Homage to Gustave Moreau
Ten large format oil canvases by six renowned local artists will be on exhibit at the Paris Circle Art Space from October 25th - December 10th in an exhibition dedicated to French painter Gustave Moreau.
By Zlatica Ivković
Photo by Courtesy of "Paris Circle"
Inspired by the idea of "choice by semblance", this homage to the great French artist Moreau was conceived by painter Ljuba Popović and was organised in cooperation with the French Cultural Centre in Belgrade and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia. The paintings will be displayed at the Paris Circle gallery in an exhibition entitled "Homage to Gustave Moreau". The exhibit will feature works by Petar Omčikus, Ljuba Popović, Ljubodrag Janković Jale, Milan Miletić, Vladimir Dunjić and Vasa Dolovački.
"The leading painter of Symbolism, Gustave Moreau, was a great individualist and recluse. What Lautreamont was in poetry, Moreau was in painting: a miracle that was radically distant and unique, and keeping a distance from his contemporary period, he set out into the sphere of myth and history and moved towards the abstract. The similarity between these two distinctly individual personalities was further strengthened by obsessive metaphors based on the themes of fatality, evil, magic and death, as embodied in the beauty of women." (Milan Komnenić in the exhibition catalogue)
Inspired by the poetry of Parnassians and Symbolists, Gustave Moreau (1826-1898), a bizarre recluse who admired Delacroix, addressed mythological and Biblical themes in his paintings, in which he created his own fantasy world. He was also very important as a pedagogue given that a multitude of students with different predispositions passed through his studio, including the fantasy painter O. Redon and fauvist H. Matisse.
The greatest part of his opus includes a significant collection of graphics and drawings that he bequeathed to the nation. Today, his legacy is displayed in the Gustave Moreau Museum in Paris and presents one of the jewels of 19th-century French art.
The exhibition "Homage to Gustave Moreau", to be held early next year in Belgrade, will subsequently move to the French capital.
The Art Space "Paris Circle"
The Art Space "Paris Circle" displays exclusively works of Serbia's most prominent artists who have been living and working in Paris for decades (Vladimir Veličković, Ljuba Popović, Dado Đurić, Petar Omčikus, Miloš Šobajić …). In March the gallery will mark its third anniversary. On this occasion it will organise an exhibition of Petar Omčikus's work entitled "The Roofs of Paris". It also plans to organise an exhibition of young painters who work in France, and at the end of the year an exhibition of Ljuba Popović's work under the title "Deluge".
Parallel to organising exhibitions, this art house engages in publishing activity that has resulted in notable monographs of Serbian contemporary fine art. The gallery has plans to publish two monographs, "Paris Circle II" and "An Anthology of Contemporary Serbian Painting IV".
The initiator of re-affirming the "Paris Circle" in Serbia, and the director of the Art Space, is Živojin Ivanišević, MA, while the criteria for exhibition are entrusted to a council composed of renowned art critics – Đorđe Kadijević, Sreto Bošnjak, Nikola Kusovac and painters Vladimir Veličković and Ljuba Popović. | 
