Music is for the multi-instrumentalist and composer Veljko Kuzmancevica has always been his world. However, in addition to being a passionate artist in music, Kuzmančević has also shown a talent for painting. His exhibition, titled “All My Women,” which was held at the Belgrade Nikola Radošević Gallery, gave art lovers the opportunity to enjoy his intimate portraits.
In this exhibition, the author depicted women he sees as perfect beings - mothers, ballerinas, artists, beauties... muses. Through his paintings, Kuzmančević paid tribute to women in their various roles, depicting them as inspiration and ideals.
In an interview with Vijesti, he points out that women have had the greatest influence on art, and he also referred to the fact that today, members of the fairer sex are mostly presented as sexual objects through popular culture.
Veljko, we know you as a musician - composer, multi-instrumentalist, but recently you have promoted another of your talents related to painting through your graphics and the exhibition “All My Women”. Where did your interest in this branch of art come from?
My dad Lazar was an academic painter who lived art and freedom until his last day. I grew up in a studio with the smell of turpentine and oil paint, and I guess a man, questioning himself with age, increasingly returns to his roots, looking for answers. Painting, as a way of visualization, is perhaps the most concrete expression in art because the work is completely materialized. It is there, visible to everyone, and leaves the observer space to build their own feelings and emotions.
There are many musicians who have expressed their creativity through paintings. For example, David Bowie painted surrealism, Bob Dylan landscapes, John Lennon caricatures, Miles Davis abstraction. You chose a woman as your motif. How would you describe the relationship between the music you create and painting when it comes to depicting women?
My music is basically subtle, gentle, and at the same time carries a tone of pride, a sense of strength and the impermanence of time, and even audacity, which are the characteristics of every true and sovereign woman. The violin is feminine, viola, cello... these instruments are also similar in shape to the female body. Practically, if you think deeper, almost all wind and string instruments that play in the high register, that lead the melody and that are soloists are mostly feminine. In my symphonic music, the violins begin the melodic theme, the cello embraces them and then the woodwinds take over (clarinet, bassoon, horn..). This is an example of the most subtle tonal touches, just like my relationship to the canvas while I paint these "my women".
Women have always been muses for artists. There are Gala and Dali, Clara Schumann was the muse of Robert Schumann, another famous couple and John Lennon's famous muse was Yoko Ono, while Patty Boyd inspired two men - George Harris and Eric Clapton. There are many such examples throughout history, but to what extent has the role of women as muse shaped the way art is presented and experienced?
I think that women as muse have perhaps had the greatest influence on art. Since childhood, when you want to impress your crush and be cool in society, the first thing you learn is to play the guitar. When you don't know how to tell her, you start writing, and in order not to be banal, you put in a little effort and poetry, a literary work, is born... The essence of a man is to conquer a woman's heart and soul, because there is no more powerful energy in the universe than love, which is the greatest inspiration and the Holy Grail of artistic creation. That is why it is very important for women to remain untouchable, sovereign and not deprive this world of the fight for their beauty, for their affection... which I think is exactly what is happening today in the modern world that surrounds us.
In your paintings, women are naked, but not in a vulgar way. You tried to keep the women in your paintings mystical and untouchable. How difficult was it not to cross that line, but to show this more beautiful, gentle side of women through your graphics?
A woman is above all a mystery, and if you completely illuminate and strip her naked, she becomes vulgar. The mystery is in the shadows, in the subtle play of light, in the skin and the warmth of movement. And no matter how accessible they are today, naked on social media, and presented as sexual objects through popular culture, you will always be more intrigued by the mystery of a woman standing on the sidelines and watching it all. It's the same with my paintings, when you look at her you wonder what her skin smells like, not what size bra she's wearing or what brand of panties she's wearing.
In art, the depiction of nude women has a rich and complex history, spanning different eras, cultural and social changes. The female body has been and remains a subject of interest for artists, but the way it has been depicted and interpreted has changed throughout history. For example, during the Renaissance, nude women were often depicted as goddesses, mythological figures or symbols of fertility and beauty, while in today's modern painting, nudity has become the subject of controversy, criticism and analysis. Given that art is sometimes a reflection of society at the moment it emerges, when did we start seeing the female body as something vulgar and scandalous, rather than a goddess?
The transformation of women into sexual objects is primarily a contribution of popular culture, Hollywood films and the need for money. Money and sex are closely linked, in business, in the levers of power, authority… It is a creepy trap that some women fall into and then put themselves in a “catalog” that is now available to everyone in the form of social networks. Also, artists are in a crisis of creativity nowadays, so it is easiest to scandalize the body of a woman or a man in order to draw attention to the very “work” they create. We generally live in a time where scandal is the only way for attention to survive, even if only for a short time, in this electric and virtual media machinery.
I think that women as muse have perhaps had the greatest influence on art. Since boyhood, when you want to impress your crush and be cool in society, the first thing you learn is to play the guitar. When you don't know how to tell her, you start writing, and in order not to be banal, you put in a little effort and poetry, a literary work, is born... The essence of a man is to win a woman's heart and soul.
You yourself have indicated that there is a connection between your music and painting. From the choices you make to what you create, music is always a reflection of your mood. What do you listen to while painting and how much do your mood and emotions change from the first stroke to the completion of the painting?
I always paint with headphones on and listen to mostly instrumental music, but I've noticed that no matter what I'm listening to, I'm very quickly no longer aware of the music because all my attention is on the painting and the model. And like when I write music, I very rarely go back to refine something or follow it up. When I'm sure in my head how I want to paint it, I take it and paint until I'm done, with a complete absence of the passage of time and how long it takes.
For some, music, for others, painting is an escape from reality and a kind of psychotherapy that we need in this day and age. What helps you process emotions more, colors or notes?
Music is my channel for releasing emotions. All accumulated experiences in that process are shaped into music, and painting is a complete absence of consciousness and calming down. A timeless journey.
If you have been offering a story for years that has no clear and concrete basis in the work itself, then you as an artist are absolutely to blame because the audience does not want you to make fools of them. Contemporary art has brought with it a lot of good things, but it has also distanced people from emotions with its "works". In contemporary art, the work that is created is an end in itself and man is initially left out.
And while music is for the masses, painting is still in a way an elitist form of art, because many will go to a concert at least once, but not to an exhibition. How much are the artists themselves to blame for the fact that art is where it is today and that instead of being for the masses, it is still “only for the chosen ones”?
If you have been offering a story for years that does not have a clear and concrete foundation in the work itself, then you are absolutely to blame as an artist because the audience does not want you to make fools of them. Contemporary art has brought with it a lot of good things, but it has also distanced people from emotions with its "works". In contemporary art, the work that is created is an end in itself and that is where the human being is initially left out. Very often it does not communicate with the observer or listener, but happens by itself in some strange space, and this gives room to critics who hide behind authority (more often by profession than by knowledge) to spread nonsense about the work, so it is often easier for the average person to go to a concert of a naked singer than, for example, to a gallery. People do not learn about culture and art through explanations, but through direct contact with works that will awaken certain feelings in them, because only in this way can a work be artistic.
How much will painting "distract" you and can anything distract you from music? Is there anything you are working on right now?
Music is my world, and painting is a trip and a walk in nature on a beautiful day. I spend most of my time in music, currently writing for the continuation of the series ''Krunska 11'' produced by Zillion Film, Lazar Ristovski with whom I have been successfully and beautifully collaborating for the second year now. In September last year, I performed a new piece at the Novi Sad Philharmonic, and I hope that I will have the opportunity to perform a concert again this year. I am grateful and satisfied because I can live and do what I love.
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