Olga Jevric - visionary sculptures that pushed the boundaries

Gallery of Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts
Exhibition author:
Žaklina Marković i Dejan Vučetić
Reviewers: Corresponding member of SANU Sava Halugin, prof. Dr. Jasmina Čubrilo
Maintenance time:
October 18. 2022. – December 11. 2022

www.sanu.ac.rs

More than five decades of Olga Jevric’s creativity are presented in the exhibition “Olga Jevrić – Composition and Structure”.
More than 200 artworks including all significant cycles and individual works – from the Proposal for Monuments (1951-1965), which was the first bold step in national sculptures beyond figuration towards abstraction, until the last works in which the main preoccupation of the author is the tactile properties of the material.

The exhibition was organized in the SASA Gallery on the centenary of the birth of the prominent Yugoslav and Serbian sculptor (from October 18 to December 11, 2022). The presented works are from two legacies of the artist that were donated to SASA and the House of Legacies in Belgrade. The audience also saw a smaller number of works from the Museum of Contemporary Art of Vojvodina, the Center for Fine and Applied Arts Terra, and private collections.

During the exhibition, the film “Sculpture in the world of objects and landscapes – Olga Jevric” was shown (screenplay by Academician Ljubomir Simovic, Marko Karadzic, directed by Marko Karadzic). Professional guidance and panels were held where the life and work of the artist were discussed.

Olga Jevrić belonged to the generation of Serbian artists who carried out an extremely significant shift towards contemporary expression and was one of the most prominent bearers of Serbian contemporary art. She broke the tradition of interpreting reality by turning to the very being of the sculpture with a clearly defined sculptural attitude, forming a unique artistic expression. Using her technological process, combining and synthesizing cement and iron powder, she created material for her sculptures, the properties of which lead to the creation of form and mass through the deposition of layers (ferric oxide, cement, sprayed iron, bars).

Born in Belgrade in 1922, Olga Jevric graduated from the piano department of the Academy of Music in 1946, and then from the sculpture department of the Academy of Fine Arts in 1948. She was elected a corresponding member of SASA in 1974, and in 1983 she became the first and only female sculptor to be a regular member of SASA.

Her work belongs to the top reaches of Serbian and European modern art of the second half of the 20th century, and her visionary sculptures traced a new chapter of Yugoslav sculpture with new materials, abstract form, and a specific artistic language, remaining a unique phenomenon in our climate.

In 2015, the collection that the artist bequeathed to the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts received the status of cultural property of national importance. Numerous foreign exhibitions and the inclusion of her sculptures in important world art collections, such as the collection of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, the National Gallery in Berlin, and the Tate Modern in London, confirm that Olga Jevric’s work transcends national boundaries.

The authors of the exhibition “Olga Jevric – Composition and Structure” are Zaklina Markovic and Dejan Vucetic.
Reviewers: corresponding member of SASA Sava Halugin, prof. Dr. Jasmina Cubrilo.

The sponsors of the project are the Ministry of Culture and Information of the RS, the Secretariat for Culture of the City of Belgrade, and Wiener Städtische insurance a.d.