INFRARED PAINTINGS – Hidden Secrets
Dijana Nazor (…) has for many years been engaged in an extremely intriguing and productive scientific field on the subject of Paintings in the Infrared Spectrum: Postponing the Visible, which she defended in her doctoral dissertation at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb. (…) By creating a new work of art, the author contributes to the development of the invisible painting indicating a new possibility/perspective of the easel painting in the near-infrared (NIR) range to create a double painting. (…) This new method undoubtedly opens an abundance of creative potential in fine arts that cannot be achieved using conventional painting techniques, so the artist continues her future research using precisely this technique. And the result is equally astonishing, because we are looking at images of double faces, stories and messages, not only along the lines of the face and worldviews we show to the public and/or keep in the intimacy of our thoughts, but it clearly signals that that we live immersed in a multidimensional reality. Almost everything around us is full of double codes, dualities like two sides of the same coin, fractured fragments of reality... Everything that she observes around her emotionally and mentally, Dijana Nazor has very astutely merged with authentic scientific practice and methodology, all the while upholding strong artistic sentiment.
Iva Körbler
Part of the text from the touring exhibition catalogue Unveiling the Secrets of Painting – InfraredArt, the Sermage Palace Exhibition Salon, Varaždin City Museum, 11 September – 6 October 2019.
PAINTINGS IN THE INFRARED SPECTRUM: Postponing the Visible
Dijana Nazor’s exhibition is a thematic unit that summarises her expression as an artist and painter with the scientific possibilities of the infrared spectrum. In this way it is possible to clearly discern paintings that separate what is visible in daylight from that which is visible in the infrared spectrum. (…) Dijana Nazor’s art is enriched with a specific scientific dimension. There are numerous examples of the application of physical technologies in investigating works of art regarding the characteristics of their creation, authenticity, or degree of preservation of artwork, as well as subsequent interventions. However, this exhibition reveals the steps in the creative process of making a work of art with multiple meanings. (…) Since the near-infrared spectrum reacts to a very subtle application of paints with their specific properties, we can claim that a snapshot of a work of art in that spectrum is a custodian of its authenticity because the degree of singularity is almost impossible to replicate. This leads us to the application of infrared spectrum in the protection and preservation of cultural heritage, which is also an area of Dijana’s interest as a conservator-restorer. (…) This segment of her professional activity is represented by two paintings which she fully conserved and restored with great success. (…)
Ferdinand Meder
Part of the speech at the opening of the exhibition Paintings in the Infrared Spectrum: Postponing the Visible, Croatian Association of Visual Artists, the Bačva Gallery, 19 April 2016.
DIJANA NAZOR: INFRARED PAINTINGS – Revealing the Angels
(...) This is a new kind of painting technique: painting with the standard acrylic paints in two spectral ranges. (…) Dijana steps into unchartered territory where science meets art, producing in every new painting deeper polychrome accords and morphological expressions with a powerful artistic signature. Skilfully mastering large formats, the author also maintains autonomy of her expression in small formats of 20x20 cm or 30x30 cm and manages to convey associative and poetic mood from the superimposed, visible painting to the one hidden underneath. The unity of the painting field is not at all disrupted, even though it fuses different expressions, different spiritual forces, and the stream of subconscious. This kind of painting is an expression of transition between the two worlds, an existence that transcends the laws of this world. The paintings exhibited for the first time, about thirty of them in small format, are a sort of experiment; sketches revealing insight and research, predecessors of large formats. (…) With her ‘revealed’ motifs, the author is sending introspective and artistic messages simultaneously. In this way, by intentionally incorporating artistic concepts, taking them as a driving force or examples, she has created a completely autonomous visual narrative with a multitude of motifs and themes. (…)
Sanda Stanaćev Bajzek
Excerpt from the exhibition catalogue Infrared Paintings – Revealing the Angels, the Museum of Prigorje, 20 November – 4 December 2018.
PAINTER OF HIDDEN ANGELS
(…) However, you will not see the sublime fluid angels immediately because they are hidden in the painting, true to their arcane nature. These are double paintings in which the artist in the superimposed image depicts an abstract world of red, blue and orange colours, underneath which there is a hidden world of luminous angels and hidden messages, self-portraits and portraits. The paintings primarily reveal a painter of intense colour scheme whose real "paintings" partly carry abstract poetic explosions of scattered particles, and partly a geometric abstraction of elements freely arranged on canvases. In these superimposed paintings, Dijana Nazor equally confirms herself as a follower of the great abstract painters of European and Croatian visual arts. While the "superimposed" paintings convey the visible world, in some "invisible", i.e. hidden paintings, the author has written messages by artists and intellectuals she admires: Invisible Masterpiece – Hans Belting, The aura of contemporary art is free association – Nicolas Bourriaud, Consideration of art forms makes things visible – Hans Sedlmayr, Art does not reproduce the visible, rather, it makes visible – Paul Klee. Of particular interest are hidden portraits of Merleau-Ponty, Klee, Rothko, and Belting, as well as self-portraits where Dijana Nazor reveals herself to be an excellent portrait painter. It is a new painting technique in two spectral regions using standard acrylic paints. (…)
Marina Tenžera
7 dnevno, "Painter of Hidden Angels", https://www.7dnevno.hr/vijesti/kultura/slikarica-skrivenih-andela/ (November 20, 2018).
REVEALING THE ANGELS
Can we be at two different places at the same time? Most will say ‘No’ without hesitation because it defies the laws of physics. And they would be right. Can two paintings be painted on the same canvas and both be visible at the same time? Many will again say ‘No’, but this time they would be wrong; with modern infrared technology this has become possible. And you might be hard-pressed to believe, but this technique was invented by Croats. (…) Dijana Nazor presented herself with some 30 paintings of different formats: in reality, with twice as many, as each canvas contains two different works. This exhibition is unique and as such has been held for the first time in Sesvete. By introducing this new technology, she is taking a risk of media discussing the technology behind the art more than her art itself. (…) The artist herself was wearing a dress with infrared print. I believe that this method of painting will quickly get the attention of many art enthusiasts and collectors, but for now we can hardly grasp how and in which direction this new artistic and technological trend will develop. (…)
Borko Samec
SesveteDanas, "Dijana Nazor’s Oeuvre in the IR Spectrum”, http://www.sesvete-danas.hr/kultura/izlozbe/slikarstvo-dijane-nazor-u-infra-crvenom-podrucju-8661 (21 November 2018).
PAINTINGS IN THE INFRARED SPECTRUM: Postponing the Visible
(…) An important and artistically powerful creative aspect of creating a painting evokes the eternal question of artists and theorists: what is it in a painting that is visible, and what is invisible. (…) Dijana’s latest paintings are a result of research of deliberate creation of painting within a painting, creating a double image on a highly technological level, displayed as installation that is a combination of easel and cameras. (…) Images of the first series in the visible spectrum are a reminiscence of the avant-garde attempts to create a systemized abecedarium that would eventually result in a new aesthetics. However, this is not an imitation of a role model; instead it is a personal search for the creation of double imagery based on new insights into and experience with pigments. (…) The most exciting and, in my opinion, the culmination of this artistic research is the series of freestyle paintings of almost musical-colouristic orchestration in which the melody is harmonious with its counter-rhythm (like bells chiming), and it creates exciting compositions that are visible and pleasing to the eye, in which playful angels are hidden. (…) All three series shown here are part of a new and original path that opened as an invitation and a challenge to its followers. This artistic contribution to art history that Dijana Nazor has created with this exhibition certainly has an avant-garde significance, not so much in the formal determination of the visible, but in the formal determination of double imagery as a new phenomenon, in both visible and invisible spectra.
Branka Hlevnjak
Part of the speech at the opening of the exhibition Paintings in the Infrared Spectrum: Postponing the Visible, Croatian Association of Visual Artists, the Bačva Gallery, 19 April 2016.
PAINTINGS IN THE INFRARED SPECTRUM: Postponing the Visible
Different artistic interests characterise Dijana Nazor’s artistic oeuvre. In each phase of her creation, she is showing an inclination towards the innovative, both in classical aesthetics examples, and in her openness to new visual art insights (…) In this exhibition, her artistic sensibility branches into several directions, each created as a correlation between two paintings, one superimposed over the other. (…) We could say that this is a two-in-one exhibition. One decipherable and visible and the other encoded and invisible, observable only through a camera lens. In any case, it is an intriguing dialogue that offers a new level of artistic communication. (…) In terms of creativity (along with the works of Nada Žiljak), it is a pioneering endeavour, questioning and examining an artwork fraction with the mutual reference of the numerator and denominator. (…) In the Invisible Guardians series , Dijana feels comfortably at home. Angels are a motif to which she dedicated numerous imaginative works, painting them individually or in picturesque groups. (…) The face of the double painting captivates us with the beauty of lyric abstraction corresponding to the fluidity of angels hiding underneath and waiting to be revealed, to become a visible painting. From an iconographic point, in a way exalted by means of painting, angels are the best choice to interpret the infrared spectrum concept. (…) Dijana Nazor, an artist who lives her art, has refined it with the ‘painting within painting’ concept. She is doing an excellent job, and she will probably continue searching for multi-layered truth in artwork. (...)
Stanko Špoljarić
Excerpt from the exhibition catalogue Paintings in the Infrared Spectrum: Postponing the Visible, the Small Hall of the Prica Gallery, Samobor Public Open College, 6 – 17 September 2016.
EXHIBITION VISIBLE-INVISIBLE WORLD
The fascination of Dijana Nazor Čorda with the new way of painting has led her to personal painting experiments, resulting in her obtaining a PhD in 2017, after which, with even more enthusiasm and inspiration, she continued to create IR painting, IR clothing, IR art tapestry, etc. It is truly fascinating to see all that is going on in this, for our human field of view complete “darkness”, which the artist imbues with her “secret” work of art, and which becomes visible to us only once we take a peek at it with the help of optical tools. (…) One of her latest great endeavours was collaboration with the rug factory in Zabok in creating the first IR art tapestry, which is probably unique in the world! (…) Dijana Nazor Čorda has developed her secret IR painting script, mysterious messages, portraits, quotes, and entire labyrinths. (…) Dijana’s abstract concepts, when looked at with the naked eye not being aware of their IR modification or mutation (visible in the animation adapted to changes in the IR spectrum), resonate with positive energy. It seems as if tiny particles of some lost words, fragmented letters, and forms are fluttering and spinning in the green, blue and red blazing rays, so that in one moment they could attain additional meaning, apart from the amazing beauty itself.
Branka Hlevnjak
Excerpt from the exhibition catalogue Visible-invisible World, A Small Retrospective of IR Painting, the Bjelovar City Museum, 2 August – 1 September 2022.