BOJAN KRSTIĆ

NIKA (Nike) 2013.
Marble, 50 x 10 x 7 cm.

By sublimation of knowledge and spirit, technology and skills of Bojan Krstic, a sculptor of the young generation of sculptors, the chamber sculpture "Nika" is defined. Being created within a rather small opus of refined stylized female figurines realized in marble confirms the author's deep respect and understanding of the properties and structure of materials – the skill of polishing a surface that emanates light, sophisticated processing that hints delicate, soft transits of light into shadow. The linear rhythms which accompany the imaginary movement revive the surface of a graceful and chaste form - pronounced verticals of Nika – a body with elongated and gently moved contours with discrete signs of female attributes.

Bojan Krstić (1984) graduated in 2009 from the Department of Applied sculpture at the Faculty of Applied Arts in Belgrade.

He is a member of ULUS and ULUPUDS.

During his studies and after graduating  he has participated in numerous group exhibitions in Serbia and abroad (Vienna, Athens)

In 2009 he prepared a solo exhibition entitled "Birds" at the Gallery "Stara kapetanija" in Zemun.

He received the prize for sculpture at the Faculty of Applied Arts as well as compliments by the jury of the Fund of Princess Olivera for the portrait of Princess Olivera.

Sculptures in public spaces are placed in Sokobanja ("Falcon" and "Composition 13" ) and in Djavolja Varos ( "Bride and groom" )

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VERA VITOROVIĆ, art historian

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IVAN RADOVIĆ
(Vršac, 1894 – Beograd, 1973)

 

Lying female nude

Oil on canvas
43 x 62 cm

 

He studied at the Art Academy in Budapest, spent time in Prague, Venice, Munich, Vienna and Paris, afterwards in Sombor and since 1927 lived in Belgrade. He went through a few painting phases: Expressionism, Constructivism, Cubism with elements of abstraction, Neo-Classicism, New Realism, “Primitivism”, Colorist Expressionism and Poetic Realism. In his thirties he was among the most important Yugoslav representatives of the drawing medium, while in his forties he was among the leading representatives of the Colorist Expressionism aesthetics. “He was intoxicated by color” as people used to say. This is shown so well in this painting done in the phase when he produced his best paintings - whether they were portraits, landscapes or nudes, they are considered to be masterpieces of Serbian art between the two wars,

This cheerfulness of Radovic’s use of color came not only from his aesthetics but also from his character. That is to say, he was also a tennis champion and was among the first car drivers, a bon vivant and hedonist, a member of the upper class, a gentleman and a fine entertainer. In other words, his life principles show that he enjoyed life, consuming life pleasures, and that he was a firm optimist. He was a novelist who depicted nature and people as a painter as Rastko Petrović so truly said about the work of Ivan Radović.

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PREDRAG PEĐA NEŠKOVIĆ
(Bijela, 1938)
 

House, 1973

Acrylic on canvas
80 x 60 cm

 

He graduated from the Academy of Fine Art in Belgrade in 1965 in the class of Mihailo Petrov.
Even though he began his career during the wave of  New Figuration Movement of the Belgrade Circle, which was a unique reaction to the Enformel Art done in the 1960s, Nešković was immediately noticed because of his pronounced individuality and plastic image which had elements of subjectivity, however, it functioned as a pop-artistic ironic comment on the  world he lived in and to which he belonged with all his enthusiasm.

This painting dates from his very important solo exhibition held in 1973 in the Cultural Center in Belgrade, for which Radomir Konstantinović wrote the catalogue introduction, and immediately afterwards the exhibition was held in the famous Grabovski Gallery in London which at the time was the place-to-be for pop-artists. At that time his work showed paroxysm by connecting kitsch and high art, which  during those years was quite tightly interwoven on the same value level for the emerging new generations of artists. The writer of the book “The Small Town Philosophy” wrote that Nešković’s paintings are “symbols of the metaphysics of stupidity”. It is not accidental that the small town philosophy is represented, in its unique way, by attributes, and not forms, which are transformed into an unrestrained mélange of kitsch  in Nešković’s works. All these characteristics are present in this painting.

Pedja Nešković is a very productive painter who went through a lot of phases although he kept the essence of his authentic creative language. He had many solo and group exhibitions in the country and abroad, and he acquired great popularity, not only in the professional circles, but also with collectors. He had his most important work presented in 1988 at the retrospective exhibition in the Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade.

 

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ZORAN PAVLOVIĆ
(Skoplje, 1932 – Beograd, 2006)
 

Genesis 1, 1961

Oil, combined technique on canvas
100 x 100 cm

 

Zoran Pavlović’s versatile preparation for painting can be seen in the fact that he first studied  Art History in 1950 , and then in 1954 began studying painting at the Academy of Fine Art, graduating from both faculties in 1959. As a professor at the Academy of Fine Art he first taught Art History, and then Painting. At that time he wrote art reviews and theoretical texts about the phenomena of artistic creativity, mainly about color as its essential element.

This painting was made in the year when he was presented, with other three painters, as one of the best painters among the young generation who painted in the Enformel style in Serbian painting  The painters were chosen for this exhibition held at the Cultural Center in Belgrade by Lazar Trifunović. Like other students, Pavlović also showed certain specificity in interpreting and practical work in this anti-painting aesthetics. Since he was not satisfied only by use of the painter’s palette, he began to “stitch in” non-painterly elements on his work, such as materials of different texture, rope etc. Thus, he succeeded in producing a certain structuralization of his work which lead him into a formless production of a plastic images.

The place of Zoran Pavlović in Serbian art has been defined a long time ago, it could almost  be said from his very beginnings which are characterized by such works. The cycle of paintings, to which “Genesis 1” belongs, done in the beginning of  70s, represents one of the most important examples for perception and understanding the most significant characteristics of the transformation that occurred in painting as a reaction to late modernism which was slowly but surely loosing its energy and creative potentials.

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JOVAN DESPOTOVIĆ
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Messenger
colored wood, height 60cm

FERENC  KALMAR
(Subotica, 1928)

Ferenc Kalmar, sculptor. He was born in 1928 in Subotica where he lives today. He has been sculpting since 1947. The artist achieves a dynamic of closed and open, sharp and rounded forms by both deep and surface carving. Almost always color follows the development of volume, whether dense branching or subtle stylized and simple forms are a matter of interest. Connection between sculptural and pictorial testifies to the artist’s stratification and strong expression, which are additionally aided by naturally “broken down” forms and, in an almost fauvist manner, an unrestrained coloring. He received numerous domestic and international credits and awards for his exhibited works.

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NINA KRSTIĆ, art historian

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Apocalyptic Obsession, 1994.
ink on paper, 50x70cm

VOJISLAV JAKIĆ
(Kavadarzi,1932-Despotovac,2003)

Vojislav Jakić (1932, Kavadarzi, Macedonia - 2003, Despotovac, Serbia) Starting from 1960 and up to his death (March 2003), he made a large number of very original drawings, which were to classify him among the world classics of Art Brut. Strong linearism of a hallucinate multiple nervature, builds a unique atmosphere in which we feel strong presence of the artist’s sensuality and agony. Unique arabesques are full of optical effects, calling in to depth or drawing form out of the horizontal surface. As a means of contemplation, Jakić uses allegory, symbol and metaphor. Usually he expresses himself through ink or markers, while rarely does he use colors, pastel crayons or guash. The largest collection of Vojislav Jakić’s most representative monumental drawings  is in The Collection 1 Art Brut in Lausanne.

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NINA KRSTIĆ, art historian

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From Sunset to Sunrise, 2003.god.
oil on cardboard, 110x80 cm.

PREDRAG MILIĆEVIĆ – BARBERIEN
(Jagodina, 1963)

Predrag Milićević-Berberien, painter. He was born in 1963 in Jagodina. He has been painting since 1992. He expresses himself through wide and expressive brush strokes which produce a noticeable path of his primal instinct. Through crude coloring, the artist attains density of sensuality which points to an inner struggle for the primate – a conflict of passions, a struggle between good and evil, where thought and movements are not censored. His quick and strong brush strokes make the idea at inception visible, being the artist’s psychologisms. He is one of the most significant representatives of the younger generation of outsiders. He is a member of ULUS. He received several awards for works exhibited at home and abroad.

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NINA KRSTIĆ, art historian

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KOSTA BOGDANOVIĆ
(Ilidža, 1930)

Polyperspectives, 2009

Klirit, 100x70cm

 

He was born in 1930 in Ilidza near Sarajevo.
He graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade – Department of Art History in 1962. He studied sculpting in the studio of Sreten Stojanovic. He has had solo exhibitions since 1964. As a sculptor, art historian and theorist of visual culture, he is actively present on the Serbian art scene.
The work Polyperspectives – from the recent production made in klirit at the art colony KLIRIT ART,  synthesizes the artist’s earlier exploration of line, the effect of its energy within a scope of dynamic linear frameworks. Depending on light refractions and the perception point, the prismatic forms– suggestive frameworks of precise lines, take the viewer in a hypnotizing manner into the mystical deep blue and the etheric realms of the soul, toned with sensibility of Kosta Bogdanovic and articulated with his cultivated touch for proportion and harmony, which he shows through a couple-of-decades work as an artist and art theorist.

 

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VERA VITOROVIĆ, art historian

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DŽENGIS REDŽEPAGIĆ
(Novi Pazar, 1954)

I prowl at you tonight, 2008

Acrylic on canvas, 70x80cm

 

He was born  in 1954 in Novi Pazar. He graduated from the Faculty of Fine Art in Belgrade.  He has been a member of ULUS from 1982. He lives and works in Novi Pazar.

The latest cycle of pictures “Star pushes away the moon”, with which Dzengis Redzepagic will present himself to the art public of Belgrade, Novi Sad and Sarajevo, confirms that his art has reached complete and productive maturity.

The picture “I prowl at you tonight” shows the all the charcteristics of Dzengis Redzepagic’s visual expression - first of all, a subtle touch for pictorial matter - color, by which the artist deluges the canvas in layers, which leads to formation of colored forms that turn into expressive fluid stains which pulsate in the natural rhythm of waves, and which produce subtle layers of yellow and white color on an intensive blue background that emphasize one another by being in synergy with
coloristic accents of reduced ornamental forms which bring out the poetic atmosphere and a cultivated pictorial aspect of the picture.

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VERA VITOROVIĆ, art historian

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Pillars birds, 2006
teracotta

VLADIMIR KOMAD

Since his first solo exhibition (1972) Vladimir Komad remained consistent, recognizable and dedicated to figuration. His sculptures are often border-lined with abstract forms, in other words, his style shows a strong, monumental expression which inspires with conciseness of expression. His work “PILLARS – BIRDS” inspired by one of the author's favored themes – birds, should be seen in that context. Figures of birds are submitted to material - terracotta, through which dynamic of line is very skillfully built confirming steadiness in approach to motifs. Essential charm to this world of birds is given by Komad's conception of form and plastic, which is, by being analytic, synthetic and elaborated with temperament, independent from any material that the sculpture is made of.

 

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OLIVERA VUKOTIĆ, art historian

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Nuts, 2007
100x81 cm.

VELIZAR KRSTIĆ

Velizar Krstić has built an authentic pictorial poetics by which he expresses his analytic and ironic experience of the world surrounding him. The artist’s sensations in his last cycle “Before and After” have obtained their final articulation in “segments” from real life, such as motifs of fruit, cakes, a gallery of (un)known characters etc. An almost perfectly painted picture of a hazelnut, bearing the same title, and presenting dynamic and harmonic colorist bravures, is a true undertaking in that sense, while its conciseness, concentration and intensity of action are based precisely upon the irony that it imposes as such. Presence of lines, in other words, its character of demarcation, together with numbers, letters and words, suggests the existence of two parallel worlds, the one Before and the one After, that is, it implies that the artist’s intellectual and emotional engagement has effect upon the pictorial value of the composition.

 

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OLIVERA VUKOTIĆ, art historian

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Three golden triangles, 1996
Acrylic on canvas, 90x110 cm.

RADA SELAKOVIĆ

The starting point in the creative opus of Rada Selaković is a concrete fact which was modified through time into an abstract pictoral expression, while finding a solution to the plastic problems of a work is established as an imperative in the realisation process. Her picture „Three Golden Triangles," made in 1996, represents this orientation in which strenght of visual action is manifested through a concise and substantial plastic expression. The triangle as a symbol of the triple nature of the Universe (Sky, Man and Earth), together with oppositely set plastic situations in which the presence of various linear modes points out a subtle realisation of the work, but, among other, also points out the symbolic dimension as one of the basic constitutive elements of the composition.

 

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OLIVERA VUKOTIĆ, art historian

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, art historian

 

Parallel stories, 2008
Oil on canvas, 85x100 cm.

 

MILAN STAŠEVIĆ

The entire opus of Milan Stašević, and thereby the picture “Parallel Stories”, is characterized by a recognizible repertoir of motives that at the same time represents an idiom of his plastic style. Visual codex is based on citations from art history, and through that constellation of various thematic reminiscences a plastic feeling of life’s matter streams through. A great number of, at first sight, independant elements, which at the same time posess visual autonomy, enrich the picture, not only semiotically, but also in the field of plastic leveling. A very important formative component in Stašević's work is a chromatic orchestration of a delicate sound which is based upon sfumato contrasts that emanate various metaphorical implications.

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OLIVERA VUKOTIĆ, art historian

TRANSLATED BY
JELENA POPOVIĆ
, art historian