THE COLLECTION OF CONTEMPORARY PAINTING was created primarily thanks to the Sićevo art colony, but also from purchases and donations from institutions and artists themselves. The Collection features our prominent artists as protagonists of certain stylistic orientations, so thanks to it we can follow part of the complex movements in painting in the South Slavic regions from 1970 to the present.
A temporary exception is a portrait from 1932 painted in the spirit of academic traditions by Pavle Vasić /purchased by the SLU Gallery./
In addition to artists from Serbia, there are artists from the former Republics, and since the nineties, more and more artists from various countries: Greece, Bulgaria, Denmark, Italy, Canada, USA, Japan…./ Thanks to the formation of the Lucerne painting colony /1980-1986./ The GSLU fund has been enriched with landscape paintings by Grujica Lazarević, Peđa Milosavljević, Yamazaki Osami, /Japan/ as well as many artists from Niš.
In addition to the above artists, Milenko Šerban and Božidar Prodanović, who stayed in Sićevo in 1971, left their works inspired by nature. Somewhat later, Stojan Trumić /1972./, Petar Mazev /1978./, Boža Ilić /1982./, left behind works that belong to coloristic expressionism. Through motifs of nature and portraits, these artists emphasize the sonority of color and the rough, layered texture of the painting material. Moving in the same direction, and even a step further two decades later, Miodrag Bata Mihajlović, with energetic strokes and strong emotions, creates a dramatic composition called Ćele Kula, which he leaves as a gift to the GSLU after his stay in Sićevo. /1991/ Motifs taken from nature are also a subject of interest / and Radoslav Trkulja, /1996./ who, in the spirit of poetic realism with elements of fantasy and dream, paints associative compositions related to nature.
After holding solo exhibitions, consistent with their world of imagination, in the surrealist spirit, Olja Ivanjicki /purchase from the solo exhibition in 1971/ and Siniša / Sićevo 1974/ left behind works that, in the spirit of Mediala, evoke the mythological world of dreams and fantasy, making the GSLU Fund richer and more substantial. Radomir Reljić /1971/, Bojan Bem /1974/, Aleksandar Luković /1986/ in the works that are in the GSLU Collection, staying in the Sićevo Art Colony, continue their earlier research as artists of new figuration with the metaphorical language of riddles, revealing their own ironic attitude towards contemporary society. In order to connect two worlds: geometric and figurative, Mladen Srbinović builds his own iconography by painting the Sićevo gorge in which the rational and the sensual intertwine. /1971./ Although they took part in the Art Colony Sićevo in 1971. Mića Popović and Zoran Pavlović remained consistent with their initiated research when, after the abstract phase, they returned to figurative painting as a critical response of the artist to current socio-political events with a mature, denigrated artistic language. Miodrag B. Protić at that time was engaged in researching two-dimensional space in which the motif was reduced to a static sign. /Sićevo 1971./ Quite apart from the current painting trends are the works of Lazar Vujaklija /purchased from a solo exhibition in 1970./ which were inspired by scenes and ornaments from medieval tombstones, as well as by expressionist and symbolist painting.
Unlike artists who tend towards figuration, Ivan Tabaković and Stojan Ćelić, /Sićevo 1971./ find answers to complex life questions using a reduced, geometrically abstract language using the laws of physics, chemistry and philosophy. These artists create completely original visual manuscripts that are based on a specific combination of science and art. Moving in the direction of various forms of geometric abstraction, Borko Lazeski /Sićevo 1979./, Boro Iljovski /Sićevo 1982./ Ljubica Cuca Sokić /gift from the artist from a solo exhibition/as well as Rada Selaković. /Sićevo 1999./. Following the movements on the current art scene in the late seventies and throughout the eighties, Aleksandar Cvetković /Sićevo 1978./ and Aleksandar Rafajlović /Sićevo, 1983./ are engaged in the study of painting material and the spiritual essence of art, leaving for the GSLU Collection works that can be classified as various types of reinterpreted neo-informel.
The nineties, which brought war and destruction to these areas, lead to isolation and stagnation in the entire culture and art. Some artists raise their voice against social reality with their work, such as Bože Plazinić, who after his stay in Sićevo /1999./ leaves for the GSLU Fund a work of 4 parts in the spirit of abstract expressionism and neo-informel with a sacred overtone, opposing the general nonsense. Of great importance for the quality of the collection in the last decade are the donations of our famous artists such as Radomir Damnjanović Damnjan and Petar Omčikus, who, after their solo exhibitions at the Gallery Serbia /2006 and 2007/, donated one of their works to the GSLU from previously started cycles.
