Ljuba Popović’s "Large Format" |
It is well known that Ljuba Popović rarely exhibits in Belgrade. Two and a half years ago lovers of Ljuba Popović’s art had the opportunity to see a retrospective exhibition of his works in Subotica after attempts to organise his exhibition at the SASA Gallery failed. Parisian Circle Gallery owner Živojin Ivanišević has conceived an exhibit that presents six large-format canvases that are sure to thrill Popović fans.
By Marija Đorđević, Photo by Dušan I. Dimitrijević |
|
We spoke with Ljuba Popović in his atelier, a light and tidy space, where many books and paintings are neatly arranged against the wall. Some works are finished, some "in process". One of these is, for instance, a painting intended for a group exhibition dedicated to eroticism in Serbian painting. The exhibition is due to be held in spring, also in the ‘Parisian Circle’ Gallery, in the EuroCenter.
The six paintings on display from March 1st have been collected under the name "Large Format". Popović is hereby explaining what a large format in painting means to him and how it is connected with the artist’s way of work. All six canvases are in private collections.
|
| |
| - A format is not just a question of size, although this is certainly assumed. By large format I understand the paintings that I’ve created in my atelier over the course of one or one and a half years. For instance, if you’re a writer and write short stories or articles for newspapers, then at the end of the year or a certain period you’ll perhaps compile an anthology or a novel. My paintings have been thus emerging over a year. Don’t take me literally. I didn’t work every day but when I felt full of energy. But, in these paintings I gathered together everything I had been working during that year. A number of small paintings or sketches. If I tried to count the years I invested, these six paintings would literally mean ten years of work. In the fifty years I’ve been painting, I have made about 60 or 70 of these large formats. This means one or a half paintings per year, - says the artist. |
|
The paintings illustrate a cross section of the most important works by this artist. There is the "Devils’ Caves", for which Milan Komnenić in the catalogue-monograph writes, "As lavish in allusions and the ambiguity of metaphors, so much precision in the stroke of the brush and the subtlety of colours…": "The Place of Funeral", a horizontal painting made in the mid-eighties, and the "Mystery In Full Light", which has frequently appeared in magazines. A student even wrote her paper on the theme of this painting! There is also a "Woman of Darkness", coming from Subotica. |
Milan Komnenić, Živojin Ivanišević and Ljuba Popović | |
- She is a woman that emerges from darkness and got you excited, - says Ljuba Popović, while Milan Komnenić notes that this painting demonstrates a capricious game of hiding in disguise.
Visitors also have the opportunity to see also the latest works like "An Abyss For Angel" (2001-2002) and "A Marvelous Séance" from 2004-2005.
- It was inspired by magic and séances. You know, when people sit around a table and it shakes slightly, - says the artist. |
|
Ljuba Popović says that he has always experienced paintings as a boiling of subterranean feelings and vibrations without prearranged scenarios.
- My way of thinking brings me closer to abstract paintings because to me painting is a game that lasts, meaning that I paint while something "leaks" out of me. There are two tracks between which I am torn in my painting. One relates to space and the mystical landscape of fantasy that has always intrigued me, while another is that dark erotic part from which I couldn’t escape. This exhibition presents four eroticized paintings and two landscapes. These landscapes calm the story down because they belong to a Renaissance space. And these erotic paintings carry a tension that is actually characteristic for me, - says Ljuba Popović.
Asked how much of the erotic is present in the history of Serbian painting, Ljuba Popović says: |
| |
| - In Serbian painting the erotic has been quite suppressed. The masters between two wars were restrained. Even when they painted nude females they did it shyly. When things went a bit further it was necessary to differentiate between eroticism and pornography. I think that the zenith of eroticism is reached in the "Realm of the Senses". There are some drastic examples like Hans Bellmer who made various combinations by drawing various female organs, or Klosovski who became obsessed with making love in his later years. Or Rustin, who was extremely gifted as a painter, sensitive, but he said he painted too explicitly -- "laying the tonsils bare". He usually painted some small monsters and the paradox is that in technique it was pure painting, but its subject matter was a catastrophe. However, I used to like it unlike many others. I think that the exhibition in Belgrade will be a stimulus for eroticism in our art, - says Ljuba Popović. |
|
Ljuba was preparing a picture of a faceless nude woman for the exhibition. A mysterious woman with a mask. It required finishing touches and "cleaning". Ljuba wanted to make her legs more feminine!
The exhibition "Large Format" is accompanied by a lavishly illustrated catalogue with many reproductions ranging from Ljuba Popović’s earliest works to his latest paintings. It contains 87 reproductions, including one of his first paintings, "The Trial of Hermaphrodite", from 1959, and also "A Dream of Poisoned Flowers", which was last year exhibited at the gallery "Rambeur" in Paris, when Ljuba Popović had an exhibition of a single painting! |
| |
|
|
