Sava Sekulić ( sr-Cyrl, Сава Секулић; 17February 190226January 1989) was a

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...

Naïve Naivety (also spelled naïvety), naiveness, or naïveté is the state of being naive. It refers to an apparent or actual lack of experience and sophistication, often describing a neglect of pragmatism in favor of moral idealism. A ''naïve'' may b ...

and Outsider art

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

Biography

He was born in Bilišani in

Dalmatinska Zagora The Dalmatian Hinterland ( hr, Dalmatinska zagora; it, La Morlacca or ) is the southern inland hinterland in the historical Croatian region of Dalmatia. The name ''zagora'' means "beyond (the) hills", which is a reference to the fact that it is t ...

near Obrovac, as a Serb in the Kingdom of Dalmatia, in 1902. His mother remarried when his father died when he was 10 years old. Sekulić was raised by his uncle and his aunt. He never attended any schools. His father taught him to read and write. Also, Sekulić used to quote his father's last words: ''Learn by yourself, draw and write with a stone in your hand''. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, he was harmed and lost one eye when he was 15 years old. He started writing poems when he was 22 and painting in 1932, but he did not dedicate himself to painting exclusively. In 1943, during the

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

he began to work as a

builder Builder may refer to: * Construction worker, who specializes in building work * Carpenter, a skilled craftsman who works with wood * General contractor, that specializes in building work ** Subcontractor * Builder (detergent), a component of moder ...

. Parallel to writing poems, after his retirement in 1962, Sekulić began to do

painting Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ...

in order to define his

poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...

more precisely. Sekulić belongs to the group of the so-called outsider artists, lonely, bizarre, asocial people who create new forms of beauty. His unusual associativity and ability for the materialization of his intellectual energy as a complete

self-taught Autodidacticism (also autodidactism) or self-education (also self-learning and self-teaching) is education without the guidance of masters (such as teachers and professors) or institutions (such as schools). Generally, autodidacts are individua ...

was intuitively and instinctively released. He died in Belgrade, Serbia, in 1989.Н. Крстић, Наивна уметност Србије
SANUMNMA
Jagodina, 2003; p. 100

Artistic style

Sekulić is a painter of the universal, the timeless, and the limitless. For him, everything is generalized, from the individual he aspires to the universal, and is very successful. Therefore, his works are the highest achievements of L'art brut, not only in the country but worldwide. Allegories and metaphors are present in nearly all his works. With his visions, he reduced a unique pictorial definition, minimized the subject matter to a metaphor. Most numerous are his compositions with

human Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture, ...

figures,

portraits A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this re ...

and scenes with historical and

beings In metaphysics, ontology is the philosophical study of being, as well as related concepts such as existence, becoming, and reality. Ontology addresses questions like how entities are grouped into categories and which of these entities exis ...

. While painting historical personalities, he portrayed the

victims Victim(s) or The Victim may refer to: People * Crime victim * Victim, in psychotherapy, a posited role in the Karpman drama triangle model of transactional analysis Films and television * ''The Victim'' (1916 film), an American silent film by t ...

hero A hero (feminine: heroine) is a real person or a main fictional character who, in the face of danger, combats adversity through feats of ingenuity, courage, or Physical strength, strength. Like other formerly gender-specific terms (like ...

es, and the members of his family as

mythological Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrat ...

beings. However, the most complex is the figure of a woman. In many works there are philosophical stories and moralizing lessons. Figures are simplified, flat and highly stylised. In the background of every painting is an original story derived from numerous popular

legend A legend is a Folklore genre, genre of folklore that consists of a narrative featuring human actions, believed or perceived, both by teller and listeners, to have taken place in human history. Narratives in this genre may demonstrate human valu ...

s and beliefs –

pagan Paganism (from classical Latin ''pāgānus'' "rural", "rustic", later "civilian") is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Judaism. ...

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

historical History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

or contemporary. The myths with the pronounced respect for animals – primordial parents and beliefs on summing up people and animals are presented in his paintings by duplication and compaction of human and animal figure (fish, bird, horse, cow, snake, octopus, deer, bull, he-goat...), multiplication of heads and limbs. The artist prefigured the symbiosis of anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figures, where all the

alchemy Alchemy (from Arabic: ''al-kīmiyā''; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, ''khumeía'') is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in China, India, the Muslim world, ...

of his pictorial expression is clearly visible. It is paradoxical that the artist’s very style counteracts the narrative aspect of the painting and concentrates totally on the pictorial value with the strength on an unconscious neo-primitive. His palette is restricted. He often paints surfaces with different applications of transparent colours, one over the other, without waiting for the earlier layer to dry, which leads to mixing and assimilation of colours. One colour is often predominant in each painting, which sometimes creates a

monochrome A monochrome or monochromatic image, object or palette is composed of one color (or values of one color). Images using only shades of grey are called grayscale (typically digital) or black-and-white (typically analog). In physics, monochrom ...

impression. He sometimes only partly paints the background of certain paintings, thus leaving whole surfaces unpainted. This additionally eliminated any illusion of spatial depth. Sekulić’s paintings are pervaded with a number of inventive characteristics, the symbiosis of the real and the surreal, with the character of almost pure automatism. The superiority of the artist’s senses overgrows the perception of a beholder. An ordinary observer is not capable of noticing and understanding the sensitive structure of purely

pictorial An image is a visual representation of something. It can be two-dimensional, three-dimensional, or somehow otherwise feed into the visual system to convey information. An image can be an artifact, such as a photograph or other two-dimensiona ...

phenomena A phenomenon ( : phenomena) is an observable event. The term came into its modern philosophical usage through Immanuel Kant, who contrasted it with the noumenon, which ''cannot'' be directly observed. Kant was heavily influenced by Gottfried W ...

; his paintings are firstly accepted as a kind of visual intrigue and are later intellectually experienced. Finally, Sava Sekulić is one of the greatest Serbian outsider and

naïve Naivety (also spelled naïvety), naiveness, or naïveté is the state of being naive. It refers to an apparent or actual lack of experience and sophistication, often describing a neglect of pragmatism in favor of moral idealism. A ''naïve'' may b ...

painters and a world classic also.N. Krstić, Outsider Art in Serbia, monograph, MNMA, Јагодина, 2014, pp. 108-113

Exhibitions and awards

He participated in independent and group shows in the country (

Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...

, Aranđelovac, Jagodina, Niš, Novi Sad) as well as abroad in significant international exhibitions in:

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

, etc. He received many prominent international awards. For his works he was awarded posthumously at the ''Fifth World Triennial of Naïve and Marginal Art IN SITA'' in

Bratislava Bratislava (, also ; ; german: Preßburg/Pressburg ; hu, Pozsony) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Slovakia. Officially, the population of the city is about 475,000; however, it is estimated to be more than 660,000 — approxim ...

, 2000, etc.). His most significant works are preserved in the collections o
Museum of Naïve and Marginal Art - MNMA
Jagodina,

and i
Galerie Charlotte Zander
Bönningheim, Germany. Recent exhibitions *2019 Belgrade, Gallery RTS

(24 October – 20 November) *2018 Belgrade, Cvijeta Zuzorić Art Pavilion

(18 – 30 October) Belgrade, House of King Peter I

(27 March - 10 April*) *2017 Paris, Halle Saint Pierre

(7 September 2017 – 31 July) *2016 Belgrade, Heritage House

(20 October - 12 November) *2015 Belgrade, Gallery of Central Military Club

(29 May - 15 July) Prague, Gallery of Luka Praha Museum

(9 April – 30 April)

Gallery

Sekulić Sava, Jelengrad.jpg, ''Deer-City'', 1948

Jagodina Sekulić Sava, Kad svak uzme svoje.jpg, ''When everyone takes their own'', 1965

Jagodina Sekulić Sava, Jabučilo i Momčilo.jpg, ''Jabučilo and Momčilo'', 1974

Jagodina Sekulić Sava, Priroda hoda preko nebeskog svoda.jpg, ''Nature Walks over the Sky'', 1974

Jagodina Sekulić Sava, Klica života.jpg, ''The Germ of Life'', 1974

Jagodina Sekulić Sava, Stari Sloven.jpg, ''Ancient Slav'', 1975

Jagodina

References

Literature

* Bošković M., Maširević M. (Eds.) (1977, p. 74, 78) ''Naïfs artist in Serbia''. Eskenaziarte: Torino. * Krstić N. (Ed.) (2003, p. 100) ''Naïve art in Serbia''
SASA
Belgrade
MNMA
Jagodina. * Krstić N. (Ed.) (2007) '' Naïve and Marginal art in Serbia''. MNMA: Jagodina. * Krstić N. (Ed.) (2013) ''Outsiders''. Catalogue. MNMA, Jagodina. * Krstić N. (Ed.) (2014, pp. 120–129) ''Outsider art in Serbia''. MNMA: Jagodina.

External links

Sekulić Sava - Marginal Art in Serbia

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sekulic, Sava Outsider artists Naïve painters Yugoslav painters 20th-century Serbian painters 1902 births 1989 deaths Serbian male painters 20th-century Serbian male artists