janovic later on formulated the idea of the modern art as the propaganda of the West. She wrote a perfect essay. I was not aware of
it at the time, but unconsciously I had the same idea. I particularly
liked the communist flag, for I bore in mind that the first exhibition
of the abstract art in the USSR was not held in a gallery, but at the
Institute for Nuclear Physics and thanks to the director of the Institute. His belief was that the scientists could not understand the nucleus of the atom and the relativity theory without understanding
the abstraction first. I adored soc-realism in many ways. First of all,
for the technology. There exists, in Zemun, in a park, a sculpture of
a bomber that is standing on the fingers of his one foot. Today no
one can absolutely make a similar monument. That was true artisan
mastery. They were made by the artists that learned their art before
the war and they were perfect artisans. On the other hand, it wasn’t
as perfect, because they were ideologically biased. The quality of it
derives from the fact that you cannot copy such a work, you cannot
recreate it, for you must love what you do to do it the way it was
done. I love that soc-realist sculpture only for those strong passions
that the artists brought into their work. Our entire monumental
legacy was made by the artists formed after the War. They were not
such strong artisans. I believe that the soc-realists did not follow the
events, but themselves. Of course, they were all formal artists, but
they added character to their art. Only few of their names survived.
Most of those names were unknown to me. They were good artisans. They had to know how to cast the cement, how to include it
with the ambient. Bogdan Bogdanovic didn’t win first prizes by accident. But, as Olga Jevric wins the prize, you cannot reproduce it.
Technological possibilities and events would not permit it.
What happened in the mid ‘80’s?
Tie, 1999
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That’s when I stopped exhibiting due to the incompatibility
with my work at the Museum. I continued exhibiting only after year
2000. I did not exhibit for fifteen years. I worked at the Museum
from 1986. until the bombing. It was very hard to find work at the
Museum because there were graded lists for employment. Before
me, they employed several persons, some with merit, and some
without. We applied at the same time. I was accepted only after my
third attempt. I was applying at all times because I possessed all the
necessary requirements. At the time I was accepted, the director
was Zoran Gavric. When Zoran Gavric was at the Museum, the work
was intense and without pressures of a kind. It was a pleasure to
work. We all knew what our work was and well. It was the time of