Exhibition of Goran Ćetković opened in the castle of King Nikola in Bar

As part of the Winter Scene of the Bar Annals, an exhibition of the works of the Montenegrin painter Goran Ćetković was opened in King Nikola's Castle on Thursday evening, who introduced himself to the art audience with the series "Voices of Silence". These paintings, made on occasion and with oil on canvas, among which are the latest large-format works, according to the historian of fine arts Dr. Anastazija Miranović, are not chants, "but thunderous cries, wails of a trapped, demented, desperate, enlightened man of today, as warning laments to this lost to the world to just call out".

Goran Ćetković said after the opening that he was very satisfied with the display of works in this exhibition space, which Miranović is responsible for, as well as with the response and reactions of the audience.

- This is the continuation of the story that started more than five years ago, when I called the cycle "Voices of Silence". I haven't given up that name even now, because it perfectly corresponds to the idea and setting from the first day. This is the latest in the "Voices of Silence" series, and these are literally the latest works, which I am premiering here. I don't think that the size of the painting is its defining quality, but, compared to the previous ones, the new works attract attention precisely because of their larger and stronger formats, which are more suitable for my handwriting and way of working - said the artist.

Commenting on the evaluations of the professional public, Ćetković stated that his artistic expression cannot be classified in one direction, "and that is the opinion of respected art historians from both Montenegro and the region".

- It is a combination of expressionism and fantasy; at the same time, each picture is on the border of abstraction, and yet it is figural. So, from some almost abstract form, that character, face, is born, which with the help of colored symbols, relationships, dark-light contrast creates a certain dynamic and certainly an emotion - concluded Ćetković.

Opening the exhibition, Dr. Miranović pointed out that Ćetković's "heads are portraits and self-portraits, characters and personalities, in fact, emotions and states and everything that we communicate through non-verbal communication behind the scenes and masks of smiles and colorful tastes, values, meanings".

- Ćetković, in the cacophony of the most diverse meaningful consonances, styles and manuscripts of the visual and fine arts, builds a stable pictorial construct, with an expressive lexicon of decisive visual language. As from the Oscar-winning "The Shape of Water", from the monochromatic, dark depths, distraught wet heads emerge to the surface, which from some strange dissolution reconstitute themselves, consolidating all inconsistencies into a voice - a cry, a look, a plea, a sob and forgiveness. With striking execution, dynamic alternation of brisk, frantic strokes and fine shading, nuanced transitions, accented details, Ćetković portrays the character of modern man, evoking the former, forgotten real one, and wrinkled faces sometimes deliberately cannot hide the character, message and voice, said Dr. Miranović.

In the catalog of the exhibition, she also wrote that our faces have become the screens of smartphones and computers behind which we are hidden "and often, braver, more vocal", and that Ćetković wants to make them aware and thus wake up the threatened man of today, "bring him to the surface and openly to face life".

- Ćetković "Voices of silence" chooses a silence that does not mean silence, chooses an image that speaks instead of those who live verbatim, camouflaged and unsolicited in their safe, lulling habits of agreeing to everything that does not fall out of the standardized mold of established behavior. The artist, in fact, paints the face of a perverted world with a diverse world of faces, without beautification, unadulterated, honestly, not to serve it to us as an inevitable given, but to convey his voice - the catalog adds.

This exhibition is set up in the Castle for the next month.