SASA Exhibition ’Uroš Predić and His Works in the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts’ at the Užice City Gallery

The travelling exhibition ’Uroš Predić and His Works in the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts’ from the holdings of the SASA Archives, SASA Library and SASA Art Collection, curated by Jelena Mežinski Milovanović, will officially open on Thursday, 10 September, at the Užice City Gallery, at 7 p.m.

Since 2007, along with a range of thematic exhibitions, the Gallery of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts has presented works from the legacies of Olga Jevrić, Aleksandar Deroko and Nedeljko Gvozdenović, whose works were presented by authors to the SASA Art Collection, in the Užice City Gallery. It has also presented a selection of Ivan Radović’s drawings, which his spouse donated to the Academy.

On this occasion, the public in Užice will have an opportunity to see the entire Academy holdings of Uroš Predić’s artworks. He was an artist who belonged to the older generation, elected to the membership of the Serbian Learned Society in the 19th century.

The public has already had an opportunity to see this exhibition at the City Gallery ’Mostovi Balkana’ in Kragujevac, in the period between 8 and 26 May 2025. The exhibition has been expanded from the exhibition ‘Uroš Predić – the Noble Essence of Everyday Life’, which was held at the SASA Gallery in the period from 12 March to 26 May 2024. It focused on the opus and actions of the renowned painter within the Serbian Learned Society, the Serbian Royal Academy and the Serbian Academy of Sciences and was accompanied by an exhibition brochure.

The most direct involvement of Predić in the Academy is linked to his permanent move to Belgrade in 1909/1910. He participated in the work of various bodies of the Serbian Royal Academy, took part in numerous meetings and conferences of the Academy of Arts of SRA. He also undertook some important duties and represented the Academy in certain events. After his death, the Academy arranged for his body to lie in state in the newly built ceremony hall at the SASA Palace, 35 Knez Mihailova Street, where the public paid their respect to the renowned painter before he was laid to rest in his native Orlovat.

One of the most comprehensive sources for studying Predić’s life and work is his autobiography, which he wrote at the request of the Serbian Royal Academy. The first part, written in 1921 and updated in 1946 to include a thorough list of works, is still kept in the SASA Archives.

Uroš Predić (1857-1953), one of the most distinguished painters of Serbian academic realism, was elected a corresponding member of the Serbian Learned Society on 30 January 1884. He was appointed an honorary member of the Serbian Royal Academy on 15 November 1892, and a corresponding member of the Academy of Arts of the Serbian Royal Academy on 26 January 1909, finally becoming its full member on 3 February 1910. Due to the Balkan Wars and the First World War, Predić held an exhibition of his paintings at a ceremonial session of the Serbian Royal Academy on 7 March 1920, thus ’taking on the duties and accepting rights of the full academicians.’

Predić’s first direct artistic contribution to the Academy, in 1914, was the creation of an illustration titled ’Serbian Folk Hero Poems (with illustrations)’ printed in 1922 as part of the holdings of the Legacy of Dimitrije Stamenković. During his life, the artist donated six portraits of Academy presidents – portraits of Stojan Novaković, Jovan Žujović, Jovan Cvijić, Slobodan Jovanović, Bogdan Gavrilović and Aleksandar Belić, as well as portraits of three academicians – Brana Petronijević, Mihailo Petrović-Mika Alas and his colleague and friend Marko Murat, whose portrait he painted to celebrate his own 90th birthday. He bequeathed his paintings, to which he was personally attached: portraits of two renowned female intellectuals, Ksenija Atanasijević and sculptor Vuka Velimirović, as well as a Belgrade panorama painted from the balcony of Predić’s atelier. SASA has in its holdings the portrait of composer Petar Krstić and an icon of Saint Demetrius – gifts from the composer’s family to the Institute of Musicology, and from descendants of the icon commissioner of the Zuber family to the SASA Library.

The exhibition is open to view until 29 September 2026.