page_title: Serbian art
section_title: Modern visual arts
hierarchical_section_title: Serbian art / Modern visual arts
caption_attribution_description: English: Petar Lubarda Kosovski boj 1953 Svecana Sala Novi Dvor Beograd
context_page_description: Serbian art refers to the visual arts of the Serbs and their nation-state Serbia. The medieval heritage includes Byzantine art, preserved in architecture, frescos and icons of the many Serbian Orthodox monasteries. In the Early modern period, Serbian visual arts began to be influenced by Western art, culminating in the Habsburg Monarchy in the late 18th century. The beginning of modern Serbian art is placed in the 19th century. Many Serbian monuments and works of art have been lost forever due to various wars and peacetime marginalizations.
context_section_description: Kiril Kutlík set up the first school of art in Serbia in 1895. Many of his students went to study in Western Europe, especially France and Germany and brought back avant-garde styles. Nadežda Petrović was influenced by Fauvism while Sava Šumanović worked in Cubism. Other well-known artists of the Avant-Garde movement from 1900 to 1918 were: Anastas Bocarić, Steva Todorović, Paja Jovanović, Marko Murat, Beta Vukanović, Đorđe Krstić, Paško Vučetić, Leon Koen, Svetislav Jovanović, Živko Jugović, Vasa Pomorišac, Adam Stefanović and others.
  After World War I, the Belgrade School of Painting developed in the capital with some members such as Milan Konjović working in a Fauvist manner, while others such as Marko Čelebonović working in a style called Intimisme based on the use of colors.
  Some artists chose to emigrate from Yugoslavia. Yovan Radenkovitch (1901–1979) left Belgrade for Paris in the 1930s. He befriended Matisse and Vlaminck and adopted a style inspired by Fauvism, before eventually leaving Europe to work in New York and settled in Waterbury, Connecticut, where several of his paintings are still kept in Mattatuck Museum.
  Socrealism was the dominant school after World War II with the rise to power of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia under Josip Broz Tito. However, that period did not last long – during the 1960s, Serbian artists started to break free from the constraints of the Communists led by figures such as Petar Lubarda and Milo Milunović. The Mediala group featuring Vladimir Veličković was formed in the 1970s to promote Surrealist figurative painting. Serbian art was split between those basing their works on the traditions of Serbian work such as frescoes and iconography and those exploring international styles.
  Naive art became prominent in the second half of the 20th century, with many notable artists coming from Vojvodina province.
  The first part of 21st century, with young artists like Jovanka Sanijenovic or Simonida Rajčević, marks a predominance of a figurative art linked to realism – a realism «where everything is real and nothing is real – considering contemporary time as needing a return to what is real and concrete, and at the same time social and existential. The Human Rights Logo was created by Serbian graphic designer Predrag Stakić.
caption: Battle of Kosovo (1953) by Petar Lubarda
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