Vlado Martek

Vlado Martek entered visual art by writing poetry. In the mid-1970s, his poetry acquired certain special forms: he extracted poetry from a book and incorporated it into “poetic objects” made of mirrors, clay and books; and he wrote poster poetry and graffiti, which he exhibited together with the Group of Six Artists in the streets and squares of Zagreb. Martek called himself a “pre-poet” and invested substantial effort into “purifying” poetry to such an extent that he reduced it to a state where he emphasized the reality of the very elements that constitute the materiality of the poem. B.S.