The 13^th Biennial of Naïve and Marginal Art

Making efforts to provide overall protection of true and authentic values of naïve and marginal art as a specific domain of contemporary art, Museum of Naïve and Marginal Art in Jagodina devotes special attention to the organization of international events, Biennials and Colonies of naïve and marginal art. Since 1970, firstly through Salon as an annual review, and later in the form of Biennial, the Museum has continuously followed current courses in this domain of non-academic artistic creation, investigating the ways to present the essence of this vital source of imagination and authentic creative artistic energy and separate it from pseudo-naïve production, imitation, elements of amateurism, dilettantism and commercialism. Since 1981, the Museum has organized biennial exhibitions of naïve art, firstly as Yugoslav and later as an international event. Following the course of development on the international artistic scene, the Museum has included marginal art as well. The first Biennial of Yugoslav Self-taught Art was organized in 1981. From 1985 to 1993, the biennials were organized as Biennials of Yugoslav Naïve Art. In 1995, its name changed into Biennial of Naïve Art, which later transformed into Biennial of Naïve and Marginal Art in 2001. There were twelve Biennials from 1981 to 2007. Due to circumstances under which it was not possible to organize the Biennial in 1991, the exhibition Grand Prix of the Biennials 1981-1991 was opened.

Biennial of Naïve and Marginal Art allows an insight into an available part of current phenomena and tendencies in this domain, promoting and encouraging the most valuable works in non-academic art and continuous asses to creations done by recognized authors with autonomous artistic expressions. In addition, Biennials help discovery of young artists, their follow up and promotion and offers possibilities for collecting data for further investigation. Biennial is an occasion to acquire new works for the Museum collection. By collecting, accumulating and studying precious information, a direct insight into overall tendencies and development in naïve and marginal art as a whole or in individual oeuvres, as well as problems, subject matters grouped as wholes united by similar expression has been accomplished.

Each Biennial is a special challenge for both the artists and experts who evaluate and make selections of the exhibited works. The Jury of experts made special contribution to the very character of the Biennial, establishing the criteria for selection. In order to provide most impartial criteria, besides the experts from the Museum, the Jury included eminent professionals who were capable of considering the phenomenon of naïve and marginal art from different approach, thus highlighting emergence and movements of live organism of this part of modern art with their fresh viewing. Those who have followed up the development of naïve art since its very beginning are especially recognized. Participating in important events of naïve art, Vera Ristić, museum counsellor at the National Museum in Belgrade, the president of the Jury at the Thirteenth Biennial of Naïve and Marginal Art, has given special contribution to the development of naïve art. In 1962, she was a member of the Jury of the First Quadrennial of Yugoslav Naïve Artists in Čačak, then the president of the Jury of the First Biennial of Yugoslav Self-taught Art and a member of the Jury at the Third Biennial of Yugoslav Naïve Art in Jagodina. Based on the concept that participation of foreign experts would be very precious in formulating the criteria of the Biennials, the Museum has included them in the Jury since 2001. This year, presenting her own view upon naïve and marginal art, a connoisseur of current courses in contemporary art, Diana Draganova, a curator of the National Gallery from Sofia, has given a special contribution to the Biennial. Members of the Jury at this Biennial are also museum counsellors Nina Krstić and Milica Vračević and a curator Ivana Jovanović, all from Museum of Naïve and Marginal Art in Jagodina.

Selection of works to be exhibited at the Biennial has always been a challenge, but at the same time it brings about the responsibility to recognize authentic artistic quality, originality, creativity, stylistic equability, sincerity of artistic experience as well as artistic potentials, especially of young artists regardless to thematic, technical, linguistic and stylistic preferences of the authors. In this way, this review of naïve and marginal art serves as a sort of guideline for possible development of this autonomous domain abundant with various expressions of non-academic artistic creations that are not oriented towards intellectual analysis or limited by rational view. It should be pointed out that it is not easy to find and preserve the identity of personal artistic language. At the time of developed communications and abundance of available influences, it is hardly possible to achieve artistic isolation and resist conscious and unconscious influences Yet, a huge depository of observed artistic experience, consciously or subconsciously memorized, is just a raw material upon which a naïve artist can rely at the time of instinctive revelation. It is also clear that spontaneity of own artistic expression without repeating is difficult to achieve. Thus, selection of works for the exhibition at the Biennials is not meant to be a definite judgment.

Eighty-one works (sixty-three paintings, fourteen sculptures and four drawings) done by forty-seven authors were selected for the exhibition at the Thirteenth Biennial of Naïve and Marginal Art among a hundred and ninety-three works submitted by sixty-one artists from Serbia, The Republic of Srpska, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Italy, Germany, Belarus, Sweden, Turkey, Canada, Brazil and the USA. A significant number of authors whose authentic artistic expression has been uninterruptedly confirmed and awarded at the Biennials of naïve and marginal art are now framework of this mosaic of different generations and creative individualities. Among them stand out the winners of the Award for Entire Artistic Work at previous Biennials, Milosav Jovanović, Miroslav Živković, Pál Homonai and Dušan Jevtović.

The Award for Entire Artistic Work that is given for individual, powerful and completed oeuvre created for many decades has been given to Desanka Petrov Morar and Ferenc Kalmar this year. More than four-decade-long artistic work of Desanka Petrov Morar was marked by mature and equalized quality of artistic expression. Her clear, well-balanced, characteristic compositions, harmonious in all artistic elements were coloured with personal touch of intimate, melancholic atmosphere of poetic memories of childhood. Smaller sized sculptures in clay, stylized visualizations of individual human figures and group figurative compositions radiate with the same spirit.

Coloured sculptures in wood done by Ferenc Kalmar, a sculptor from Subotica speak their individual, artistic language. The artist enlivens volumes of sculptured animals, mostly birds, ranging from quite simple and strictly reduced to dynamic, expressive forms with intensive nuances of colour, thus producing a synthesis of the sculptural and the pictorial, allusions and abstraction of shape.

Milanka Dinić is one of the winners of Grand Prix for the exhibited works, which is given to the author whose works meet highest aesthetic values. Fantastic, unique imaginary world of her forms is shaped as a delicate unison of the traditional inspired by folklore, folk stories and legends and techniques of weaving and embroidery and a demanding, refined transposing, stylization and ornamental treatment of the surface. This artist creates her magic world of harmonious compositions by using the system of points, automatic stroke, ornamented borders, fanciful, stylized and intermingled vegetation, human and fantastic beings and architecture.

- At this Biennial, Jure Grgin Miloš, well known for his intrigue scenes, transposed landscapes with discrete daily scenes and allusions entwined into the forms of trees, trunks and crowns that hide multitude of hidden meanings, presents the paintings in which his previously timid imaginary world is much courageously expressed in the compositions of a strong artistic experience. His creativity and inventiveness in arriving at new motifs and solutions point to originality, vitality and maturity of the artistic expression. Freedom, artistic bravery and non-restrictiveness of his artistic expression that are rarely found were the reasons for the Jury to award him Mention for the Exhibited Works.

Purchase Awards are given with regard to current needs for appropriate completion of the Museum collection, because some authors are either present in a small number of works or their diversity is not sufficient to properly represent their artistic achievements. One Summer Day by Dušan Jevtović is a representative, large-sized painting in which this author’s oeuvre is sublimed. Nostalgic, idyllic view of the scene and mosaics of human destinies depict a synthesized and an idealized image of the artist’s world of memories and fantasy. The narration is dominated by a specific feeling for stroke, arrangement of masses, warmth of colours and atmosphere in harmonious and balanced compositions, shaped in rhythmically graded, soft arch surfaces of hilled landscape into which the author places and groups human and animal figures.

Contrary to one-sided theories of naïve art, Museum of Naïve and Marginal Art, within its scientific work and research, permanently points to the fact that this art is not hermetic, static and frozen into ‘status quo’ position of a closed circle of repetition. Non-academic, unconventional in authentic, original and unlimited rules, this art is a vital, alive and complex organism that pulsates with multitude of various sensibilities and outstanding originalities that are not mutually threatened by their multiplicity. Complex levels avoid classification within strict limits of terminological units due to their being in interactive dialogue, overlapping, pervasion and intermingling. This attitude was confirmed by a mosaic of artistic expressions that are present at the Thirteenth Biennial of Naïve and Marginal Art. The works done by some representatives of younger generation such as Barberien, Rosen Rašev and Vojkan Morar, who have already been acknowledged for their exhibitions and who have taken their position on this event, bear witness to a new sensibility of outstanding individualists by intensity of artistic expression, choice of subject matters and freedom of combining techniques and materials. Despite diverse expressive means more or less directed towards own selves or the outer world, creative fantasy and purity of the instinctive creative openness that minimizes the prescribed cultural and artistic canons are connected with the force of imagination. This connection exists whether basic values in authentic, personal transformation of inner and outside world in naïve or individual inner experience in marginal artists are in question.

Artistic experience as an existential impulse is basic characteristic in the creations by Barberien, the winner of Grand Prix for exhibited works. Pure intensity of the creative act, expressive stroke and interrelation of colours express the intensity of the artist’s inner conflicts, metaphorically depicted in pronouncedly misshaped animal or human figures, often set in dramatic relationships.

Tomislav Blagojević, the artist who made his appearance at the Biennial some time ago, is one of the winners of Mention for the Exhibited Works. Phantasmagorical world of highly reduced expression and the shapes stylized into symbols and signs connect and sublime faraway worlds of prehistoric cave images of rudimentary figures and fragments of hunters, warriors, Biblical stories and fictitious, alien worlds. He builds his dynamic compositions mostly with stylized contour that schematically defines fanciful shapes, vivid with clear and intensive colouring, accentuated with silver and gold, thus sublimating mystic light.

The appearance of young artists who have applied for the Biennial of Naïve and Marginal Art for the first time while still searching for own artistic expression, is very encouraging. Remarkable for artistic value of her works is Jelena Marković, who was awarded Mention for the Exhibited Works. Her drawings, done in coloured penc on paper, landscapes of intimate narration are realized in spontaneous, linear structure of dense stylized intermingling of geometrical and floral elements and hidden signs and symbols of the artist’s inner world. The shapes, stylized to the ornamental, with linear network of silver and golden nuances drawn on black background are, as dominant elements, connected and integrated into a dynamic artistic solution, their implications being inferior. In this way, the artist’s intimate microcosm is transformed into macrocosm of the drawing.

Among the works submitted for this Biennial, paintings are quantitatively predominant because proportionally small number of authors chooses sculpture as a field of artistic creations. In addition, certain stagnation was noticed at previous Biennials, therefore absence of monolithic and monumental epic forms. Now, the artists search for monumentality in intimate, small-sized forms. This year, the Jury has chosen seven authors with fourteen sculptures in stone, wood and clay. Among them, Ilija Filipović and Ferenc Kalmar stand out as artists who have permanently participated in the Biennials, thus asserting their individual sculptural solutions, then Desanka Petrov Morar and Guido Vedovato, the authors with primarily pictorial vocation who also examine voluminous forms. Young artists Saša Petrović Berdujac, Saša Filipović and Nebojša Minčić are also searching and framing their own sculptural expression.
In comparison to the previous Biennials, this Biennial qualitatively improved its organization by the possibility for the authors to send their works be e-mail. This made it easier for the authors from distant countries, which resulted in their more numerous presences this year. The artists from Sweden, Turkey, the USA, Canada and Brazil applied for participation in the competition at this Biennial of Naïve and Marginal Art for the first time. Specific diversity of their artistic expressions provided a new dimension to this event. The Jury thought that they should encourage the participation of the representatives of different cultures from faraway countries. The individualities of their artistic expression with specific flavours of their environment could have encouraging contribution to this traditionally international event.

In addition to foreign artists who have participated in the Biennials and confirmed the artistic qualities, Edeltraut Lehmann from Germany, Pál Homonai and Ilona Tót Gombktötöné from Hungary, Rosen Rašev from Bulgaria, Guido Vedovato from Italy and Dragica Kotroman from the Republic of Srpska, the authors who have applied for the participation in this Biennial for the first time are Lídia Saczkovski of Ukraine origin from Brazil, Sema Çulam from Turkey, Irene Brandt from Germany, Alexander Shibniov from Belarus, as well as young artists Tony Anguhualluq, a native from Inui tribe in Canada, Tsuyoshi Mamada of Japanese Origin from USA and Valdemar Cher from Sweden are especially noticeable. Brazilian artist Lídia Saczkovski is a winner of Mention for the Exhibited Works. Her paintings of stylized compositions with Brazilian landscapes and scenes are attractive for their powerful expression done in reduced and abstracted shapes, poeticized with intensive and at the same time softness of colours, thus creating a magic image in which Brazilian scenery receive radiance of the universal.

Museum of Naïve and Marginal Art in Jagodina confirms validity and strengthening of Biennial of Naïve and Marginal Art by permanent development of this event as an operative, vital form. Following vital courses of naïve and marginal art, the Biennial connects the traces of the past, testimonies of the present and sign points to the future as indicators of possible guidelines for their continuous development.

Ivana Jovanović, curator

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Jury of 13^th Biennial of Naїve and MarginalArt:

• Vera Ristić (president), art historian, adviser, National Museum, Belgrade
• Diana Draganova, art historian, curator, National Gallery, Sofia (Bulgaria)
• Nina Krstić, art historian, adviser, Museum of Naive and Marginal Art, Jagodina
• Marica Vračević, art historian, adviser, Museum of Naive and Marginal Art, Jagodina
• Ivana Jovanović, art historian, curator, Museum of Naive and Marginal Art, Jagodina

Jury has awarded the following artists:

Award for Entire Artistic Work
Desanka Petrov Morar and Ferenc Kalmar

Grand Prix for Exhibited Works
Milanka Dinić and Barbarian

Special Mention for Exhibited Works
Lidia Saczkovski (Brazil) and Jure Grgin Miloš

Mention for Exhibited Works
Jelena Marković and Tomislav Blagojević

Purchase Award
Dušan Jevtović

The list of the selected works
 

• TONY ANGUHALLUQ (Canada)
  1.Three Inuit are fishing and catching char and Lake Trout, 2006, pencil crayon on paper, 10.5 x 13.75 cm
  2.Two Inuit are seal hunting for the week-end in July, 2006, pencil crayon on paper, 10.5 x 13. 75 cm
  3.Two Inuit are fishing up by the river in July, 2006, pencil crayon on paper, 10.5 x 13.75 cm
  4.Two Inuit are fishing near the river and are out for week in July, 2006, pencil crayon on paper, 10.5 x 13.75 cm
• BARBАRIАN (Serbia)
  1. Self-portrait “Lupussaurus”, 2007, oil on cardboard, 108.5 x 78.5 cm
  2. Spasa and Murta, 2006, oil on hardboard, 80 x 130 cm
• TOMISLAV BLAGOJEVIĆ (Serbia)
  1. Heavenly Way, 2007, combined technique, 72 x 24 cm
  2. My world, 2007, combined technique, 47.5 x 36 cm
  3. A Man from the Stars, 2007 combined technique, 72 x 24 cm
• IRENE BRANDT (Germany)
  1. Violet Village, 2007, acrylic on canvas, 40 x 50 cm
• GUIDO VEDOVATO
  1. A Red Cat, 2006, oil on canvas, 35 x 45 cm
  2. The Birth of Jesus, (a group of sculptures), 2007, coloured ceramics, height 23 cm
• DRAGICA GAJIĆ (Italy)
  1. Autumn, 2005, oil on canvas, 45 x 35 cm
  2. Church Festivity, 2005, oil on canvas, 35 x 45 cm
• ILONA TÓT GOMBKÖTŐNÉ (Hungary)
  1. A Wedding, 2005, oil on hardboard, 50 x 70 cm
• JURE GRGIN MILOŠ (Serbia)
  1. I’m from the other planet, but not a child, 2007, oil on canvas, 58 x 48 cm
  2. Bosnia-Herzeg of mine, 2007, oil on canvas, 53 x 43 cm
• MILANKA DINIĆ (Serbia)
  1. Dream of Heavens, n.d., oil on canvas, 50 x 45 cm
  2. Love Dream, 2007, oil on canvas, 56 x 46.5 cm
  3. A Fairy’s Castle, 2007, oil on canvas, 50 x 70 cm
• BILJANA ŽIVANOVIĆ (Serbia)
  1. Spring Blooming, 2007, oil on canvas, 38 x 46 cm
• MIROSLAV ŽIVKOVIĆ (Serbia)
  1. A Chariot of Fire, 2005, oil on hardboard, 24 x 30 cm
  2. Dance of Love, 2005, oil on hardboard, 40 x 30 cm
• DUŠAN JEVTOVIĆ (Serbia)
  1. A Summer Day, 2007, acrylic on canvas, 150 x 300 cm
• LJUBIŠA JOVANOVIĆ KENE (Serbia)
  1. A Passage, 2007, oil on canvas, 38 x 38 cm
  2. A Glance, 2007, Indian ink on paper, 29.5 x 42 cm
• MILOSAV JOVANOVIĆ (Serbia)
  1. Evening in a Canyon, 2006, oil on canvas, 37.5 x 54.5 cm
  2. Night in a Hut, 2006, Indian ink on paper, 34.8 x. 49.3 cm
  3. A Lullaby, 2006, Indian ink on paper, 34.8 x. 49.3 cm
• MIROSLAV JOVANOVIĆ DALTON (Serbia)
  1. Composition 1-6, 2007, acrylic on paper, 141 x 28.5 cm
• FERENC KALMAR (Serbia)
  1. Owl, 2006, coloured wood, height 45 cm
  2. Gaelic Cock, 2007, coloured wood, height 80 cm
• DRAGICA KOTROMAN (Republic of Srpska)
  1. Man Is Pouring Liquid, 2006, terra cotta, height 20 cm
  2. Man by the Tree, 2005, terra cotta, height 20 cm
  3. Our Homeland, 2006, terra cotta, height 20 cm
• SEMA ÇULAM (Turkey)
  1. Stone house, 2007, oil on canvas, 30 x 90 cm
  2. Bride convoy, 2007, oil on canvas, 40 x 100 cm
• MILOVAN LAZAREVIĆ (Serbia)
  1. Summer, 2007, oil on canvas, 50 x 40 cm
• EDELTRAUD LEHMANN (Germany)
  1. Natters room from the isle top, 2006, oil on plywood, 30 x 40 cm
  2. Summer on a small island of Schlosvig-Holstein, 2006, oil on plywood, 30 x 40 cm
• TSUYOSHI MAMADA (USA)
  1. Dragon Dancing, 2007, Japanese rice paper on canvas, 30.6 x 40.8 cm
• ROZALIJA MARKOV (Serbia)
  1. Evening, 2007, oil on canvas, 30 x 40 cm
• JELENA MARKOVIĆ (Serbia)
  1. Connections, 2005/2006, felt tip pen on cardboard, 70 x 100 cm
  2. Mars and Venus, 2007, felt tip pen on cardboard, 50 x 70 cm
• ŽIVOTA MILANOVIĆ ŽIĆA (Serbia)
  1. Living room, 2006, combined technique, 107 x 86 cm
• DOBROSAV MILOJEVIĆ (Serbia)
  1. Dusk, 2007, oil on canvas, 50 x 80 cm
• LJILJANA MILOŠEVIĆ (Serbia)
  1. A Girl and a Dragon, 2007, acrylic on canvas, 60 x 50 cm
  2. A Small horse, 2007, acrylic on canvas, 60 x 40 cm
• SANJA MILOŠEVIĆ (Serbia)
  1. Collecting of Hay, 2007, oil on canvas, 40 x 60 cm
• NEBOJŠA MINČIĆ (Serbia)
  1. A Bear, 2007, terra cotta, height, 60 cm
  2. A Badger, 2007, terra cotta, height, 28 cm
• VOJKAN MORAR (Serbia)
  1. Golden Sky, 2006, oil on canvas, 60 x 50 cm
  2. They Walked Towards the Sky, 2006, oil on canvas, 50 x 70 cm
• IVANA NEGIĆ (Serbia)
  1. A Blue Ship, 2007, oil on MDF, 50 x 24 cm
  2. A Bust, 2007, oil on hardboard, 76 x 57 cm
• ŽIVOTIN NIKOLIĆ (Serbia)
  1. An Orthodox Monk, 2007, oil on canvas, 40 x 40 cm
  2. Draw-beam of a Well, 2007, oil on canvas, 40 x 40 cm
• MILORAD NIKOLIĆ (Serbia)
  1. A Peasant Woman with a Nanny-goat, 2007, oil on hardboard, 37.5 x 30 cm
• DESANKA PETROV MORAR (Serbia)
  1. Epiphany Swimming, 2006, oil on canvas, 60 x 75 cm
  2. Greeting by a Man from Vojvodina, 2006, terra cotta, height 35 cm
• DUŠANKA PETROVIĆ (Serbia)
  1. Horses, 2007, oil on canvas, 46 x 55 cm
• SAŠA PETROVIĆ BERDUJAC (Serbia)
  1. A Family, 2007, stone, height 28 cm
  2. A Lamb, 2006, stone, height 22.5
• MIRJANA POPOVIĆ RADOVIĆ (Serbia)
  1.St. Petersburg, 2006, oil on canvas, 40 x 40 cm
• ROSEN RAŠEV (Bulgaria)
  1. The One Who Sees and Hears Everything, 2007, combined technique, 50 x 70 cm
  2. Love Comes Flying, 2007, combined technique, 50 x 70 cm
• LÍDIA SACZKOVSKI (Brasil)
  1. Time of Prayer, 2006, acrylic on canvas, 30 x 40 cm
  2. Suburban Soccer, 2006, acrylic on canvas, 70 x 70 cm
  3. Coloured Farm, 2006, acrylic on canvas, 40 x 50 cm
• MARKO STEVANOVIĆ (Serbia)
  1. Winter, 2007, oil on canvas, 70 x 50 cm
• SANDRA TANURDŽIĆ (Serbia)
  1. Ada Medjica, 2006, oil on canvas, 46 x 38 cm
• VESNA TANČEVA (Serbia)
  1. On a Motorbike, 2007, oil on canvas, 50 x 60 cm
• VESELIN ĆETKOVIĆ (Serbia)
  1. Morning in Vernez, 2007, oil on canvas, 60 x 70 cm
• ILIJA FILIPOVIĆ (Serbia)
  1. Breeding of Lizards, 2007, stone, 16 x 38 cm
  2. Iguanas, 2007, stone, 48 x 40 cm
• SAŠA FILIPOVIĆ (Serbia)
  1. Sisters, 2006, wood, height 53 cm
• PÁL HOMONAI (Hungary)
  1. Landscape, 2005, tempera on canvas, 50 x 40 cm
• VALDEMAR CHER (Sweden)
  1. Intensive car, 2007, oil on paper, 34 x 38 cm
  2. Fortissimo, 2007, oil on paper, 15 x 21 cm
• ALEXANDЕR SHIBNIOV (Belarus)
  1. Gardner, 2005, tempera on board, 24.5 x 30.5 cm
  2. Easter, 2005, tempera on board, 23.5 x 30 cm

Opening of the Exhibition 13^th Biennial of Naïve and Marginal Art

Nina Krstić, art historian, adviser, director, MNMU, Vera Ristić, art historian, adviser, Ivana Jovanović, art historian, curator, MNMU, Jerko Denegri, art historian, president of Management Board of MNMU.

Special guests: Deputation of Canadian Embassy: H.E. Robert McDougall, ambassador of Canada, Edward Picco, Minister of culture for region Nunavut, Canada, Vladan Miladinovic, chief of the Section for political and economic matter and public relations.