Legends and myths about the art of Uroš Tošković, one of the greatest cartoonists of all time in the judgment of international art criticism, received their embodiment and professional confirmation in the multimedia monograph "Uroš Tošković, rebel with a fiery face and a pure soul", which was promoted for the first time in Montenegro in to the crowded hall of the Castle of King Nikola.
With this work, to paraphrase the monograph editor Momčilo-Moše Todorović, the famous artist was placed on the pedestal that belongs to him, because, Todorović pointed out in his inspired and emotional speech, "we are not yet aware of the greatness of Uroš Tošković".
"The moment has come for Uroš to enter the Castle from the shore," said mediator Milun Lutovac, M.Sc., manager of the "Velimir A. Leković" gallery, associating the artist's almost two-decade search for inspiration and materials on the beach of Bar in front of the building of the royal summer house. house of Petrović.
Lutovac called Tošković the last rebel, reminded Uroš of his "escape from Mediala, which robbed him of everything" and pointed to his creative principle of noise and anger, which gives him inexhaustible energy to put his world on paper and show it to our world as a young man of 25. Lutovac drew attention to another dimension of the artist's talent.
"Uroš is an undiscovered great poet, and that is one of his unfulfilled desires. He is everyone's and no one's, and perhaps most of all his own. The discomfort of others is Uroš's principle, a game of passion and reason without a final outcome: he deliberately provokes defeat, and poisons everyone with cynicism an earthly triumph, if it can be said that it still exists", Lutovac said, among other things.
Art critic and art historian Anastazija Miranović, MA, whose essay is featured in the monograph alongside reviews by Nikola Kusovac, Dejan Đorić, Branka Bogavac, Anastazija Miranović, Ljuba Popović, Milić od Mačva, Draginja Kujović, Irina Subotić and Milovan Vitezović, pointed out that this event "contrary to everything that the character and work of Uroš Tošković represent".
"When you write and speak about Uros, ask him to forgive you. He is a haunted painter and an urban shaman in a kind of theater of the absurd. His line is woven from foreboding, it penetrates the restlessness, it splits, it hurts, it is a drawing of staging and warning. Uros is an apostle banished, forgotten, rejected, proud, the son of tradition and the father of conscience, the demiurge of epics and ethos that confirms that drawing was originally created among witches. He does not need monuments in the form of monographs, awards and recognition, it is enough to welcome him into our home as a dear a man and a friend", said Miranović.
The famous artist, whose appearance at the promotion was awaited with visible impatience by the audience, was proverbially succinct when he stepped from the front row in front of the visitors.
"We don't do things for ourselves, but for others. When you create, you have to be on the verge of suicide. If you stop time - I am 64 years old, because I stopped time. We were born to do good to others, it seems to me that I passed that exam with honor", said Tošković, with whom the visitors took pictures after the promotion as if with a rock star.
At the beginning of the promotion, the audience and participants of the promotion were greeted with a song by the "brotherly odes", as they were announced - the singing group from Beran "O Diva Bel Canto", which shortly before that performed at the Klapa Festival of Montenegro in the neighboring House of Culture. Todorović's legacy of Tošković's works was installed in the Castle.
Received a postage stamp with his image during his lifetime
"Uroš Tošković is the first artist from Yugoslavia who received a postage stamp with his image during his lifetime, the Post of Serbia printed it specially for this occasion. Uroš also received his golden bas-relief, the work of academic sculptor Ljubiša Mančić, made by Zlatara Majdanpek, before him this honor was given only to Petar Lubard, Paja Jovanović and Sava Šumanović", said Todorović.
The apartment issue was resolved in New York
Todorović explained the donation of the legacy, for which, according to Miranović, "both the National Museum and the Center of Contemporary Art fought", he "received a promise from the Bar authorities that they would give Uroš an apartment in this city, where he has lived since the beginning of the nineties".
"However, two and a half years have passed since that promise - and nothing! Then in New York, where I was at the opening of Nikola Tesla's legacy, I met Milo Đukanović, who asked, ``What happened to Uroš and the apartment,'' I said nothing, to which he turned and said something short to the man who went with him. After two months, Uroš called me and said, 'You are a wizard, I got an apartment in Podgorica,'" Todorović pointed out.
Belgrade director Veljko Kadijević plans to shoot a film about Tošković
The organizer from Belgrade, Momčilo-Moša Todorović, with his gallery "Soul Workshop", said that this is his third work of this kind, after the monographs by Petr Lubarda and Paja Jovanović, and that the monograph, in addition to the texts, also contains two and a half hours of videos in which Nikola Kusovac, Jakov Grobarov, Bata Mihajlović talk about Uroš...
Under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Culture and Information of Serbia, this representative monograph was recently published in Belgrade.
"I'm glad that after the recent promotion at the Belgrade book fair, the RTS team came with our famous director Veljko Kadijević, they said they want to make a film about Tošković, and a new monograph about him is being prepared in Serbian and French. Uroš deserves it, it's time to put him on the pedestal he deserves," said Todorović.
He added about Tošković that he has known him "for 40 years as a caring father, a caring friend and a friend", stating that he had seen "his handwritten verses in Italian, French and English".
"When the academician of both CANA and SANA Petar Omčikus told Dado that by coming to Paris he made a revolution on this world's largest art scene, Dado replied 'I am zero for the one who will come to Paris in four months', referring to Uroš ", added Todorović, who is known to Bar as the man who donated 68 paintings and drawings by Uroš Tošković to the "Velimir A. Leković" gallery a few years ago.
Bonus video:
