Jovan Popovic (b. 12.01.1925, Nis - d.16.08.2012, Borovac), was a notable academic artist and painter from Leskovac, Serbia. He was born in Nis, Serbia in 1925, and spent the rest of his life living and working in Leskovac with his wife, children and grandchildren.
His artworks have received high praise from fellow peers. His artwork has been exhibited multiple times at various gallery exhibitions across Serbia, with less notable private exhibitions also held in Pretoria, South Africa. Most of his current art collection resides in Serbia.
His main medium for his artwork was traditional oil paint on canvas, with later artworks also being created using oil pastels and various felt-tip marker pens (the later being drawn exclusively in monochrome, in comparison to his previous artworks that made use of various vibrant and lively colour palettes). His style of painting was heavily influenced by the expressionist art movement [1].
In Zivojn Prokopovic's biography of Jovan Popovic, he states how "The introduction of Jovan Popovic's artwork marks the beginning of modern art in Leskovac. Jovan Popovic is, without a doubt, the most talented, the most notable and the most respected painter of the first post World War Two generation of artists in our city (Leskovac). Jovan Popovic will be remembered as a painter that made possible the first artworks of modern expressionism in Leskovac" [1].
The following are additional key biographical excerpts from Zivojin Prokopovic's book about Jovan Popovic [1] (published in 2003, translated from Serbian to English by Vladeta Stojanovic)..
"This is the first monograph study by Zivojin Prokopovic, historian of art, in which he presented us Jovan Popovic, painter from Leskovac."
"Jovan Popovic will be remembered as an artist who made the first paintings of modern expression in Leskovac. To be the first means to be at the station that can’t be missed, and it often means to be of great value."
"Jovan Popovic grew up in migratory school teachers’ family which, between the two Wars, changed several positions in Serbia, due to the Ministry of education decrees. He was born in January 1925 in Nis. Ten years later his parents moved to Leskovac and stayed there. Interest in painting appears in secondary school; he finished school just before the War."
"In autumn 1947 Jovan entered the Academy in Belgrade and found himself among professors Ivan Tabakovic, Kosta Hakman, Ljubica Sokic".
"In 1953, after his military service, he starts teaching in the same school he attended to, his predecessor Vrbic being ill. Since that moment his biography becomes simple and fulfilled with every day problems of living related to the existence he had to earn for working in different institutions. Jovan Popovic belongs to the group of painters that had to tune the vocation of artist and earning for living. None one group exhibition in Leskovac happened to open without Popovic’s works. He had seventeen independent exhibitions."
"The monograph study Painting of Jovan Popovic has six chapters that tell the chronological story of author’s creation. Through the 50’s, for example, we have analytic presentation of first years of his work and his first independent exhibition. Those where the times when he made the very first modern paintings in Leskovac: Women at the Promenade, Autumn in the Suburbs, and others. The other decades refer us to further artistic events related to Popovic’s work. Titles of chapters (borrowed from the paintings) are also giving a stylistic character to the paintings created in different moments."
"All these different periods make that Popovic’s work looks like a harmonious whole. That whole is made of few stylistic lines – realistic, expressionist and geometric way of figuration merging into rich pictorial Vltava. It streams through painter’s countries, and it’s shores are settled by male and female figures watching the twilight, it streams through the abundant fields where female nudes rise up towards cosmos, its tides reflecting Serbian ghost fortresses, but its calm streams reflect secrets of endless universe. Just like any other natural current, this pictorial symphonic poem of Popovic streams according to certain artist’s rules to reach the complete and total image of his creation."
"In each of his stylistic series, phases and developing steps followed by different theme definitions, you can easily recognize one common thing: a solid drawing, extraordinary talent for colorful which results in rich chromatic combinations, firm composition structures, attractive suggestive forms and poetic pictorial reflection. In few words – Jovan Popovic paints for human soul in its beautiful and happy moments"
References:
- ^ Prokopovic, Z. 2003. "The Paintings of Jovan Popovic". The National Museum of Leskovac. ISBN 86-81865-04-8
Copyright © 2016 by Vladeta Stojanovic. All Rights Reserved.