Nadežda Petrović: Modernity and the Nation opened on Tuesday, December 5, at the Pavilion in Tvrđava. The exhibition of the author prof. Dr. Lidija Merenik and Prof. Dr. Igor Borozan, the Gallery organizes in cooperation with the National Museum of Serbia in honor of the important national jubilee one hundred and fifty years since the birth of the famous painter.
The exhibition in the Art Pavilion includes a representative selection of fifty works by the progenitor of Serbian modern art from the collections of four institutions: the National Museum of Serbia, the Nadežda Petrović Čačak Art Gallery, the Pavel Beljanski Memorial Collection and the Matica Srpska Gallery in Novi Sad. In a complete and comprehensive way, designed in accordance with leading themes and motifs, through chronological-thematic units, it gives an insight into the development and artistic creativity of Nadežda Petrović from her earliest Munich days, paintings of the country and people, impressionist episodes and national narrative to the Parisian and wartime period.
Known to the general public as one of the founders of the Circle of Serbian Sisters, a war nurse, the only woman on the Serbian banknote, a prominent Serbian artist engaged in art criticism, pedagogical work and left a mark in history as a socially engaged woman open to new and advanced ideas. She provoked with her art, courage, avant-garde approach, feminist views and political activism, and showed humanity and patriotism as a war nurse in the Balkan and Great Wars.The exhibition Modernity and the Nation is an opportunity for the audience to get to know the painter as the first Serbian photographer.
Nadežda Petrović’s valuable contribution to art and culture, especially in the south of Serbia, is another jubilee – the sixty held convocations of the Sićevo Art Colony.Back in 1905, in a wine-growing village near Niš, with great efforts, hard work and commitment of a persistent and persistent young artist, the First Yugoslav Art Colony was founded, the forerunner of today’s Sićevka Colony, which has been maintained continuously for the past six decades and is important for the formation and enrichment of the fund Galleries of contemporary fine art Nis.
During her not-so-long life, one of the most important actresses of the Serbian art scene from the beginning of the last century, she connected several environments with her creativity and social engagement: her native Čačak, Munich where she acquired and perfected her painting skills, Italy and France, the cradle of art and culture, Niš to whom she bequeathed the oldest colony in the Balkans and Valjevo, where she died. From the beginning of the last century, she brought a modern approach to painting to Serbia, marking the national art as modern.
The exhibition in Niš is organized with the support of the City of Niš and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia after being presented to the public at the National Museum of Serbia in Belgrade, the Museum of Contemporary Art of the Republic of Serbia in Banja Luka, the Božidar Jakac Gallery in Kostanjevica na Krka and the Nadežda Petrović Art Gallery in Čačak and will be open to the public until January 5, 2024.