Testimonies of Human Survival in a Barren and Harsh Climate

Notes on Ksenija Kantoci’s Sculpture

Abstract

In 1954, Ksenija Kantoci visited Dalmatinska Zagora, the homeland of her husband, painter Frano Šimunović, and showed herself as a lucid observer of reality, capable of conveying an authentic and realistic image of that unique region in a unique, convincing, and suggestive way. She described the everyday life of the “Vlachs” and their “concentrated suffering,” making us aware of the sublime character of that region, its exoticism, civilization, and culture. This initiated the process of profound subsidence and identification of her sculptural and human morality, her creative capacity with the hardness, scarcity, and immanent, monumental archaism of the “Vlach” area. That first visit was a turning point that determined the direction in which the artist’s sculptural expression expanded and deepened. She interpreted that world honestly, intuitively and freely, simultaneously changing her expression.