OFFICERS’ HOUSING
We invite you to the opening of the painting exhibition and promotion of the monograph “Miroslav Anđelković” by Sonja Vukašinović, on April 10, 2025 at the Oficirski Dom Gallery, starting at 7 p.m. The promotion of the monograph will be attended by Emilija Ćoćić Bilić, director of the SLU Gallery Niš, Malina Radonjić, art historian, Sonja Vukašinović, museum advisor from the Gallery of Contemporary Fine Arts Niš.
The retrospective exhibition – in memoriam of Miroslav Anđelković consists of a selection of about forty paintings from his rich legacy as well as a selection of works from the Fund of the Gallery of Contemporary Fine Arts Niš.
Miroslav Anđelković was born on April 6, 1945 in Jelasnica. After graduating from art school in Niš, he enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Belgrade. He graduated and received his master’s degree in the class of Prof. Nedeljko Gvozdenović. He became a member of ULUS, Lada, and the Niš Graphic Circle.
Miroslav Anđelković entered the art scene in Serbia in 1970 with the exhibition “Generation 1969/70” and was noticed by art critics and professional audiences. He exhibited his work about 35 times and was awarded 11 times for his work. Abroad, he exhibited in group exhibitions in Luxembourg, Paris, Zurich, Basel, Lucerne, Aarau, Craiova, Veliko Tarnovo, Moscow, and Nitra.
He collaborated with prominent writers and poets from Niš. He provided drawings for many literary works, such as “People of God” by Bora Sranković, “Ibis Age” by Stevan Sremac, “White Stone” by Dragoljub Janković, Lyrical folk songs of the Timok region “Oh, how the old mountain”, “Divinska Mycenae” by Radmilo Radovanović, while with Tomislav Mijović he published four books of a joint poetic-lyrical diary under the titles: “In the gentleness and solitude”, “Shimmers of calling”, “Javke odsjaji, ugarci”, “Vreme na okupu”, and he illustrated Stevan Raičković’s work “Notes about Black Vladimir”.
He began his working life as a professor, first at the Gymnasium in Leskovac and Niš, and then moved to the Gallery of Contemporary Fine Arts in Niš, first as a curator, artistic director and director. He then moved to the Faculty of Applied Arts in Belgrade, where he worked until his retirement as a full professor. In 2011, he was awarded the Grand Plaque with the Charter of the University of Belgrade. He participated in a large number of collective exhibitions in the country and abroad.
He passed away on April 15, 2021.
During his lifetime, he created over 400 paintings and countless drawings, watercolors, and graphics. The exact number is impossible to determine because the paintings have been stolen and a large number have remained in the permanent ownership of many institutions, museums, and galleries that have purchased his work or received it as a gift through participation in various art events and art colonies. His drawings adorn and illustrate many literary works. The family legacy includes 80 paintings and countless drawings and watercolors. Almost all of his work has been published in catalogues accompanying his solo and group exhibitions, and he has exhibited continuously for the past fifty years.
The development of his work has been accompanied by constant improvement and development without sudden leaps or drastic changes. The variety of colors changed depending on personal affinity and life circumstances, with the unlimited introduction of his emotional states and philosophical thoughts. Anđelković is inspired by nature, which he transposes. The paintings are dominated by a sensitively skillful harmony of the rational and the emotional, rich chromatic textures and visual parts, tonally harmonized with accents of warm and cold. His works exude strong emotion, which is presented through color but also strong expressive drawing.
Anđelković was one of the most attractive and versatile artists of Niš from the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries in Niš and Serbia. Through his active engagement at all levels of culture, he participated in the creation of the city’s artistic and cultural life.
He exhibited his work 35 times, winning 11 awards. He participated in many famous art colonies in the former Yugoslavia.
Throughout his working life, he worked on the promotion and creation of the city’s artistic life, as an academic artist, artistic director and later director of the Gallery of Contemporary Fine Arts Niš, but also through various juries, commissions, artistic councils, pedagogical work, following his artistic credo in the hope of achieving his goal. His work will remain permanently recorded and remembered not only in these areas but also beyond, because he left a deep mark in the history of artistic creation in our country.