Within different cultural models presented through garments, the exhibition The Mystery of the Uniform regards clothes from the standpoint of visual culture as a specific means of communication. As a segment of visual arts, uniformity of clothes had an important role in civic self-presentation, constitution of contents of private and professional life, representation of rulers, armies, historic figures, national ideas, etc. Clothes can undoubtedly hide, but also reveal the identity of an individual. Artistic interpretation of the uniform (or clothing) is perpetuated in numerous works of our renowned artists who employed their authenticity to develop a multitude of enigmatic characters which could be classified in social categories they belong to.
Olja Ivanjicki: Isabella D’Este in the pink room (1967)
This is a portrait of Isabella d’Este based on the drawing by Leonardo da Vinci which was created about 1500, and which is nowadays located in the Louvres. Isabella D’Este was a prominent cultural and political personality, one of the greatest patronesses of art in history. She was famous for having made her court in Mantua a place of gathering of the most eminent scientists and artists of Italian renaissance. In accordance with the drawing and painting of the famous Italian artist Da Vinci, Olja Ivanjicki presented Isabella in profile, with aristocratic bearing, in clothes emphasizing the “dress code” of renaissance ladies from higher circles of the period. The unique and recognizable figuration, fantasy, magic, and poetic realism of a new kind are some of the key determinants of painting of Olja Ivanjicki. The picture presents a super-historic moment with a view that first goes back, all the way to Leonardo da Vinci, and then forwards, all the way to the modern world. The iconography of the painter is characterized by an original visual language, expressed by new assemblies of figures.
Lazar Vozarević: The Royal Family (1958)
The painting shows royal family figures with insignia representing attributives of power: the crown, the mantle, the scepter, and royal garments inspired by Byzantine art, but stylized in a cubist manner – after Pablo Picasso’s Blue Period. This picture of a three-member royal family was created in the period when synthesis of cubism and Serbian Byzantine tradition was noticeable in Vozarević’s works, with classical iconographic topics referring to artistic trends in painting within contemporary art.
Aleksandar Luković Lukijan: The Orator (1959)
The work of Aleksandar Luković Lukijan is close to the spirit of surrealism, which in visual terms implies an approach opposite to the realistic manner of reality mimicking. The painting entitled The Orator presents an orator in a robe belonging to the period of the Roman Empire. In ancient Rome, the toga was not only a garment (as a matter of fact, this was its least important function), but a message bearing special symbolic. It was primarily a token of social standing, as it was worn only by Roman citizens. This was a necessary, though not sufficient precondition, as not all citizens of Rome were worthy of it. Thus, beside the social rank, the toga also pointed to the special professional and social status. It was worn by rulers, senators, consuls, and, certainly, philosophers and famous orators. Because of the manner it enveloped the body, with the rest of the fabric thrown over the left shoulder so as to keep the right hand free, it was clear that it was not intended for any work other than mental. The orator on the painting by Aleksandar Luković Lukijan is likewise gazing towards the sky, while the ornaments surrounding him are imaginary and symbolical, with some details from the modern world and the bird phoenix, symbol of re-birth.
Ljubodrag Janković Jale: The Parcas (1999)
Despite all effort to control own destiny, the man has felt that the most important vital matters (birth and death, fortune and misfortune) are in the hands of supernatural beings. Thus, in ancient Greek culture, the beings in charge of human fate and longevity of mortals were Moiras (Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos); in the culture of ancient Rome, these were the Parcas (Nona, Decima, and Morta), while in the ancient Slavic culture they were called the Suđaje.
The Suđaje (suđenice or rođenice), demon beings, prophetesses, determined the fate of newborns, mostly on the third night after birth. In the painting by Ljubodrag Janković Jale, the three Parcas are depicted as strong and monumental, reminding us of sculptures in stolas, Roman tunics – dresses, with a cloak (palla) thrown over, which, similarly to male togas, covered one arm and breasts. The central female figure, dressed in white, represents Clotho or Nona, as the Parca who pleats the thread of life, while the Parcas determining the length of the thread and cutting it are located on her left and right. Overlapping of Slavic and Roman mythology is obvious.
Milić of Mačve: Mačva People Haul Wheat for the Republic of Užice (1966)
Painter Milić Stanković, known as Milić of Mačva, is one of the most important artists of 20 century. His paintings are dominated by figurative surrealism, which is why he was frequently called Serbian Salvador Dali.
Recognizable motifs employed by Milić of Mačva include blazing skies, flying logs, burning balls, and icebergs. We can see such a blazing sky in the picture Mačva People Haul Wheat for the Republic of Užice, which is a part of the exhibition The Mystery of the Uniform. The sky, which is a dominant part of the painting, is painted in a whirl of colours, from bright orange through darker hues of orange to bright red, dark red, and burgundy, with hues of purple, which emphasizes the role of nature in the dramatic quality of human destiny. The bottom part of the painting presents a village road with a convoy led by partisan soldiers in army coats, followed closely by Mačva peasants with their cattle and horse-driven carts.
Paintings by Milić of Mačva are characterized by a plentitude of symbols and multi-layered messages.
Dragutin Cigarčić: The Knight
Knightly armours are characteristic of medieval warriors and they evolved as such through time from simple mail shirts to complex and heavy laminated armors in the late Middle Ages. In 15 century, laminated armors became standard, fully protecting the body as shown in the picture by Dragutin Cigarčić. Such armors were made of tempered steel and precisely manufactured so as to fend blows.
Zoran Petrović: Don Quixote (1957)
Zoran Petrović, a renaissance personality in our culture, was a painter, sculptor, writer, pedagogue, and full-time professor of the Academy of Visual Arts in Belgrade. His sculpting skill exudes the strong spirit of the artist and his passionate determination to tame the elements and tell us an interesting story through a combination of whetted and polished metals with sharp edges and symbolic elements worked into detail. Such as story is visible on his sculpture Don Quixote which presents the legendary character from Miguel de Cervantes’ The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha. The contrast of glossy surfaces of elementary shapes such as the circle, the ball, rectangular areas, and details on the figure of the medieval knight such as the battered shield and excessively long spear, as well as those on the dispirited horse Rocinante, contributes to the artist’s imaginative interpretation of the Knight of the Sad Countenance.
Mića Popović: Waiting Room of the 2nd Class (1977)
As an artist, Mića Popović always creatively deliberated the possibility of multi-media expression in genre painting, as he called his works of art created in the 1970s. Instead of traditional painting in oil, in his paintings of large format he combined traditional painting techniques with daily papers, wooden boxes, suitcases, and numerous other objects which stepped out of reality and into the work of art, as may be seen on the exhibited picture. The Painting Waiting Room of the 2nd Class is a part of the cycle belonging to his art of spectacle. The message the artist sends is a specific provocation, which was first encountered with distrust on part of the party bureaucracy back in 1970s and faced with severe ideological condemnations and prohibitions.
Mladen Srbinović: The Guitar Player (1972)
Mladen Srbinović is a painter of poetic-fantastic genre, which leans broadly on the world of mythology, legends, fairytales and folk stories where he found his inspiration. The painting is dominated by two figures of musicians, guitar players, frontally positioned in a complex, dynamic composition. Srbinović is a distinct colorist, thus contrast of hues within the bright chromatic intensity occurs with pink, purple, and orange colours emphasized.
Majda Kurnik: Three Musicians (1963)
Although realistic depiction was the starting point of Majda Kurnik’s painting, in this picture she employed a distinctive procedure of visual expression creating a specific atmosphere in which the poetic and the imaginary prevail. The coloration is simple, without expressive details.
Momčilo ‒ Moma Antonović: The Return of the Executioner
Momčilo Antonović, a painter of explicit expression, presents his artistic sensibility in rich coloration and dynamic form. His painting entitled The Return of the Executioner is characterized by composition of lavish polychromic and energetic strokes. The dynamic of the lines contributes to emotional expression of such a dramatic act such as the act of execution.
Snežana Pešić Rančić: From the Past (2020)
Inspired by the historical encounter of King Aleksandar Karađorđević and Kemal Ataturk (in October 1933, king Aleksandar visited Ataturk in Istanbul), Snežana Pešić Rančić presented the two rulers by emphasizing the diversity of their presentation: although they are seated one by the other, they seem disinterested in the presence of the other, both looking ahead as if they are posing for a photograph; they are also attired quite differently: King Aleksandar is wearing his military uniform, leaning against a mahogany stick with a golden handle, while Ataturk is wearing a suit after the latest British fashion of the time (a coat, a tie, and a top hat). The whole setting has an ironic reflection, as the identity is simultaneously transparent and recognizable, but also disguised with the almost catalog position presenting the costumes. The artist, who is inclined to multimedia approach, here used an unusual combined technique: acrylic pasted on transparent PVC foil of large dimensions in combination with sticky fabric (interface).
Nikola Bešević: Without a Title
Nikola Bešević was famous for his paintings of still nature, which evidently showed his aptitude for rich coloring and expressive strokes. The picture presents ritual African masks and totem animals (totems). In Africa, masks have an important role in rituals and ceremonies aimed at different purposes. Also, the mask as a complex symbol comprises three aspects: expression, content, and meaning.
Anđelka Bojović: The Painting (1990)
The picture is an interpretation of the renowned Mezzetino by Antoine Watteau (painted in 1718‒1720). This character from Italian Commedia dell’arte was a frequent topic of French rococo painting due to his picturesque costume and equally picturesque character: shifty, seductive, honey-tongued, and amorous. Anđelka Bojović has painted him in a typical costume, striped jacket with a lavish white collar and striped breeches, a brightly coloured beret, in the position of an enraptured singer who accompanies himself on the guitar.
Kosta Bradić: At Breakfast (1981)
Kosta Bradić is a painter famous for his surrealist expression. His paintings feature plentitude of symbols and mystical motifs, while his rich colouring makes them visually striking and intriguing.
In 1953, Bradić was a founding member of the well-known artistic group Medijala which gathered painters, writers, and architects. Its members tended to achieve conjunction of traditional values and modern artistic trends. The other members of this group were Olja Ivanjicki and Milić of Mačva, whose paintings are also exhibited within the exhibition The Mystery of the Uniform.
Military Uniform
Historically, the basic purpose of the uniform was to make soldiers of belligerent armies recognizable, as well as to scare the enemy in the course of the battle, which is why it was sometimes created so as to impress. Also as important was its purpose to enable hiding from the enemy; thus, colours occurring in the nature such as olive-green, green, and grey were – and still are – used as a camouflage factor. The uniform may also be a dress uniform and have ceremonial character, when it is worn at receptions and parades.
Preliminary design for real, surreal, and abstract uniformed figures may be observed in some works of art shown at the current exhibition.
Nikola ‒ Koka Jovanović: Warrior, sculpture in bronze
Bogoljub Boba Jovanović: In Full Glow
Radislav Trkulja: Straw Warrior
Milan Blanuša: Soldier drinking Beer
Zdravko Joksimović: Whose Uniform Is This?