Lupino’s Two Dragons 

Photographer and artist Stephan Lupino is currently wrapping up two monumental iron dragon sculptures. The two represent the good and the evil dragon, each weighing half a ton. Lupino says that they will soon be joined by an apocalyptic dragon, in line with the times we live in
Author: Iva Körbler 
Photography: Private archive
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Eminent Croatian art photographer Stephen Lupino (Varaždin, 1952) has been sculpting left and right for the past fifteen years. Thanks to his numerous and prominent exhibitions of authentic metal and wood sculptures, he has carved out a niche for himself on the Croatian art scene.

He finished primary and secondary school in his native Varaždin, after which he went to London to study English Language and Literature. After getting a degree, he moved to New York, where he enrolled in the Stella Adler Conservatory. During his time in New York, he chanced on the illustrious photographer Deborah Turbeville, who became his mentor after noticing his eye for details and excellent composition.

He soon started publicising his works, whose peculiar black and white deep shadow grid made them stand out from the photography trends of the time, so he had no trouble landing gigs for various fashion magazines such as Vogue or Playboy. He became famous in international circles in a flash, gaining a reputation as an excellent character portraitist, not just a photographer of female models. It did not take long for famous actors, artists, musicians, designers, and jet-setters to start scrambling for him.

Even though he became a “citizen of the world”, he has never lost touch with Croatia; he is still proud of his roots, from which he started drawing inspiration only later on in life, sprouting up native motifs all over his sculptures. When the Homeland War broke out, Lupino decided to return to Croatia from America, but the ravages of war took a big spiritual and emotional toll on him as an artist, so he temporarily said goodbye to saying cheese and turned to sculpture, reliefs, and painting. 

After the war, he became increasingly interested in human suffering and the human body, so he focused on precisely these matters in his new photographs. His first work of this sort dates back to 2003 and bears the title “My Angels” – he photographed terminally ill children and donated most of the proceeds to the Children’s Hospital Zagreb. To this day, he has not turned his back on charity work and charity galas, which he has only recently spoken about in public. He has also worked on exhibitions for poverty- and earthquake-stricken children in Sisak… 

Little is also known about his early days, when he photographed children for the Italian Vogue Bambini on the Ostia beach near Rome, expressing particular empathy for the most vulnerable, who reflect the perfection of creation and Nature more often than photo models with their perfect bodies. 

He says that it is most difficult to prove oneself “at home” and that even today, certain people still express disbelief regarding his acquaintances and collaborations with world-famous artists, magazine editors and fellow photographers. 

– People abroad, especially in the eighties and nineties of the last century, were very approachable. If they took notice of your talent, energy, enthusiasm, and a sort of madness, they’d welcome you into their circles with open arms. It’s not that I was “lucky”; I wanted to learn, work, and improve myself. New talent and fresh ideas were always wanted. I hung out with people who had already established themselves as the best in their line of work, and they didn’t feel threatened by me, which can’t be said of our mentality. I did everything all by myself, but I did have good recommendations. But none of that would have happened if I was lazy or talentless – explains Lupino, who did not hesitate to show his photos to Annie Flanders, the legendary editor of Details magazine, which reported on the nightlife and art of Manhattan in the eighties. 

– She hooked me up right away. People couldn’t fathom that those were my first photos. I had a knack for framing photos, and I’d just start “clicking”. It wasn’t long before I started working for American and Italian Vogue. I also worked with Steven Meisel, a legendary American fashion photographer who shot to fame by shooting for Vogue, but also his friend, Madonna, for her book “Sex” from 1992…

Anyhow, these were the sources from which I absorbed knowledge, and I was a quick learner. The very first night I came from London to New York, I walked into Studio 54 and was immediately introduced to the owner of the club. Those were the days… – says Lupino, who formed a lifelong friendship with the famous photographer Deborah Turbeville while in the US; she would later visit him on Hvar and even hang out with his mother. 

Together with historian Branka Hlevnjak, he proclaimed his sculpture style Lupinism, which caused ridicule among some local art historians and artists. It is rather peculiar: when it comes to our country, some people are allowed a certain degree of eccentricity, while others do not enjoy that privilege.

Lupino just laughs it off, well aware that his sculptures in wood, iron, and copper are unlike anything we have the opportunity to see on the local sculpture scene. 

– Even my early photos showcased authentic Lupinism in terms of style and ambience. I’ve always stretched my camera frame and frame of mind further than the eye can see; I drew all the ideas and motifs from my imagination. At the beginning of my career, I spent four years in Rome and travelled around Greece as an athlete and karate player, but even then, I brushed with art. The former Yugoslavia felt too small for me, so I just followed my instincts elsewhere. I often travelled with the actress Irena Papas while she was working for the director Franco Zeffirelli in Rome, and she basically persuaded me to study English after mastering Italian and to go to New York. She introduced me to the world of art. She told me that I was like a volcano and that I had to harness my fiery spirit and talent. I already had the discipline and focus thanks to sports and karate, and I hadn’t been spoiled by the dolce vita – says Lupino, reminiscing about the early eighties of the last century. 

In New York, he was also welcomed into Jewish art circles (much thanks to Stella Adler, his acting coach), and Andy Warhol himself took a liking to his photos.

Foreign critics often praise him even today; not that long ago, the exclusive Bluxe Century Magazine had very nice things to say about his sculptures and Lupinism in general, adding his photos with Naomi Campbell to the article to further prove the point.

He often liked to step out from behind the scenes and into the spotlight – nay, flashlight – and his photos were recently requested for publication by the eminent New York Magazine, which cited Lupino as “one of the biggest names of the New York nightlife in the eighties.” A few years ago, Paper Magazine ranked him second on their list of the TOP 10 people who marked New York nightlife, dubbing him the sex symbol of his generation!

His dear associate and friend, the Japanese designer Koshin Satoh, came to his exhibition at the Dalia Gallery in Zagreb last May. Satoh “dressed” Miles Davis, Duran Duran, Michael Jackson, and Andy Warhol. He really dug “Lupinism”, and the two of them intend to continue collaborating in the future. 

– I’ve visited Koshin in Japan twice, and we worked together at the end of the eighties in New York and Tokyo; we truly have a beautiful friendship – says Lupino.

His unalterable tie to the surrealist gospel takes him closer to fantastic forms and beings, whose very dimensions do not fit into our plane of existence, and make it obvious that they are not from this world, although they emanate positive, vitalistic energy. Critic Darija Žilić makes a good observation stating that his elongated figures also exhibit elements of Mannerist stylised artifice, assuming the form of archetypes. Because of their accentuated movement and trademark side view, they have a certain mythical charge, as if they were the guardians of our galaxy. 

He is currently wrapping up two monumental sculptures of iron dragons, the good and the evil one, each weighing half a tonne, on the premises of the NDK factory in Štrigova. One of them, the tame or the good dragon, will be placed in Zmajev vrt (“The Dragon Garden”) on the nearby Železna Gora. Namely, legends from Međimurje tell of Pozoj, the benevolent dragon, a mythical creature of frightening appearance who sleeps under the old town of Čakovec and protects the inhabitants of Štrigova from harm, natural disasters such as floods, and evil in general. Lupino already learned how to paint the dragon and dot the eyes back in 2019, when he did acrylic fire dragon motifs on canvas, which was also a symbolic representation of the destructive forces clashing on our planet, wreaking havoc on everything, from everyday situations to global politics.

– This was a huge challenge for me. While working on the tame dragon, it hit me that I should also make his counterpart, the evil dragon, but I didn’t base their appearance and symbolism on the dragons from Chinese culture. Dragons are woven into the ancient fabric of our society, ruling over our local myths and history, and that’s why I’ll make the apocalyptic dragon next – for it resonates with the times we live in – Lupino explains for Symbol. 

Two years ago, Lupino donated three Plesačica (“Dancer”) sculptures to Zmajev vrt of the Valkaj family in Železna Gora, hot on the trail of the surrealist style and its elongated, slender bodies; however, compared to the dimensions of the new dragon, those will seem teeny-weeny…

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