activities was conceived in his early formation period, not at all a
conventional one. These origins allowed him, in great measure, to
develop an individual and autonomous language and to maintain
this particularity in his work up to date. This language intended the
capacity of informal thinking and the unification of apparently opponent concepts in whole new set.
The “side” line of Caranovic’s education did not start in art
schools of a regular, classical type, and instead he attended, as a
great number of nowadays appreciated artists, the Sumatovacka
School. In the late ‘60’s and early ‘70’s of the past century, Sumatovacka school was indeed a popular school that, with its school programs and courses, offered an excellent preparation for the
admission to the Academy of Art. His teacher at Sumatovacka was
a sculptor Lala Suboticki that gave great prevalence, as a part of his
classes on forms of classical sculpture, to the art of portraits in particular. The encyclopaedia of forms that a portrait offers gave a great
spin both to his mastering of sculpture, but also to his decision and
convincement that he had found the right direction. After a year,
year and a half, the school at Sumatovacka was followed by “Atelier”, art school of the Sixth Belgrade Lyceum at Zvezdara that offered him unique experiences.
What was exactly “Atelier” and how was it formed?
The Sixth Belgrade Lyceum was demolished during the Second World War and as it was reconstructed after it, they made an extraordinary school, that had a dedicated theatre arena with a stage
and seats, and it also had, amongst other features, an atelier for
sculpture. This atelier was first run by a certain soc-realist sculptor
whose name I don’t recall well. As he retired, Atelier was taken over
by Moma Krkovic, but a very important role in the formation of my
generation was of his wife, Mira Jurisic.
What was the role of Mira Jurisic, and that of Moma Krkovic?
Actually, Mira Jurisic’s influence was fundamental. We admired
her as an artist. Moma was an extraordinary and hardworking person.
Big ball, 1972
102
Those who had the capacity to understand, would soon realise that what Mira really thought us was the social responsibility of
the artist. Likewise, Moma was teaching us discipline. Besides, Mira
and Moma would invite their colleagues and friends. Milica Ste-