Alenka Golob »Risbe in akvareli«
Event date: to
Event location: Galerija EF, Kardeljeva ploščad 17, 1000 Ljubljana
In September 2026, the Gallery of the School of Economics and Business, University of Ljubljana, will host an exhibition by Alenka Golob entitled Risbe in akvareli (Drawings and Watercolours). The exhibition presents a selection of landscape, urban and architectural motifs in which spontaneous drawing gestures intertwine with delicate watercolour washes, revealing the artist’s personal view of space and nature.
About the Artist
Alenka Golob was born in Ljubljana in 1946. After graduating from classical grammar school, she studied architecture at the Faculty of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy (FAGG) in Ljubljana, graduating in 1971 under Professor Edvard Ravnikar. During her studies, she also attended a one-year drawing course taught by Professor Zoran Didk. In 1974, as a French government scholarship recipient, she studied architecture and urban planning in Paris.
She has designed public and residential buildings as well as projects involving the renovation of cultural heritage, including the Šubic painters’ birthplace in Poljane. She has exhibited her drawings and watercolours in group and solo exhibitions, including at Pilon Gallery in Ajdovščina (2011), Dessa Gallery in Ljubljana (2012), and Finžgar Gallery in Ljubljana (2022).
About the Exhibition
“Golob’s subject is landscape, specifically nature: mountainous, forest and maritime landscapes (marinas), as well as urban panoramas and views of streets and squares in different seasons. The genealogy of such motifs can be traced from the planar compositions of Piero della Francesca, through Renaissance perspectives, to the Baroque painters Poussin and Lorrain, when landscape evolved from a background into an independent subject. For some masters – Vermeer, El Greco, Canaletto and Bellotto – images of cities are not merely panoramas, but true portraits imbued with a deep emotional quality, images of a particular time and of the emotions of their creators. Turner’s landscapes (the Loire, Venice) are of a similar nature. Some painters discover an image of their own soul in a particular motif and paint it throughout their lives – Monet the river, Cézanne Mont Sainte-Victoire, and so on.
Landscapes, panoramas and vedute have always attracted architects as well, who used them to record impressions from their travels or to depict architectural projects. The Grand Tour through sites of classical architecture inspired countless drawings and watercolours, from Schinkel, Semper, Labrouste, Hoffmann and Plečnik to modernists such as Le Corbusier, Kahn and others. In Slovenia, a central place belongs to the trembling line of Plečnik’s drawings, which was continued in their own ways by Professor Mušič, Professor Ravnikar and their students. Golob is one of them, combining architectural drawing with the colour vibrations of watercolour in a particularly successful synthesis. Her line drawings and watercolour sketches are created quickly, spontaneously and directly; with just a few strokes, they acquire their expressive power. They are the first record of a particular motif and the most personal expression of the artist’s feelings through visual language.
And yet: why draw at all in today’s digitalised world? The answer is simple: drawing reflects our feelings, speaks of who we are and how we see the world. In short, it speaks of our humanity.”
– Marko Cotič