PREDRAG – PEĐA MILOSAVLJEVIĆ, Liberators (detail), 1969-1972, inv. no. 102

Fine Art Collection

At a conference of the Department of Fine Arts and Music in 1969, Ljubica Sokić, a corresponding member of SASA, suggested that employees in the newly established Gallery make an inventory of the works of art owned by the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts according to museological principles. It was then that the formal listing and final shaping of the SASA Fine Art Collection began, which emerged parallel with the Academy since its foundation as the Society of Serbian Letters i.e. the Serbian Learned Society.

The Collection originated from foundations and endowments as a result of numerous gifts of artists academicians, their families and other donors. The more systematic acquisition of artworks for the Fine Art Collection began in the eighth decade of the twentieth century, which was facilitated by the augmented funds that the Academy had at its disposal. If artworks are to become a part of the Collection, the SASA Commission for Acquisition and Donations has to accept them.

At the time of the final shaping and affirmation of the Fine Art Collection in 1968-1969, the Collection consisted of approximately ninety works. Nowadays, the Academy’s Collection consists of around three thousand catalogue items.

The works of artists-academicians have had the priority in the Collection formation. The Collection holds works of art of 270 domestic and a smaller number of foreign artists, fifty of which are SASA members.

The Fine Art Collection holds paintings (works in oil, tempera and pastels), drawings and prints in various techniques, as well as bronze, stone, plaster, clay and wood sculptures, works in combined techniques, photo portraits in aquarelle, etc.

The Fund comprises works of the 18 – 21 centuries. Through the works kept in the Fine Art Collection, we are in the position to follow the development of fine arts in Serbia of modern times, the very currents favoured in the sphere of artistic expression by the members of the SASA, and we familiarize ourselves with artists who were elected academicians as unique and worthy representatives of fine art for our cultural milieu.

The Works of the Academy’s Fine Art Collection, some displayed on the premises of the SASA Palace, the general public first saw as a complete exhibition in June 1982. Since then the Collection has been regularly displayed on differently conceptualized exhibitions at the SASA Gallery and other showrooms.

The tasks of the head of the SASA Fine Art Collection are carried out by:

Senior curator, deputy director of the Gallery: JELENA MEŽINSKI MILOVANOVIĆ
Phone number: (011) 2027-143
Fax: (011) 2027-201
Е-mail: jelena.mezinski@sanu.ac.rs
Address: SASA Gallery, Knez Mihailova Street 35, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia