Uroš Predić
A Life Dedicated to Beauty and Art
In the year of marking a significant jubilee – 175 years since the foundation of the Gallery of Matica Srpska, we are realizing a large monographic exhibition dedicated to the work of one of the most outstanding national painters, Uroš Predić. Exhibition Uroš Predić. A Life Dedicated to Beauty and Art, through the story of the life and work of this great personality of Serbian culture and art, simultaneously points to the fundamental values of the Gallery of Matica Srpska: endowment, dedication to the common good and national values, as well as the importance of this painter for the history of Serbian art.
Under the academic principles based on the triad of the Good, the Beautiful, and the True, Uroš Predić made the most complex artwork in modern Serbian painting. Creating continuously for over eight decades, he left behind a highly abundant oeuvre in which he made brilliant achievements. Along with the immense success of anecdotal-social genre scenes, he simultaneously developed to be recognized as one of the most sought-after and engaged religious painters. In the medium of portraits, he visualized the world of the Serbian bourgeoisie over the span of a century, becoming its precious chronicler. At the same time, Predić’s learned and theoretical reflections on the nature of painting and intelligent statements about his life and society as a whole completed and explained his art more closely. Consistent with his principles in painting and art, steadfast in nurturing his artistic qualities and values, especially in the turbulent first half of the 20th century, Uroš Predić, like Cervantes’ wandering knight and eternal dreamer Don Quixote (as some of his contemporaries saw him) continued to work and live between his ideals and social reality, defying with dignity in the endless struggle with the “windmills” of the modern age.
Under the Gallery’s roof, we have gathered more than 100 works of art from different collections from the country and abroad, which give the audience an insight into the life and art of Uroš Predić.
In accordance with the institutional commitment developed during the past quarter of a century that we are a museum open to all, we have brought the work and life of Uroš Predić closer and made it accessible to a wide audience (children, young people, families, individuals, individuals, individuals with others, third parties) within the scope of the program “Other Europe” of the European Capital of Culture. Through the project, exhibition is adapted for visually impaired visitors through three-dimensional models of paintings with audio descriptions, Braille and audio catalog. During the exhibition, the Gallery provides a high-quality accompanying program: daily curator interpretations at 1:00 pm and 5:00 pm and expert lectures on Fridays at 7:00 pm, some of which will be translated into sign language. The work and character of Uroš Predić will be brought closer to the youngest through the new educational program Once Upon a Time There Was a Painter. Uroš Predić and creative workshops on Saturdays, while workshops Predić as a Comic Book Hero will be organized for young people, and the Predić in a Suitcase program for senior audience. The project Uroš Predić for all includes workshops for people with and without intellectual disabilities, done in cooperation with the Per.Art organization.
