SERBIAN ART DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR
4 AUGUST – 20 SEPTEMBER 2026
Author: Irina Tomić, PhD
Curators of the exhibition: Katarina Živanović and Anđela Petrović
Design and visual identity of the exhibition: Milena Kordić, Isidora M. Nikolić and Katarina Živanović
The exhibition encompasses the creative output from various genres and forms of art, including fine art, applied art, architecture, photography and film, created in the period from the outbreak of war in the territory of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (6 April 1941) until the capitulation of Germany (9 May 1945). The exhibition focuses on art created in the territory of Serbia, while also taking into account works by artists who were imprisoned or were active in free territories outside Serbia. The exhibition will present almost 300 exhibits from numerous museum institutions across Serbia (the National Museum of Serbia, the Museum of the City of Belgrade, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Heritage House, the Museum of Yugoslavia, the Pavle Beljanski Memorial Collection, the National Museum in Užice, the National Museum in Smederevska Palanka, etc.). It includes works by established artists of the interwar period, such as Paja Jovanović, Uroš Predić, Beta Vukanović, Petar Dobrović, Jovan Bijelić, Sava Šumanović, Zora Petrović, Đorđe Jovanović, Đorđe Andrejević Kun and Petar Lubarda, as well as by younger artists of the time, including Majda Kurnik, Miloš Bajić and Vida Jocić, alongside works by amateurs created in prison camps and on the battlefield.
The included works are heterogeneous across various parameters, so they have been organised according to their typological characteristics. The author demonstrated how all types of art in the period between 1941 and 1945 depended on unique social and cultural conditions. Alongside artistic production, it also provides an overview of all relevant cultural-historical, cultural-anthropological, and sociological developments during the occupation of Serbia. Irina Tomić has proven the hypothesis that artistic creative production during the occupation continued. Not only was it not extinguished nor diminished, but it also went through considerable modification. For many, it was a path of salvation; for others, it was a kind of weapon. Works created in such conditions, therefore, cannot be assessed solely according to conventional aesthetic criteria. The goal of the exhibition is to present a comprehensive account of all major artistic phenomena which emerged during the occupation and as its consequence.
The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue of the same title, authored by Irina Tomić, PhD.
Per Dr Lidija Merenik’s words, ‘This is an extensive and demanding work, exquisitely written, the first of its kind. It makes an original scientific contribution to a fuller understanding of Serbian art of the 20th century by synthesising one of its neglected, less-known and grievous periods. This work does not have a precedent in terms of an established goal, since a synthesis dealing with this little-known period for art has not been produced until now in domestic historiography. Hence, the result of this research is the first comprehensive and scientific study, and more broadly, the first paper of this kind on the above-mentioned subject.’
Sculptor Mrđan Bajić, a SASA corresponding member, points out that Irina Tomić’s scholarly work ‘determinedly enters a field that has long remained insufficiently researched and addressed, and it has hardly ever been dealt with in a manner that moves beyond the uniformity of a one-sided ideological reading, instead examining on equal terms everything that was created during the period.’