Mankind always centre stage

The Slovenian sculptor, painter, printmaker and illustrator Karel Zelenko was born in Celje in 1925. He was among the first generation of students to study at the Academy of Fine Arts in Ljubljana. He graduated from its sculpture department in 1949 and completed a specialised course in printmaking in 1951 before undertaking a painting course the following year. After graduating and completing his military service, he returned to his family in Kamnik and started working at the Kamnik ceramic industrial plant. Between 1954 and 1959 he lectured at the School of Design in Ljubljana, becoming an independent artist in 1959. He has had over 70 independent exhibitions at home and abroad, and has participated in numerous group exhibitions of printmaking and Slovenian fine arts. Not only has he provided illustrations for more than 20 books for children and adults, he has also published various caricatures in Slovene newspapers. 

Zelenko made his mind up when he was very young as to what drove him as an artist and what he could contribute to his profession. His artistic language developed very early and has remained unchanged to this day. He was never swayed by current artistic trends, remaining loyal to his own motifs and style of work, while exploring various media. His world of motifs is drawn from his own every-day life. He translated his memories, experience, what he saw and experienced as well as his inner thoughts into this world. In some ways, he is a chronicler of the life of the "little people" from the street and markets, the public premises which feature most prominently in his works. The reason for this, he says, is that that is where he spent his youth. He hails from a family of costermongers who worked a stall at the market and sold flowers and vegetables. They also ran a florist. As a child he was passionate about the circus. He visited the famous Rebernigg circus and many rural circuses.  He explains himself that his motifs are drawn from a mixture of the circus, childhood memories and adventures, rural carnival masks and Italian neorealism, and that they prioritise love as being the most important driving force in one's life. That is why his opus has no chronological order. It comprises numerous croquis drawings, sketches, drawings, prints, painted ceramics, and paintings featuring images of circus performers, carnival masks, market and street vendors, acrobats, bathing suits, processions, and love and mythological scenes which are repeated, intertwined, complemented and enhanced.