At the Belgrade City Museum this summer, a fascinating exhibition from a leading Serbian printmaker and painter, Aleksandar ‘Leka’ Mladenović showcasing the visual dialogues he creates from paint, print and photo. The show is built around the legacy of Nadežda Petrović (1873-1915), an artist for whom Leka feels a ‘deep reverence’. She was a modernist painter, educated in Belgrade, Munich and Paris, where she joined the studio of the sculptor Ivan Meštrović. Nadežda returned to Serbia during the first Balkan war (1912-13) to become a political activist and medical volunteer. She nursed soldiers, supplied guns and promoted the union of South Slavic people. Leka recenters the activities and relationships of a woman who remained active as an artist during difficult times. His celebration of Nadežda’s turn of the century, expressionistic modernism is characteristically imaginative, respectful and affectionate. Both artists exploit colour: if it was fauve-like with Nadežda, viscous, gestural and post-impressionistic, it is skein-like with Leka, dense and translucent, shimmering across his early Nadežda like landscapes. This is Leka’s show and it collects paintings from his past as well as her past. Expressionism around 1900 was a cosmopolitan language. Nadežda blended its artistic traits with local places. Leka’s first signature paintings blended pop art and punk art. Some feature here and include other depictions of ‘strong women’. These ‘hybrid’ paintings are derived from photos but they look like large, colourful screen prints. This creative translation of one medium into another has been central to Leka’s artistic journey. Although the exhibition is conceived as an inter-generational Serbian dialogue, what it demonstrates so clearly is how art splits identities and dissolves boundaries. Trans-cultural as well as trans-generational, the art on display here defies the diminishing effects of national labels.
Balkan Arts & Beyond 