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Art colony "Sićevo 2024"
The Art Colony has begun: Artists will create in Sićevo for the next 10 days
The 61st convocation of the oldest art colony in the Balkans was officially opened last night in the village of Sićevo, where 9 artists from Croatia, Bulgaria and Serbia will stay for the next 10 days. The works of art created during this year's manifestation will be exhibited in the Pavilion in the Fortress in November 2025.
The art colony Sićevo continues the tradition of the first Yugoslav art colony founded by the famous Serbian painter Nadežda Petrović.
"It is with special pleasure that we open this colony, because for us this is the year of jubilee and 6 full decades of continuous maintenance of the Sićevac colony. It took a lot of vision, commitment and enthusiasm to bring to life the idea that Nadežda Petrović had in 1905 when she first gathered her colleagues here in the village of Sićevo. Thanks to that, our institution has a heritage of over 900 paintings, sculptures and new media that we preserve, study, take care of, occasionally exhibit, and we are talking about the works of over 500 authors from our country and abroad," says Ema Ćoćić Bilić, director of the Gallery of Contemporary Fine Arts. .
The opening ceremony was also attended by prof. Dr. Dejan Antić, State Secretary in the Ministry of Culture, who emphasized the unique position of supporting this important cultural event.
"It is an honor and a pleasure to be with you tonight." I use the opportunity to convey to the director and to all of you the position of Minister Nikola Selaković that the State of Serbia and the Ministry of Culture will continue to support the organization of such a colony. The Ministry has continuously supported the implementation of the Colony in previous years, and it will continue to do so in the years ahead," says prof. Dr. Dejan Antić, State Secretary in the Ministry of Culture. The collection of works of art created in Sićevo is the most valuable collection of our art of the second half of the century in the territory of Serbia itself, in terms of its historical, artistic and aesthetic characteristics.
City councilor Milica Paulus said that artists are the most important in a society and recalled the words of Nadežda Petrović.
"Artists must be teachers not only of their people, but of all peoples." Not only of his own, but of all centuries. And real art must be a teacher, an educator and a fighter for the progress of humanity. We can say that the task and mission of artists and art have not changed even today. In that name, I wish all participants a pleasant stay and successful work in this wonderful space where artists and nature compete in the beauty of colors and shapes," says Councilor Milica Paulus.
The participants of the Art Colony Sićevo 2024 are: Nina Ivanović, Marija Bogdanović, Đorđe Stanojević (Belgrade), Nikolija Stanojević, Milan Hrnjazović (Valjevo), Borislav Božić (Croatia), Dinko Nenov (Bulgaria), Milan Ristic and Tijana Savković (Niš).
The implementation of this year's manifestation was supported by the City of Niš and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia.
MILORAD BATA MIHAILOVIĆ - THE FIRST PARIS DECADE
Gallery of Contemporary Fine Art Nis invites you to the ceremonial opening of the exhibition of the works of the painter and academician Milorad Bata Mihailović (1923-2011) on Thursday, May 30 at 8 p.m. - Pavilion in the Fortress. The exhibition entitled The First Paris Decade of Milorad Bata Mihailović, authored by Sofija Ž. Milenković, SLU Gallery organizes in cooperation with the Rima Gallery and the Milorad Bata Mihajilović Foundation, and on the occasion of the great jubilee, the centenary of the birth of the prominent artist.
The exhibition will feature some of the most significant works of Mihailović's first decade in Paris, including newly discovered works, which will be presented to the domestic public for the first time in Niš.
Milorad Bata Mihailović was born in Pančevo in 1923. He began his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Belgrade in 1946, and after staying in Zadar and working as part of an informal group of students known as the Zadar Group, he left them two years later and continued working independently. In the very early period, the figure predominates in Mihailović's paintings, most often through the genre of portraits, self-portraits and group portraits, as well as urban landscapes, among which Belgrade views stand out. Later, staying on the coast, after leaving the Academy, under various influences the artist developed his own artistic expression, adopting a two-dimensional and modernist approach to painting.
From 1951, he was a member and founder of the group Jedenaestorica. In the same year in Belgrade, he held his first solo exhibition at the ULUS Gallery, which met with the approval of art critics, with the observation that Mihailović, although clearly talented, had not yet found his authentic artistic expression.
With his wife, the painter Ljubica Jovanović, he went to Paris in 1952, where he spent most of his life, with occasional returns to Belgrade.
Entering the new, developed art scene, in the very center of European art events, the artist encountered multifaceted currents of abstract painting that were unknown to him until then. Painting at first moderately geometrized abstract forms, Mihailović's expressive painting temperament was more suited to freer lyrical expression in Paris. He organized his first solo exhibitions as early as 1953 in the Marseille gallery and the Paul Morihien bookstore, and his notable performances led him to the acquaintance and cooperation with the distinguished gallerist Rudi Augustinčić and the Rive Gauche gallery, where he exhibited for the first time with the Polish artist Marjan in 1957, and then in 1959 with the Dutch painter Bram Bogart. Decisive for Mihailović's positioning on the local art scene was the collaboration with Jean Polak, owner of the prestigious Ariel gallery, where Mihailović has been exhibiting independently since 1960.
He stayed in New York on several occasions from 1962 until his final return to the art scene of Yugoslavia in 1965. The first retrospective exhibition in Belgrade was organized in 1981 in the Art Pavilion of Cvijeta Zuzorić.
Milorad Bata Mihailović was a member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. His works are represented in the collections of renowned museums and institutions, private collections, social institutions in the country and abroad.
The public in Niš will have the opportunity to visit the exhibition in the Pavilion in the Fortress until June 30.
