Slovenian art icon honoured with renovated gallery

A baker's son from Ajdovščina, Slovenia, who refused to take over the family trade went on to become an internationally acclaimed painter, printmaker and photographer in turbulent early-20th century Europe.

Now, the gallery located in his childhood home has undergone substantial renovation to highlight the work of Veno Pilon (1896-1970), CE Report quotes The Slovenia Times.

Launched in 1973, when the artist's son Dominique Pilon donated his father's life's work to Ajdovščina, the gallery holds over 2,800 Pilon's works.

Although his family wanted Pilon to take over the business, he decided for arts. After graduating from secondary school in Gorica, he was enlisted by Austria-Hungary to fight in World War I. He was captured by the Russians and sent to a POW camp.

After the war, he studied art in Prague, Florence and Vienna. In late 1925 he undertook a short trip to Paris and was so impressed that he moved there permanently in 1928, creating a family there.

He lived in the French capital for several decades, part of the arts scene and a host to Slovenian artists and intellectuals. He returned to what was then Yugoslavia for a short while after World War II to work on the film On Our Own Land, the first Slovenian sound feature film, directed by France Štiglic.

According to his memoir, which he published five years before his death, life was hard as an artist and Paris and he was torn between staying and moving back home. He finally moved back two years before his death. The atelier he worked at has now renovated and is open for public.

Three years after his death, his home was renovated and became the Pilon Gallery, the first galley in Slovenia to be devoted to only a single artist, according to its current director Tina Ponebšek.

The decision to open the Pilon Gallery was made after son Dominique donated the artist's work to his home town and the same was done by Danilo Lokar, Pilon's childhood neighbour and life-long friend.

The recent, €1.9 million, renovation expanded the gallery by 250 square metres by adding to it the neighbour's house, which was, interestingly, also a bakery. Previously without a single depository, the gallery now has two. The renovation was funded by Ajdovščina and the Culture Ministry.

In addition to the two depositories, the gallery now also has additional exhibition space for two permanent and one temporary exhibition.