The Exhibition: Where Humanism Begins

By Natasa Tepavcevic

Belgrade, July 22, (Serbia Today) - In the gallery RTS in Belgrade (Serbian National Radio-Television) the audience had and still has a unique opportunity to visit the retrospective exhibition of Miodrag Protic: "Where humanism begins" till 24th of July 2009.
Protic is well known Serbian painter and author of many books, essays, studies, chronicle. He left a deep and indelible trace in the Yugoslavian’s visual art criticism. He was a founder and long-time director of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade.
As the author of exhibition, Protic together with curator of National Museum-Ljubica Miljkovic, participated in the selection of works. All the exhibited paintings are in ownership of his family and himself, with the exception of two pictures, borrowed from the National Museum.
The exhibition "Where humanism begins" allows visitors to follow the genesis of Protic’s paintings from conditionally said "mature period" when his commitment to constructivism made minimal funds and reached its “clearest” form. In this sense, especially is interesting for art lovers to compare painting from the very beginning of Protic’s artistic career, for example paintings from 1959s and paintings made in 2001st year. The well illustrated and very informative catalogue done under the supervision of Ljubica Miljkovic, the curator of National Museum, is very helpful as a guide through this big exhibition.
We can perceive Protic’s work from many angles: as the greatest work of modern masters of the Serbian art history in epoch of modern, as work which brings new tendendencies crossing the borders and promoting the contemporary trends, Protic’s work in the field of critic as well as his contribution as a theorist who has made the brilliant study of Yugoslavian art, summarizes the twentieth century.
Narrowed choice of Protic’s opus for the exhibition in the Gallery of RTS depended of bodily space in gallery, of length and height of walls. Within shown works, visitors can read Protic’s essay Where humanism begins, published in 1951st as well as the review in catalogue of exhibition of Petar Lubarda which is well known as an unsuccessful attempt of Serbian authorities to affect the creativity in order to establish dialectic materialism. Owing to Protic’s commitment, after soc-realism (as artistic style as well as historical period) disappeared avant-garde art has become official in all ex-Yugoslavian countries.