|
33
z
z
zzzzz
e
by experts from the Central
Institute for Conservation in
Belgrade and the Institute for
Conservation from Rome, un-
der the patronage of the Gov-
ernment of Italy.
Lubarda’s significance went
beyond the boundaries of Yu-
goslavia, the country in which
he lived. This Yugoslav artist
probably had the highest inter-
national reputation of all paint-
ers from this region; as a painter
who – as far back as the 1930s
– had created individual paint-
ings that reached the very peak
of his opus, but who also played
an especially prominent role,
not only in art but also in the
broader cultural and political
context, with his famous exhibi-
tion in Belgrade in 1951, which is
considered, without exception,
as a turning point in the history
of domestic modern art.
“I am myself and I paint the
world according to my will. I
shake the sea, so it bubbles up
like champagne. I disassemble
hills. Red rocks of craggy land-
scapes, blue shadows at noon,
the yellow fear of death, the
white cry of seagulls, those are
all the colours of my palette,”
said the painter who Lazar
Trifunović described as the first
artist on our fine art scene to
introduce a timeless dimension
and transform his images into
modern metaphysical icons.
– Lubarda’s art also marked
a turning point in terms of the
fight for the right to freedom of
artistic expression, – highlighted
Professor Jerko Denegri, a lead-
ing Serbian art theorist and art
historian, speaking at the open-
ing ceremony of the The Heri-
tage House of Petar Lubarda.
Denegri also pointed out
that Lubarda’s art was recog-
nised both domestically and
internationally as a specific
phenomenon and as being of
top value, as evidenced by his
very notable appearances and
awards at the Biennales in Sao
Paolo in 1953 and Tokyo in
1955, as well as a series of solo
exhibitions in Paris, London,
Rome and at the Venice Bien-
nale, between 1955 and 1960,
when he was written about by
Jean Cassou, Herbert Read and
Giulio Carlo Argan.
It was a very delicate mo-
ment in history, a culmination
of the Cold War, in which
Lubarda’s works played a signif-
icant role in the promotion of
the cultural and political status
of his own country, which –
among all the fine artists of the
time – it seems only he was able
to do so effectively.
Lubarda’s work of that
period became an example of
how to utilise the deeply expe-
rienced foundations of one’s
own individual experience and
collective spiritual heritage
to erect simultaneously au-
tochthonous and international
events with timely inclusive-
ness and the most highly val-
ued understanding of art.
Socijalistički realizam
„Čak ni u vreme socijalističkog realizma
nisam slikao vagonete i pruge zato što
mi je to neko rekao ili naredio, jer to bi
bilo monstruozno – niko nikome nema šta
naređivati u umetnosti – već zbog toga što
me je impresionirao taj džinovski spektakl,
koji su ljudi sami sebi priredili: te eksplozije,
pomeranje brda i blještavi sjaj razmrvljenog
kamenja.“
e
Socialist realism
“Even in the time of socialist realism I did
not paint railroad wagons and tracks be-
cause someone told me or ordered me to
do so, because that would be monstrous
– nobody has anything to order anybody
to do in art – but rather because I was im-
pressed by that gigantic spectacle, which
people staged for themselves: those ex-
plosions, moving hills and the bright shine
of crumbling stones.”
Neposlušna umetnost
„Umetnost ne može da cveta ako nema odre-
đenih sloboda. Umetnost ne trpi tiraniju. Ona je
neposlušna. Ne dozvoljava ni meni da budem
njen diktator.“
e
Disobedient art
“Art cannot flourish if it there are not certain
freedoms. Art does not tolerate tyranny. It is
disobedient. It does not even allow me to be its
dictator.”
U Legatu se čuva i maestrov
slikarski pribor
e
The Legacy Gallery also
preserves the master’s
painting tools
