The current exhibition entitled The Mystery of the Body as a new display of a number of works of Serbian visual art of the XX and XXI centuries at the Madlena Art Palace is dedicated to the artistic experience and visual presentation of the body. The exhibition, conceived after the idea of MRS Madlena Zepter, comprises about 60 works of art, mainly created in the second half of XX century, with the dominant topic of female nude or seminude. They are mostly in the form of paintings, although there are also sculptures, sketches, and prints, while the authors are our renowned artists, among whom Ljubica – Cuca Sokić, Olja Ivanjicki, Ljuba Popović, Vladimir Veličković, Mladen Josić, Miloš Šobajić, Boža Ilić, etc.
The term Nude was originally synonymous for a position or movement of a naked body, while nowadays it mainly relates to the painting of a naked figure, either male or female. In art, the nude body was a recurring topic, which was frequently accompanied with controversies and debates. At first, these were depictions of various deities, biblical figures (Adam and Eve) as well as different allegories and personifications. It was only by the end of 19 century when the need for an imposed topic as a justification started to abate, gradually liberating the naked human body of the mythological and religious narrative. Nudes in the Serbian art of XX and XXI centuries stand for a visual chronicle of the period, thus presentation of the body by contemporary artists is frequently the reflection of own, but also collective gender of sex identity. The exhibited works reflect the topics of questioning of own sexuality, gender positions and feelings, also posing the questions of human freedom and open-mindedness which did not necessarily have to be connected to the personal attitude. Artists boldly round off the story of identities, reminding us that understanding differences is a necessary prerequisite for life in a better reality.
Throughout Serbian history, the nude as a motif has occurs increasingly throughout XX century, following European tendencies and visual cultural preoccupations. While artists from the beginning of XX century were more prone to classical realism, avant-garde, conceptual, and multimedia expressions have been developing from the second half of the previous century till the present date. In the end of the 1960s and in the 1970s, members of the Medijala movement deconstructed the classical nude (female and male), examining the human body through the prism of fantasy and irony. Thus, at the current exhibition The Mystery of the Body we can see works of artists belonging to different generations, including some of those who were a part of the Medijala movement: Olja Ivanjicki, Vladimir Veličković, Ljuba Popović, and Siniša Vuković.
Ljubomir – Ljuba Popović: At the exhibition, the author is represented with the painting entitled Iskušenje, posle (Temptation, after, 1988/89). As a member of Medijala, Ljuba Popović believed painting was an erotic act, meaning that art needs to be sensual and existential, not only conceptual. He was one of the most sophisticated esthetists at our scene in XX century, in artistic terms close to the symbolist artist Gustave Moreau, while his works are featured in the best editions on the art of symbolism. As an exceptional colourist, he, unlike other modernists, paid particular attention to the micro-plan of the painting, atomizing details with the aim to achieve the expression as precise as possible. Unlike other Medijala members, Popović did not want to be perceived as a painter of fantasy, but appreciated the esthetic of neo-surrealism (which even Salvador Dali praised), magical realism, and metaphysical painting. Besides being appreciated as one of the most important artists of XX century, he was also a connoisseur of film, literature, and comics.
Vladimir Veličković: The author is represented at the exhibition with the drawing entitled Izlaz (Exit, 1993), which features the strong symbolics and identity of Veličković’s style, generated after a series of oil paintings from his “pictoresque corps”. The drawing is dominated by black colour, while the strokes are fierce, with sharp lines reminiscent of copperplate engravings. The figure is in motion, in convulsion, expressing the internal struggle. Izlaz may be interpreted as a metaphor for flight, liberation, or facing the boundaries of physical and psychological space.
The painting entitled Horoskop (Horoscope, 1988) by Božidar Damjanovski, the composition of which is symmetrical, presents a male torso with one arm outstretched. The painting was obviously inspired by the “Vitruvian man”, the famous drawing of a male figure in a circle by Leonardo da Vinci. The shape of the figure is partial, while this intended uncompleted state invites the viewer to “complete” the picture mentally. Damjanovski uses the subdued, earthen palette, with an occasional dash of ultramarine or sky-blue. The occurrence of geometrical shapes, the uncompleted (Zodiac) circle with star-sign symbols, and fragments of arches filled with constellations of stars reflect the harmony of the Universe.
Miodrag Rogić: Through their pure, gesticulated lines on against the cromatically fraught backgrounds, Nudes by Miodrag Rogić (1993) tend to bring the form closer to the essence. His approach frequently reduces the figures and furniture (the armchair) to the basic greometrical shapes, through the interlude of voume and light, characteristic of his later career in print. Rogić’s artistic style is a mixture of geometrical figuration and gesticular minimum, characteristic of the tradition of printing and modernist drawings. Rogić frequently refines the figures – particularly nudes (but portraits and paintings of still nature as well) – all the way to elementary geometrical forms, which is how he opens up space for depiction of the essential structure. According to critics, his nudes are ascetically purged of unnecessary details with a pure, rationally marked line, volume, and light, creating internal harmony which elevates the nude to the level of a personally created myth, and not mere representation.
Siniša Vuković: As a supporter of methaphysical figuration, Siniša Vuković, one of the founding members of Medijala, stood for a new visual language comprising surrelistic motifs, abstract geometry, and metaphuysical considerations. His paintings frequently evoke spectacles which remind us of dreams. The exhibited paiting Devojka u šeširu sa korpom grožđa (The Girl in a Hat with a Basket of Grapes) is a sitting seminude painting of a young woman holding a basket with grapes. The painting was made after the style of Gaugin’s Tahitian Women, which was not a typical expression of Vuković’ art.
Olja Ivanjicki: As a member of the Medijala group, Olja Ivanjicki found her artistic anchorage in fantasy, magic, and history, observed through the prism of personal sensitivity. The exhibited paitning is a secular, contmporary, modified presentation of religious content: in the painter’s interpreation, Saint Sebastian, Christian martyr and saint, who died in the course of Diocletian’s persecution of Christians in 3rd century, is also tied to a column, which hints at early-Christian esthetics; however, his tortured body is not pierced by arrows, but there is geometrically stylized black spear pointing at him instead. In the background, it is possible to make out another male figure, liberated, which justifies the title of the painting: Dva Sebastijana (Two Sebastians). Interestingly, the painting was created in 1968, at the time of rule of communist ideology, when hinting at religious topics was deemed politically provocative.
The opus of Mladen Josić comprises numerous paintings of nudes and seminudes based on which it is possible to clearly define different stages of his artistic endeavour. In his early works, created in the 1920s, figures are presented in the precisely realistic style, as may be observed on the painting Mali Adam (Little Adam). In time, his style graduallychanged to become rather impressionist in the course of 1950s, which may be observed on the two seminude paintings.
Painter Boža Ilić found his authentic artistic expression in the oil technique. The painting featuring two female nudes (Ležeći akt – Lying Nude) was created in 1980s. In the coloristic research of Boža Ilić, his inclination towards cloisonnism, or use of bold black outlines to draw the contours of an object or a body is quite observable.
As an artist inclined towards the concept of abstract thinking, Ljubica – Cuca Sokić researched the female shape with poetic introspection. Her approach to the human (primarily female) figure is primarily intimate, focused on the atmosphere, including delicate lines and emotions. Drawings in ink on the topic of female nude indicate that Ljubica – Cuca Sokić treated this motif continuously; however, unlike her other thematic units, she never exhibited her nude paintings as works that would help define her public image.
Miloš Šobajić belonged to the style of dramatic expressionism, with his opus particularly focused on the figurative approach. Use of intense colours, dynamic strokes, and symbolic motifs present the core of his expression. In his compositions he frequently combines topics relevant for the Balkans with European modernism. The figure of Miloš Šobajić is frequently the carrier of emotional and philosophical narration. Even though he never embraced the classical nude painting as the primary topic, his paintings of the human body are characterized by stylized and emphasized texture, with nude figures symbolizing the universal topics of life struggle and evanescence. At the exhibited painting by Šobajić entitled Panika (Panic, 1971), the human figure with elongated limbs, deformed body, and arms and legs uplifted in a gesture of impotence occupies the central position, while the background pulsates with fragmented splashes of paint. The deformed figure testifies to internal unrest and feeling of vulnerability. The work reflects Šobajić’s personal position in the eve of a new artistic view, between Belgrade academism and Paris expressionism (the painting was created shortly before his departure to Paris, where he moved out). Panika is one of the rare paintings from his last Belgrade period which actually announces Šobajić’s later figurative expression characteristic of his art in Paris. Dynamic strokes and strong coloristic contrast would gradually become constant elements of his symbolic vocabulary in the years to follow.
In his work entitled Vreme teskobe (Time of Anxiety), Vasilije – Vasa Dolovački combines intimist colorism with pronounced sentimentality. He uses warm hues, mainly of ocher and earthen colour, while the shadows create the feeling of tension and discomfort. The composition is balanced, authentically transferring the feeling of anxiety and internal struggle through the lavish coloring and contrasts. His artistic expression is characterized by warm coloring with accents in the colour of golden opal. Soft, etherical lighting creates the atmosphere of intimacy, while tonal confluence and trembling shadows merge with pigments which seem to be pulsating on the surface of the painting. The intimist approach and aptitude for “poetry of small things” make him an authentic poet of coloring, while his works exude serene romanticism void of idealization.
Marko Crnobrnja is an artist whose expression involves various materials and their combinations. Even though in recent days he has been considerably working with steel, wood remains his primary medium in which he recognizes archetypal vitality, the constantly provocative idea about the sculpture as an imperfect toy of old times. Wood is the medium for increasingly liberal expression on which he intervenes with other materials and paint, which he uses to emphasize structural quality, and level the notional and visual effect. The sculpture Puna kesa (Full Shopping Bag), displayed at the exhibition, from the cycle “Rđava posla” (“Dubious Business”) from 2019 is a spatial composition of steel and wood, where a male figure in a business suit is placed upside-down above the shopping bag, which confirms the status of the modern human sucked in the abyss of hyper-consumerism.
The body is one of the main indicators of the period. Its display is the mirror of the world, the mirror which reflects politics, ideology, religion, history, science, sex and gender aspects, and private life rituals. The third millennium has started under the sign of new, rather provocative paradigms. The boundary between the virtual and the real is increasingly hazy, while multimedia approaches perpetuate nudity through photos and digital art, combining nude art with modern esthetics.