Milosav Jovanović

He was born in Oparić in 1935 and began painting in 1955, first sketches since it was difficult to obtain paints. Understandably, he began with what he could see – his birthplace and the characteristics of rural life. This genre of composition is set in a broad plane lacking focus but with an emphasis on perspective. He adopts a strategy of detail where every form is clearly defined, and apart from old folk legends there are no traces of folklore. Perception fades before the force of suggestive, disturbing-demonic eyes, the sensuality of female breasts, phallic symbols. Fearing solitude, life without spiritual and physical satisfaction, Jovanović strives by means of love against alienation and despair.

He uses a wide range of symbols: sheep and serpents symbolize the victim; the cross, water and mushrooms represent protection, a source of life, transience. The symbols are sometimes subjective and frequently only suggested.

He paints equally skillfully on paper, canvas and wood. His pen sketches have same features as his oils. Here line is the sole means of expression. His palette is closely associated with the subject. He began (in his early phase) applying paint with his finger, often squeezed directly from the tube. Later chromatic tones completely fill the form, dots replaced by bands, broad, bright, emerging from the sombre depths of Jovanović´s subconscious.

The essence of his artistic individuality lies in the way he materializes suppressed emotions. The subconscious is, in fact, the source of his creative imagination and leads us to the most profound segments of his psyche

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