Exhibition at the SASA Gallery ’Collection as a Mirror – Modernism in the Artworks from the Gallery of Matica Srpska’

The exhibition ’Collection As a Mirror – Modernism in the Artworks from the Gallery of Matica Srpska’ authored by  Tijana Palkovljević Bugarski, PhD,  the director of the Gallery of Matica Srpska, opens at the SASA Gallery, on Thursday, 23 December, at 7 p.m. Academician Vladimir S. Kostić, SASA president, as well as the author Tijana Palkovljević Bugarski will speak at the opening ceremony, while Maja Gojković, vice-president and the head of the Ministry of Culture and Information of the Government of Serbia will have the honour of opening the exhibition.

The exhibition encompasses 86 artworks ‒ 75 paintings, seven sculptures and four graphics ‒ and thoroughly illustrates Serbian fine art, its models, orientations and achievements from the last decades of the 19^th century to the middle of the 20^th century.

Through the works of 50 authors, the path unrolls, from realistic orientations developed under the influence of art academies in Vienna and Munich to the modernism of the 20th century, which came about due to our artists’ education and their stay in Prague, Budapest and finally in Paris, the centre of artistic modernism of the 20^th century.

The exhibition highlights the development pathways of Serbian fine arts from the ideas of realism, impressionism and symbolism to current expressionist and intimate expressions stated through religious and historical compositions as well as portraits, landscapes, nudes and interiors.  Along with the most eminent and most representative artists such as Uroš Predić, Paja Jovanović, Steva Aleksić, Ivan Tabaković, Nadežda Petrović, Petar Dobrović, Sava Šumanović, Milan Konjović and Petar Lubarda (with whom the exhibition ends chronologically), the works of perhaps less known painters are also exhibited, who left their mark not only in the history of Serbian art but also in the collection of the Gallery of Matica Srpska.

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue authored by Tijana Palkovljević Bugarski, PhD, in cooperation with expert consultants Jelena Ognjanović and Aleksandra Čelovski, and the GMS team of conservators  – Danilo Vuksanović, Darko Despotović, Luka Kulić and Marijeta Sidovski and the SASA Gallery team.

During the exhibition, visitors will be treated with expert interpretations, specially prepared lectures, and the exhibition is on display until 20 March 2022.

The realization of the exhibition and the accompanying catalogue was supported by the Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Serbia and the Secretariat for Culture of the City of Belgrade.