Prayer as a Mercy. Alphonse Mucha and Predrag Djaković

After last year’s exhibition Paja Jovanović and Gustav Klimt. One epoch, two artists, three museums that brought together two great painters of different nationalities, the Gallery of Matica Srpska again presents a dialogue between two creators this fall. The exhibition Prayer as Mercy will bring together the Czech painter Alphonse Mucha and Predrag Djaković, a contemporary Serbian artist who lives and creates in Prague.

The exhibition Prayer as Mercy represents a dialogue between the artworks of two painters from different eras: Alphonse Mucha, who created in the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, and Predrag Djaković (1964), a contemporary artist. Thematically, the exhibition shows the sufferings of the Serbian, Czech and Jewish people that happened in the 20th century, points to unfortunate events that we must not forget, but with the power of artistic expression inscribes them in the collective memory so that they never happen again. The audience will have the opportunity to meet for the first time the monumental work of Alphonse Mucha Mercy – Charitas from 1886 (154×451 cm) and three drawings from the mature phase of his work from private collections of Czech collectors. Mucha’s works inspired Predrag Djaković to create artworks and installations, and in this way he provided a new framework for the Holocaust as an inexhaustible source for artistic creation in his own artistic oeuvre. Nine compositions by Predrag Djaković performed in different materials, together with four other works by Alphonse Mucha, interpret in a contemporary way the tragedy of our civilization in a mixed historical course.

The idea of ​​the exhibition is to point out the importance of dialogue between European cultures in order to create a better and more tolerant society based on humanistic ideas of love and respect, in order to avoid the terrible suffering of the innocent population in the future.

Alphonse Maria Mucha (1860–1939) was a Czech painter and one of the most important artists of the Art Nouveau movement. He studied painting in Munich and Paris, and he attracted the attention of the public and art critics by creating the most famous posters, advertisements, illustrations, and also by painting the famous Slovenian epic. Today, his works are part of numerous museum and private collections, while there is a unique museum dedicated to this artist in Prague.

Predrag Djaković (1964) is a Serbian contemporary artist who has been living and working in Prague for forty years. He attended his first drawing classes in Belgrade’s famous Šumatovačka Street with Sergej Jovanović, and then graduated from the Fine Arts Academy in Prague. He exhibited independently in Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, the United States of America, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, England and Montenegro. He has won several awards for his work, and his works are in important art collections around the world. At the same time, he is also successfully engaged in music.

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., guided tours by curators on weekends at 1:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m., and creative workshops on Saturdays for children and teenagers. You can follow the accompanying program on the official website and on the social networks of the Gallery of Matica Srpska.

The curator of the exhibition is Danilo Vuksanović, Ph.D., assistant manager of the Gallery of Matica Srpska.

The realization of the catalog and exhibition was made possible by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia, Provincial Government of Vojvodina and the City of Novi Sad.

Media sponsors of the exhibition are JMU Radio-television of Vojvodina, Radio 021, Naxi Planeta radio, Radio Beseda, Color Press Group, Kulture.rs and Ringier Serbia doo – Blic.