The Niš Gallery’s collection contains a total of 79 sculptures, of which 36 are registered within the Collection of Fine Artists of Niš and 47 belong to this collection. These are works by 26 artists from Serbia and 5 artists from the former republics of the SFRY: Croatia (Branko Ružić, Ante Marinović), Slovenia (Vilijem Jakopin) and Bosnia and Herzegovina (Boško Kućanski, Nikola Njirić). Each of the authors is represented with one work, the exceptions being Mira Jurišić and Svetomir Arsić Basara with two sculptures each, and Jelisaveta Šober Popović and Viljem Jakopin with 4 sculptures each. One of the sculptures from the collection is in a public space, it is the Portrait of Nadežda Petrović by J. Šober Popović, whose plaster model was cast in bronze by the Niš sculptor Novica Jočić. The sculpture, which has the form of a bust, was installed in front of the Colony building in Sićevo in 1984.
The collection is based on works by artists of different generations, the oldest of which are those who entered the art scene in the mid-fifties. The oldest works in the collection, created in 1965 (sculptures by Otto Log, Zoran Petrović and Svetomir Arsić Basara), have dynamic forms and abstract expression. The work Aggressive Form by Zoran Petrović is one of the rare examples of Informel sculpture in our art.
Most of the sculptures are from the 1970s and 1980s. They bear witness to movements in our sculpture, from the classical figurative approach (Radmila Graovac, Nikola Koka Janković), figural stylization (Đorđije Crnčević, Ante Marinović, Svetomir Radović) through biomorphic and organic forms (Milija Glišić, Jovan Kratohvil, Jelisaveta Šober Popović, Delija Pravački, Boško Kućanski) to anthropomorphic forms (Mira Jurišić) and geometric stylization (Aleksandar Zarin, Momčilo Krković, Dušan Marković). A number of sculptors represented in the collection (Venija Vučin, Turinski and Nikola Njirić) find inspiration in ethno tradition and folklore art and mainly or exclusively use wood as a sculptural material, similar to Branko Ružić, whose Tahijev kriz from this collection is one of 4 sculptures from the artist’s oeuvre, with the same theme. Among the sculptors who began their creative path in the late seventies and use new materials (plexiglass, glass, steel) and strive for purism and rigor of form, Milija Nešić and Balša Rajčević are represented. Kosta Bogdanović deals with the examination of the ontological status of this medium and the question of the illusory nature of form, which is also confirmed by the three Families from this collection. The value of the collection is supported by the fact that the artists represented are works that, from the point of view of artistic and aesthetic characteristics, are significant and valuable examples from their oeuvres, from the time when they received prestigious professional recognition for their work – the Golden Chisel award (e.g. M. Glišić 1975, M. Nešić 1978, V.V. Turinski 1980, D. Marković 1989) or awards at the October Salons in Belgrade (O. Logo 1965, J.Š. Popović 1975, A. Marinović 1976). The great shortcoming of the collection is that it stagnated for about fifteen years (1988-2002) and that it only sporadically represents artists who have been entering the art scene since the late eighties. Among the latest works to arrive in the sculpture collection are gifts from artists Svetomir Arsić, Basara and Jasmina Pejčić, as well as works by Rajko Popivoda and Olivera Parlić Karajanković based on their participation in the work of the Art Colony “Sićevo”.
