# Radomir Damnjanović Damnjan

Radomir Damnjanović Damnjan (Mostar, 10 December 1935) is a Serbian-Italian painter and conceptual artist. Over the course of his six-decade career, he has consistently pushed the boundaries of traditional art forms, challenging conventional understandings of creativity, authorship, and representation. His artistic practice encompasses a diverse range of media, such as painting, photography, video and installation.
He exhibited at Dokumenta in Kassel (1964), São Paulo Art Biennial (1963), Paris Biennale (1965), Venice Biennale (1966, 1976), Tokyo Biennale (1967) and International Biennial of Young Artists Danuvius (1968). He lives and works in Milan.

## Early life and education

Damnjan graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Belgrade in 1957 and completed his post-graduate studies in 1959. By the late 1950s, he was actively involved in the Yugoslav art scene, holding solo exhibitions at the Gallery of the Graphic in 1958 and 1960 and participating in the Danas Group. His early works focused on minimal landscapes with symbolic and abstract elements, This approach later evolved into explorations of primary geometry and conceptual art, distinguishing him from the dominant artistic trends in Yugoslavia during that period.

## Art

Throughout his career, Damnjan has experienced significant transformations in his artistic practice, showcasing his engagement with various forms of art.

### 1950s – Figurative painting

During his early career, Damnjan created figurative works in line with the postmodern trends of the time, like Kalemegdan (1955). This work showcases his visions of contemporary landscapes, with elements of symbolism and metaphysical exploration.

### 1960s – Minimalism and Abstract Art

In the 1960s, Damnjan began to embrace minimalism and abstraction, reducing forms to their essential elements. His series Sandy Shores (1961) and Elements in Space (1963–64) are notable for their minimalist approach, focusing on the relationship between form and space.

### 1970s – Conceptual and Appropriative Art

During the 1970s, Damnjan fully embraced conceptual art. His work took on a more activist approach, aiming to challenge audiences rather than seek their approval. In 1974, he moved from Belgrade to Milan, where he immersed himself in the Italian exhibition scene. There he held his first solo exhibition in February 1974 at Carla Ortelli Studio, showcasing In Honour of the Soviet Avant-Garde (1973), a series of eight black-and-white photographs marking his first use of photography as an artistic medium. This exhibition, along with his subsequent shows—especially at Multhipla Gallery — gained him significant international recognition, including coverage in Flash Art magazine and inclusion in Achille Bonito Oliva's influential book Europa-America. Le avanguardie diverse (1976). He exhibited his primary paintings, which were characterized by monochromatic fields and emphasized the fundamental elements of color and form, focusing on the conceptual, on the painting process itself.

#### Appropriation and misinformation

Damnjan's artistic evolution occurred against the backdrop of the Cold War, marked by significant global and local social turbulences, along with the rapid development of electronic media. This environment influenced his exploration of new media and themes of appropriation and misinformation in art.
He shifted his focus towards mental and conceptual aspects of art and started to question traditional notions of originality and authenticity. In his Forgery series (1975–1976), he reworked famous masterpieces by Giorgio de Chirico and Carlo Carrà, adding his own painted authorial seals to mark them as reinterpretations, challenging the conventional ideas of creativity, authorship, and intellectual property.
He was using a stamp reading "Work of Verified Artistic Value" to authenticate his pieces, reinforcing their significance within the context of the art market. This approach reflected Duchamp's influence on artistic authorship and deepened the diallog of the value of originality in art. His Misinformation series (1972–1975) expanded on these themes, featuring homogeneous painted fields and mismatched inscriptions that encouraged viewers to reflect on how information is constructed and consumed.
Damnjan began to express himself through mass media, such as photography, film and video. His photographic exploration with series such as Nine Times Damnjan (1975) and Nothing Superfluous in the Human Spirit (1976) delved into themes of perception and existence. He used performance art, blurring the lines between reality and representation, with video works and 8 mm films like Man Made of Newspapper or the Possibility for Communication (1973), Flag (1974), Reading Marx, Hegel, and the Bible (1975), and The Daily Ritual of Drinking Coffee (1976) further highlighted his engagement with the performative aspects of art, articulating his social and political beliefs while inviting audiences to reflect on the act of viewing itself.

### 1980s – Reexamination of Painting

For Damnjan, the 1980s marked a significant return to painting, but with a new conceptual framework. His works from this period featured stains, color fields, and lines, emphasizing the act of painting itself as a process rather than merely a means of representation. This shift reflected a broader exploration of the medium, focusing on the emotional and physical aspects of creation.
He also began to integrate ready-made objects into his artistic practice, blending still life with everyday items such as bottles and shelves (Still Life with Bottles, 1982). This approach blurred the boundaries between art and life, reminiscent of the practices found in Dadaism and Fluxus.

### 1990s – Expansion of Painting

Throughout the 1990s, Damnjan expanded his practice to include body painting, using faces—his own and others'—as canvases for his art. Works such as Portrait of Ješa Denegri (1999) exemplify this combination of painting and body art. He also created reliefs, exhibited as wall-mounted works, bringing a three-dimensional aspect to his paintings.

### 2000s onwards – Problematic (Paradoxical) Painting

From the 2000s onwards, Damnjan's works continued to push the boundaries of painting by integrating new technology and further exploring the interplay between shape and color. In his Painting series, he creates stain canvases where colored stains transform initial chaos into a sense of order, engaging the viewer's visual perception and reflecting the principles of entropy.

#### 6.1 Recent Work: Painting series (2020)

In his latest work, Painting series (2020), Damnjan merges sculpture with painting. He undertakes the conceptual procedure of appropriating the medium of sculpture to create paintings. The pieces exist in both physical and digital forms, each connected to the blockchain. With this body of work, Damnjan continues to explore the dematerialisation of art in both physical and conceptual spaces, where the boundaries between painting and sculpture become increasingly fluid.
The physical artworks are crafted from industrial-grade metal and treated with synthetic pigments and fluorinated paints to ensure durability against environmental damage. By utilizing unconventional pastel and vibrant colors, Damnjan continues his ongoing exploration of color and form.
Works from the Painting series (2020) were exhibited at the 62nd Annale: New Fundamental Tendencies in Poreč, Croatia, in 2022, alongside other artists from the Marinko Sudac Collection and in collaboration with the Institute for the Research of the Avant-Garde. This exhibition contextualized Damnjan's work within emerging trends and developments in contemporary digital art. Most recently, this pieces were also showcased at the Ras Al Khaimah Fine Art (RAK Art) in the United Arab Emirates.

## Global Recognition

Damnjan's international recognition came early in his career. He participated in prestigious art exhibitions, such as Documenta in Kassel (1964) and São Paulo Art Biennial (1963), Paris Biennale (1965), Venice Biennale (1966, 1976), Tokyo Biennale (1967) and International Biennial of Young Artists Danuvius (1968).
His works are part of the collections of major world museums such as the Centre Pompidou in Paris, MUMOK in Vienna, etc.

## Legacy and Impact

Damnjan deals with painting, drawing, graphics, photography, film, video and performance. During the sixties, early in his career, Damnjan the painter symbolic, abstract and minimal features. Since the seventies he used to the new media - video, photography and performance, while the painting closer to its analytical stream. At the turn of the ninth decade of the last century, the theme turns Damnjan 'still life' and '(self)portraits' which implements a floor or wall installations painted in the spirit of postmodern citation as 'new pointillism'.

## Solo exhibitions (selection)

* 1958 Graphic Collective Gallery, Belgrade
* 1962 Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade, Studio G, Salon Wider, Zagreb
* 1966 Gallery of Contemporary Art, Zagreb
* 1967 Obere Zaun Galerie, Zurich
* 1968 Galerie im Zimmertheater, Tübingen
* 1969 Small Gallery, Ljubljana
* 1970 Salon at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Skopje, Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade, Gallery of Contemporary Art, Zagreb
* 1973 Gallery of Student Cultural Center, Belgrade
* 1974 Student Centre Gallery, Zagreb, Studio Carla Ortelli, Milan
* 1975 Multhipla Galleria, Milano, Museum of Contemporary umetnosi, Belgrade
* 1976 Galleria Stefanon, Lecco
* 1977 Studio 16/e, Turin, Galleria Civica, Modena, Galleria Performing Arts Center, Genova, Gallery Nova, Zagreb
* 1978 Pilot Galleria, Milan
* 1979 Gastaldello Galleria, Milan, Kunsthalle, Tübingen
* 1981 Gallery of Contemporary Art, Zagreb
* 1982 Art Gallery, Milan
* 1985 Galerie Ingrid Dacić, Tübingen
* 1986 Museum of Contemporary Art, Retrospective Exhibition, Belgrade
* 1987 Modern Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Skopje
* 1992 Gallery kulurnog Student Center, Belgrade
* 1996 Fondazione balls, Milan
* 1997 Art Pavilion Cvijeta Zuzoric, Belgrade, Center for Visual Culture, Novi Sad
* 1999 Galerie Peter Lindner, Vienna
* 2006 Federico Bianchi Contemporary Art, Milan
* 2012 Federico Bianchi Contemporary Art, Milan; Gallery Magacin, Belgrade
* 2017 Zuccato Gallery, Poreč; Museum of Contemporary Art of Vojvodina, Novi Sad

## Actions

* 1965 Overflowing of the river Sava, Belgrade
* 1974 Free artwork, The Gallery of Student Cultural Center, Belgrade, Disinformation, Cinema Balkans, Zagreb
* 1989 Flame Pyramid, Stazione di Lambrate, Milan, Pyramid of cabbage, Esplanade Hotel, room 321, Zagreb
* 1993 Natura morta, Fondazione Mudima, Milan
* 1995 The Great Pyramid of cabbage, Anker House Gallery, Belgrade

## Performances

* 1973 The man from the newspaper or the ability to communicate, 12 min. Gallery of Student Cultural Center, Belgrade
* 1975 Identity - the destruction of books, Marx, Hegel and the Bible, 25 min. Trigon '75, Graz
* 1976 Dinner with Terry Doxey from London, 30 min. Gallery of Student Cultural Center, Belgrade
* 1978 From labor to creative work, 25 min, Gallery of Student Cultural Center, Belgrade, from labor to creative work, 30 min. Gallery of Contemporary Art, Zagreb
* 1979 From labor to creativity (version II), 30 min. Gallery of Student Cultural Center, Belgrade, Dal Lavoro allacreatività, 25 min. Studio 16/e, Torino
* 1982 Grande natura morta, 25 min. Il Festival Internazionale d'Arte Video, Locarno, From Work to creativeness, The 4th Biennial of Sydney, Vision in Disbelief, Sydney
* 1986 Large Still Life, April meetings, Gallery of Student Cultural Center, Belgrade
* 1996 Chattanooga Choo Choo and the United Belgrade Still Life, Die Weise stadt, Museum Moderne Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna
* 1997 Record of a portrait - Ješa Denegri, Gallery Zvono, Belgrade

## Artworks on film tape

* 1973 The man from the newspaper, 8 mm, b/w, 3 min.
* 1974 Bandiera, super 8 mm, color, sound, 11 min., Per il Futuro, Super 8 mm, color, 10 min.

## Video artworks

* 1975 Identity - the destruction of the books of Marx, Hegel and the Bible, b/w, 20 min. PAL, sound, Trigon '75, Graz
* 1976 Daily ritual of coffee drinking, 30 min, b/w, 3/4 inches, PAL, sound, Reading the same text, b/w, 20 min, 3/4 inches, PAL, sound, Reading Marx, Hegel and the Bible in the light of a matches, b/w, 30 min, 3/4 inches, PAL, sound, Spot in space or position of individuals in society, b/w, 30 min, 3/4 inches, PAL, sound, Tübingen
* 1977 Movement as a general need, 26 min, b/w, 3/4 inches, PAL, sound, Revolution as a game of minorities, 17 min, b/w, PAL, sound, Tübingen
* 1982 Great still life, 25 min, color, 3/4 inches, PAL, sound, Locarno
* 1983 Metaphysical Duchamp, Video D.C. 83, Ljubljana

## Publications (selection)

* Gillo Dorfles, Ultime Tendenze nell'arte d'oggi, Feltrinelli, Milan, 1973, p. 149
* Achille Bonito Oliva, Europe - America, The different Avantgardes, Decco Press, Milan, 1976, p. 126
* Gillo Dorfles, La body art, l'arte moderna, Fratelli Fabbri, Milan, 1977, p. 225
* Ješa Denegri, 10 Years Autumn Styring, Paul Kaufman, Graz, 1978, p. 171
* Radomir Damnjan, Niente di superfluo nello spirito, Edition Dacić, Tübingen, 1978
* Rafel Tous and Giner, Metronome, Libres d'Artista/Artist's Books, Berlin, Barcelona, 1981, p. 194

## Awards

* 1963 Award 'Vanda Svevo', 7th Biennial in São Paulo, São Paulo
* 1968 Awards on International Biennial 'Danubius '68', Bratislava
* 1981 Award Il Festival di arte video, Arte Video in Europa, Locarno