march 14 – april 15, 2018
Author: Olivera Skoko, senior curator-art historian, National Museum, Zrenjanin
Organizers: National Museum, Zrenjanin, and Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts
Exhibition from the holdings of the National Museum, Zrenjanin, marking the 160th anniversary of the painter’s birth
The exhibition is organized to mark the 160th anniversary of the birth of Uroš Predić. It was first shown at the National Museum in Zrenjanin between December 7, 2017 and February 28, 2018, as this institution is the only one in Serbia that keeps the valuable legacy of our great painter and academician.
In 1954, only a year after Predić’s death, nearly the entire inventory of the painter’s Belgrade studio was brought to the National Museum in Zrenjanin, and it is this inventory that constitutes the core of this exhibition of Predić’s works (paintings, drawings, studies), as well as sculptures and drawings of the painter by other artists. Also on display are his personal effects, pieces of furniture, photographs, calling cards, picture postcards, letters, medals and decorations, his diary, painting implements and materials, catalogues, books, magazines…
It is the first time since it was moved to Zrenjanin in 1954 that Uroš Predić’s studio has returned to Belgrade and to the Belgrade public through this visiting exhibition at the Gallery of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts.
The life and work of Uroš Predić are presented in the form of thematic sections, from his school days at his native Orlovat, to Pančevo, to Vienna, to his travels in Italy and return to the place of his birth, to his final move to Belgrade, where he died in 1953. Special emphasis is placed on Predić’s work as icon and portrait painter, his relationship with his family members and, in particular, with the painters Paja Jovanović and Stevan Aleksić and the scientist Mihailo Pupin. The wealth of the painter’s surviving correspondence allows us to get a glimpse of the contacts he had with some of the prominent figures from political, cultural, economic and religious life of his time. Also on display are Predić’s drawings produced when he was between 10 and 12 years of age, as well as his unfinished painting, The Stoning of St. Stephen, considered to be his last work. For the first time on display are his sketches for the icons he produced for Njegoš’s chapel on Mount Lovćen, which has meanwhile been demolished. One of Predić’s best known paintings, Vision in the Clouds, takes pride of place at the exhibition and is accompanied by meticulously written interpretations and explanations. The exhibition also features a drawing by Mihailo Pupin, Predić’s friend from their early school days, which the former produced as a Gymnasium student. A special section is dedicated to Predić’s relationship with Zrenjanin, from his first visits to the town as a child, to the local painter Konstantin Danil, who he looked up to as his role model, to his contacts with friends and relatives, to the decision of the town authorities to name a street after him.
Unlike the Zrenjanin exhibition, the one at the SASA Gallery, features three additional portraits, now in the SASA Art Collection (Marko Murat, Ksenija Atanasijević, and Vuka Velimirović), Portrait of Mihajlo Pupin, owned by the Serbian Orthodox Parish of Idvor, and the famous painting, Kosovo Maiden, now in the Museum of the City of Belgrade, which can be seen by the Belgrade public for the first time after a long wait.
The sponsors of the project are the Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Serbia and the Gomex company. Lectures and guided tours will be organized throughout the course of the exhibition.
NUMBER OF VISITORS: 46.576
EXHIBITION RECORDING
