Second Youth of Petar Omčikus

Fourteen specially prepared paintings is on display at the solo exhibition of Petar Omčikus, at Belgrade’s Pariski Krug exhibition hall.

By Zlatica Ivković
Photo Milan Melka

Spring has arrived early this year, and the excitement of approaching summer can be felt in the paintings of Petar Omčikus; clusters of ripe grapes, juicy slices of watermelon, roses in full bloom, dancing blue waves of the sea, jolly green cabbage heads… These paintings full of poetry and vigor reveal the mysterious joys of the beauty of life. There is the ever-present relationship to the picture, the passionate feeling for colour and the strong and expressive brush strokes that reflect Omčikus’ impulsive, Mediterranean temperament:

"Even after so many years and decades of collecting, preserving and shedding passion, after all the temptations through which he released his vision, here is a young Petar Omčikus, younger than ever, offering us the wondrously mature and exciting fruits of his nature as painter: the roses and luscious fruit only seemingly purport to be objects of this world as measured by our earthly experience. What spontaneity, what forceful strokes, what self-assurance of manner! In these most beautiful still lifes are condensed poetic glints, woven in a new way into the foundations of a language as old as Altamira, via all artistic style movements – abstract art, figurative art, expressionism, New Realism… to contemporary explosive dynamics, to the Zadar Commune, and on to Paris and Belgrade and Vela Luka on the island of Korčula. These paintings shine even when depicting the dramatic dark bluishness of the turbulent sea, even when the purplish-greenish hues of cabbage are set against the rosy-greens of flowers in full bloom. Art critics, with their strict systematic formalism, cannot but acknowledge that this (Omčikus’ art world) is one powerful individual stylistic and existential whole within his large opus", (Sreto Bošnjak, from the "Second Youth of Petar Omčikus" exhibition catalogue).

Petar Omčikus was born in Sušak (Rijeka) in 1926. He has lived in Belgrade since 1937, where he was also educated. After World War II, he studied at the Fine Arts Academy under Professor Ivan Tabaković. While still a student and together with his future wife Kosa Bokšan, also a renowned painter, he left the Academy to go to Zadar, where he joined the so-called Zadar Group, whose members included Mića Popović and Milorad – Bata Mihailović. The Zadar group spurred considerable change in Serbian contemporary art, leaving a profound impact. After the Zadar episode – which lasted about six months – he joined the Group of Eleven that same year (1951), held his first individual exhibition, after which he left for Paris.

In Paris he encountered lyrical abstract art, action painting and abstract expressionism – the then dominating art styles. The sense of freedom to paint differently, confined only by the imperatives of inspiration acquired as a member of the Zadar Commune, allowed him to take from these styles as much as he needed to expand his own vision. His originality and strength of expression soon recommended him in Paris, as he joined the then current art trends.

"Gradually", writes Nikola Kusovac, "he increasingly imbued his painting with a nostalgic echo, a yearning for the far-off expanses and images of his homeland, more mental than physical. Discarding the abstract style, Omčikus refrains from radically breaking with his basic relationship to the picture and accessed the figurative quite freely, allowing for a variety of interpretation. This is why neither similarity nor difference between abstract and figurative styles carry any consequence as regards his poetics.

His artistic language now demonstrates, as a major feature, freedom – devoid of concept – coupled with an unbridled imagination as well as immediate inspiration and the fully unleashed act of painting. This is brought to the fore with full clarity, an equally expressive force in both abstract and figurative scenes: the former are to be understood as the hidden content of matter in the very process of painting, while the latter as pretexts to penetrate space beyond form."

Petar Omčikus numbers among those creative artists who have tried their hand in almost every genre of painting; he painted with equal success compositions of monumental size, still lifes, landscapes, and portraits.

Petar Omčikus had his first retrospective in Belgrade in 1985 at the Museum of Contemporary Art. He has also done sculpture since 1982. He has received major awards and recognitions. In 1999, he was elected member of the Academy of Serbian Arts and Sciences (SANU).

A promotion of books and catalogues issued in French will be held at the Serbian Cultural Center in Paris on April 24, and will include: "The Paris Circle", "Anthology of Serbian Painting of the 20th Century" (third edition), "Ljuba Popović – Large Format" and the catalogues "Still Life", group exhibition, and "Petar Omčikus", individual exhibition. The editor and publisher of these editions is Živojin Ivanišević, while contributors include the prominent art critics and theoreticians Djordje Kadijević, Sreto Bošnjak, Nikola Kusovac, Stanislav Živković, Sava Stepanov, Dejan Djorić and Dragan Jovanović Danilov. Designer Zoran Blažina created the visual identity of the books and catalogues.