Following the creative work of Tea Morić Šitum over the past few years, we witness a continuous process of artistic distillation. From early works featuring recognizable maritime motifs, through the gradual stylization and reduction of form, to a complete immersion in abstraction, the artist guides us through the process that transcends mere artistic exploration. In her latest works, Tea focuses on the intuitive process of creation that comes from deeply thoughtful consideration of color and form.
This approach to creation evokes the philosophical thought of Henri Bergson, who invented the concept of “duration” (fr. durée).1 For Bergson, real time is not measurable by a clock but a continuous course of immediate experience. Tea’s new paintings evoke the same feeling – that of the materialization of pure experience in which different moments of the creative process blend into an organic whole.
Observing her latest works, we notice how transparent layers of paint merge into each other, creating deep spatial relations, while the thoughtfully chosen, emphasized coloristic accents create tension on the surface of the canvas. The artist builds paintings in layers, allowing each previous layer to speak through the one that covers it. This creates a kind of painting archaeology, where each layer is both autonomous and inseparable from the whole.
In her choice and work with color, Tea aligns with the theoretical concepts of the artist-educator Josef Albers.2 Her approach is both intuitive and methodical – the spontaneous choice of colors is complemented by careful consideration of their relations and psychological effects. Drawing from the knowledge gained during her expressive art therapy education, she approaches the canvas with a deeper understanding of the creative process as a dialogue between the conscious and unconscious.
With this latest series of works, Tea Morić Šitum proves that abstract painting can be both intuitive and analytic. Every brushstroke is a result of a dual process – what Maurice Merleau-Ponty calls “thinking through painting” and what Rudolf Arnheim describes as “visual thinking”.3 The artist does not separate these two processes but unites them into a unique act of creation.
This brings forth the works that, despite being abstract, communicate on multiple levels – from immediate visual experience to more complex, contemplative meanings. In that sense, this exhibition is not only a presentation of finished works but a hint of new possibilities of exploration within abstract representation and an intuitive, expressive approach to artistic creation.
- Bergson, Henri. Time and Free Will: An Essay on the Immediate Data of Consciousness. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2001.
- Albers, Josef. Interaction of Color: 50th Anniversary Edition. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2013.
- Arnheim, Rudolf. Visual Thinking. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1969; Merleau-Ponty, Maurice. „Eye and Mind.“ In The Merleau-Ponty Aesthetics Reader: Philosophy and Painting, ed. Galen A. Johnson, trans. Michael B. Smith, 121-149. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1993.
Artist: Tea Morić Šitum
Curator: dr. sc. Dora Derado Giljanović
Time: 13. 12. 2024. – 17. 1. 2025.
Place: City Library Solin, Croatia
