Exhibition of works of sculptors Sreten Milatović entitled "Day and Night", will be opened tonight in the Montenegrin Art Gallery (CGU) "Miodrag Dado Đurić" in Cetinje at 19 p.m.
The exhibition represents the first cross-section of Milatović's work so far, which has been active for almost 35 years and includes works created at the end of the nineties of the last century, several floor installations, sculptures and recent paintings-objects. The exhibition, organized by the National Museum of Montenegro, will be available for visits until March 28, 2025.
Exhibition curator, art historian Mirjana Dabović Pejović, she wrote that Milatović had his first solo exhibition as a student in 1990 in the Sarajevo gallery "Zvono", when he exhibited around 10 works of smaller format "Untitled", executed in combined material.
"Even then it hints that it is a unique expression that will bring contemporary Montenegrin sculpture closer to the true reach of masters of international rank. Soon after, he will participate in regional exhibitions where his authentic appearance is confirmed, completely in agreement with the tendencies that are hinted at by generations of young authors inclined to minimalist expression. "More than 30 years later, the thesis about the exceptionality and uniqueness of his sculptural handwriting has been confirmed through numerous studiously profiled independent exhibitions," Dabović Pejović points out.
Although present from the very beginning, she adds, over time the idea of the artist's relationship with the primordial elements of nature from his immediate environment gradually took shape.
"Even from the earliest works, the features of reduced symbolism, the refinement of the artistic vocabulary and the rejection of everything superfluous... The finely detailed artistic expression can be understood as a product of the author's hermetic nature and sophisticated focus on emphasizing the essence of things, flawless realization, and above all all with an extraordinary feeling and knowledge of the properties of the materials he uses. When one looks at an exhibiting career spanning almost three and a half decades, even with a cursory glance it becomes clear that all its stages are a reflection of a complex process of maturation and personal changes that life brings. Without a great desire for attention and publicity, far from the spotlight and the audience, he is just as reserved, thoughtful and selective in his words as he is when choosing the ideal means to shape a certain concept", says Dabović Pejović.
His works, states the art historian, transcend the time frame and become universal.
"They emit a noble energy and sublime monumentality that embraces the observer with its aura, as an expression of the 'delicate speech of a controlled sensibility,'" she writes, emphasizing the "well-affected" selection of materials tamed to embody a certain thought, and the colors are in line with that. ...
"Wood, clay, marble, stone of different characteristics, sand of different granulations, stone pebbles, lead... all these were carefully selected and coordinated with each other, building a clearly rounded composition with multi-layered meaning. In accordance with the simplicity of the form, the color is limited to only a few basic colors, mostly characteristic of the original color of the material from nature - black, white, terracotta, gray, with some, rare, pronounced (red) accent", she noted.
He adds that all the works of Sreten Milatović require one to stop in front of them, look into oneself and go into the depths of one's own thoughts, listening to the pulsation of the soul. Dabović Pejović believes that the titles: "Path", "Traces", "Signs", "Face", "Time", "Seal", "Furrow"...
Sreten Milatović was born in 1966 in Nikšić. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts, Department of Sculpture, in Sarajevo in 1992 in the class of professors. Alija Kučukalić. He obtained his master's degree in 2007 at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Cetinje. From 1993 to 2010, he was a professional associate at the FLU Cetinje. From 2009 to 2015, he worked as an assistant professor, from 2016 as an associate professor, and from 2020 as a full professor at the Department of Sculpture, Spatial Sculpture, Small Plastics and Medals at ALU Trebinje.
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