"You cannot copy nature, you can only learn from it"

Aleksandra Popović graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Belgrade in 1995, as well as from the Faculty of Architecture in Belgrade in 1987. She exhibited independently at exhibitions in Paris (2001), Vienna (2008), New York (2008). She is the winner of the prestigious prize for fine arts awarded by the "Academia di Belle Arti" in Rome. Criticisms of her work were published in the media in France, Croatia, Serbia, and Montenegro. She lives and works in Paris, and her new exhibition just opened in the UDG gallery.

At the beginning of the conversation, I would like to ask you to refer to the current exhibition, which was recently opened in the gallery space of the University of Donja Gorica?

- Currently, the University of Donja Gorica has an exhibition of paintings called "Between" The exhibition consists of two parts, one with the motif of the mountains and the other with the motif of the sea. Most of the paintings exhibited in the gallery and foyer of the University have already been presented to the Podgorica audience in the "Centar" gallery. The idea to exhibit the paintings at the University was motivated by the desire to bring art closer to young people, who thus have the opportunity to communicate with it directly, on a daily basis. I feel sincerely happy that I was invited to present at the University. I think it is a great thing when you have the opportunity for a large number of young people to see your work and that it can have some influence on them.

You exhibited for the first time in Montenegro in 2011 in the Podgorica gallery "Centar", when you presented paintings with motifs of mountains and the sea, dedicated to your father, the famous Montenegrin filmmaker Nikola Popović. With the new exhibition, you did not move away from the motifs, which, one could say, are your permanent fascination?

- As I already said, most of the paintings were already exhibited in the "Centar" gallery.

The pictures with the mountain motif are dedicated to my father, as they were created after our last time together at the foot of the Alps. Nikola Popović spent the last weeks of his life in a hospital room with a view of Mont Blanc. It was certainly an emotional period and my first encounter with thoughts about life and death, all the stronger because it was about my father, who meant a lot to me. I worked on the mountain cycle for several years and then decided to melt the ice and swim in the seas.

We are born in water, it is where we begin, and it is a part of us throughout our lives. A much warmer and more attractive topic, but perhaps also much more difficult. Unlike mountains, which are impressive, beautiful, terrifying, but also have their own laws and boundaries, the sea is completely unpredictable. There is constant movement and change. Water by itself has neither color nor smell, but what is contained in it gives it structure, color, character, life. There is an interesting musicality present in the motifs of water. Everything is full of rhythm, harmony...

How complex is the commitment to such landscapes, filled with dramatic color, in artistic expression?

- It is extremely difficult to paint landscapes, nature in general. You cannot copy her, you can only learn from her. You can only draw a thought from the landscape. It is very interesting for painting, since you have everything in nature and it gives you the opportunity to get closer to the world of pure painting, its basic elements, color, strokes, composition, and at the same time it keeps you with material reality and connects you with the motif of your painting.

How would you describe your creative energy?

- It is primarily based on my need to express myself artistically. I just love the visual world. I like to express myself through color and stroke. It is a wonderful feeling when you can express your thoughts and feelings through a visual trace, which is a kind of universal language. Being able to express and communicate is a lot.

Unlike mountains and their monumental static, water, as in nature, as well as on your canvases, is restless, flickering, elusive.

- Water is like life. And if you want to tame her, you can't. There's always something, something you didn't expect. The best thing is when you can let go. But even then you don't know. I guess that's the charm of life. A wealth of diversity, choice, cleverness, stupidity, surprise. I love life and try to find and create positive in it. Well, that's how I like to paint water. Of course, sometimes a storm comes...

Your canvases have a special dynamic. There is no last word, there is no we have seen it all. New light always draws the viewer into a new story?

- Sounds like my pictures are alive. I would be really happy if that is the case and if they communicate with the viewer. I usually do them for a long time. I have been hanging out with them for a long time. I'm trying to feel the moment when they become independent and start watching me. Then I leave them to further life. Theirs.

Are you loyal to oil paints and as you said in an earlier interview with "Vijesta", they offer you unlimited possibilities?

- I still work with oil paints. They truly provide unlimited possibilities. Technically, they give you the ability to work from paste to the finest transparent glazes, meaning you can express yourself from the brutally rough to the most subtle. All together gives a great range of possibilities and plasticity in expression.

In recent years, you have also lived in Paris, before that in New York. How difficult is it in art centers to take your place and get closer to the audience?

- It's terribly difficult. There are simply circles by topic, social... and it's very difficult to get into some of them. There is no regular route. There are no objective standards in art like there are in sports, so the reason why you enter the scene has no objective explanation. The reasons can be financial, thematic, trendy... Today, artists don't have to be talented to be successful, which makes it even more confusing and difficult.

How do you view the latest theoretical attacks in Paris? Will it change the city that lives for art?

- I am a completely apolitical person. I can't say much about it, but I see that changes of one kind or another are happening everywhere, including in the great centers of art. I don't know if we are at the beginning or the end of something, but the earthquakes are all around us. Everything that happened is creepy and deeply disturbing...

Autonomous emotional imprints

With about twenty oils on canvas, the painter Aleksandra Popović presented her recent cycles, gathering them mainly around two motifs. On one side there are mountain landscapes, and on the other wide water reservoirs, which we can imagine as lake scenes. It is no coincidence that the exhibition is called "Between", because not only does the motif go from the suggestion of aerial heights to the illusion of water surfaces, but also the morphology is polarized between the more systematically fixed outlines of harsh peaks, i.e. rigid glaciers, and the diffuse, fragile, nebulous texture of almost evaporating forms, i.e. atmosphere that gives a somewhat impressionistic impression. (...)

The mountain dominance in large and small formats is counterbalanced by pictures of a more "informal" character, which we claim are inspired by lakes and water. Of course, there the blue-white parts of the pigment intertwine and disperse, interpenetrate and dissolve in ever-new relationships. A kind of peak of systematic dispersion was achieved in the work "My Brother's Dream". (...) For Aleksandra Popović, we will also conclude that she successfully starts from a visible template and then freely transforms it into a field of autonomous visual sensations and emotional impressions, academician Tonko Maroević wrote.

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