Inspired by France

The new exhibition year at the Gallery of Matica Srpska will begin with the ceremonial opening of the exhibition Inspired by France as part of the Month of Francophonie event, in cooperation with the French Institute in Serbia, with which we have been actively and creatively collaborating for decades to promote Serbian-French cultural ties. With its narrative, the exhibition Inspired by France tells the story of the intertwining, connections, influences, role models and friendship with French culture and art.

Serbian fine art of the 20th century is inextricably linked to the Paris School of Fine Arts due to the fact that the capital of France in that period became the center of the most advanced artistic movements and a meeting place for artists from all over the world. Young Serbian painters dreamed and longed for Paris, and a significant number managed to realize those dreams and visit the city of light, stay and study there, and even exhibit at prestigious exhibitions of contemporary painters. Paris shaped them with its streets, parks and museums and way of life. At the same time, he had a formative influence on their artistic poetics through numerous artistic movements and ideas that changed on the Parisian scene during the first half of the 20th century.

The largest group in the exhibition consists of the works of Serbian modernists created in the interwar period. The exhibition also includes works from the first post-war years, which were created in new socio-political circumstances by the bearers of interwar modernism, as well as by new generations who are fed from the same creative sources. More than 60 presented works of art by artists such as Sava Šumanović, Bogdan Šuput, Petar Dobrović, Milan Konjović, Peđa Milosavljević, Ljubica Cuca Sokić, Lazar Vozarević, Mića Popović and sculptural works by Đorđe Jovanović stand as permanent testimonies of the way these “Parisian guests” are experienced the capital of art, as well as the way in which they contributed to the strengthening of Serbian-French ties with their artistic involvement.

The exhibition is accompanied by the Serbian-French catalog of the same name by author Ivana Rastović. During the duration of the exhibition, a rich accompanying program will be realized in the form of various lectures on Fridays at 7:00 p.m., curatorial tours on weekends at 1:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m., as well as creative workshops for children and teenagers on Saturdays.

The realization of the catalog and exhibition was made possible by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia, and a major contribution was made by the Embassy of the Republic of France in the Republic of Serbia and the French Institute in Serbia.