honoring this anniversary, we in Dolenjski muzej remember the artist with an exhibition of his life long creative opus.

Today we place Josip Germ between the representatives of a realistic way of painting because, in his depiction in the spirit of academia rudiments, he stayed true to a bigger technical perfection, but doing this he stayed traditional in choosing his subjects. Even in the period on the turn of the century, when the differences in comprehension of creating art were formed between the artist as also critics, he stayed resolute to his fundamental art beliefs, so he didn’t join to any of the modern artist group movements. And especially for that, he has an entirely unique position in the Slovenian fine art.

With the intent to present the broadest picture of a painters 150-year-old anniversary, we have designed the exhibition, so it presents the creative work of Josip Germ in a general order and synthesizes all of his artistic aspirations, with known and accessible adequate material. From a rather homogeneous opus, collected artworks show his beginnings, responses to simultaneously formed European art flows on the turn of the century and work made in the time when because of his pedagogic and versatile cultural activities, he spent less and less time painting.