WALL PAINTING IN A FORMER SHOE SHOP ON GOSPSKA STREET 23
WALL PAINTING IN A FORMER SHOE SHOP ON GOSPSKA STREET 23
Academically-trained painter Janez Vidic, best known for his book illustrations, is also the co-author of many wall paintings in Maribor. The scratch piece, now in extremely poor condition, was created in the 1960s for the Košuta children’s footwear shop. The purpose of the space explains the selection of a playful fantasy composition with round-shaped treetops and large, dynamically depicted birds. Vidic also included motifs of flowers, and the Sun and the Moon, which are present throughout his oeuvre. In spite of the golden-coloured feathers, he remained faithful to his distinctive darker colours.
The mural is only partially preserved today. Due to the change in ownership of the building on Gosposka Street, we cannot exactly determine when the mural was damaged. In the 1990s, the preserved fragment was partially covered by an undulating brick wall, to which the author consented, and was later removed in 2019. Wall paintings in public spaces are a particularly endangered aspect of art heritage. They are frequently destroyed without the knowledge of the (professional) public, who are only notified when it is too late. The preserved section of Vidic’s wall painting therefore serves as a reminder of the problem of the destruction of public art, while at the same time indicating the outline of the entire piece, thus remaining in people’s minds.
(Nike Duh, in the framework of the Creative Path to Knowledge project, Virtual guide; The investment is co-financed by the Republic of Slovenia and the European Union from the European Social Fund)
