If he were in Italy, France or Spain, to exhibit his canvases, it would be a first class event. But even without that, Dragan Pechurica, surely today belongs to the more interesting and skilled authors of contemporary Montenegrin painting. It is not academic, but it is a superb, unique manuscript on the art scene in Montenegro and much wider and much further afield.
Pečurica is a painter who is yet to be known. I feel the need and obligation to draw attention to him, so I do so through interviews and reproductions of his paintings, which speak best about themselves and their author. I will ask him some simple questions, in order to bring this unusual painter closer to the readers of ART. Along with interesting and magically attractive pictures, he talked interestingly and thought about himself, art, life, the time in which he lives...
When you started painting, do you remember the first strokes and what they looked like. When was it and in what years?
My interest in painting started in elementary school. Of course, that was the period when painting was done with tempera and water colors... During my schooling, I only had an excellent grade in art. I could not brag about my grades in other subjects, so I will not even mention them, but I would single out the award at the "Blue Swallow" art competition, which meant a lot to me and was a reason for my pride. For winning first place, I was awarded with collected works Branko Ćopić which, of course, I never read and which ended up, unfortunately, in the dust of the attic of my house in Škver and among the sculptures of the deceased Nade Stanić, Soldiers wife, who was a skilled sculptor. From high school, I remember drawings on hammer paper, working with shadows and studying the "Treatise on Painting", Leonardo's works I only partially understood, which was a slight improvement over my love of books.
The drawing pretty much limited me in everything I wanted to say with the painting, so when I decided to switch to canvas, I gave some of them away, and the remaining drawings turned yellow or fell apart from the water, because the roof always leaked when it blew strong southerly. Oil paints have remained my choice until today.
First impulses through colors and lines. The first motives...
I have never started painting without knowing what the subject will be. I always let it develop by spontaneously combining elements, from which an idea was born that would translate into a picture. Of course, what surrounds us or what seems beautiful and significant to us, provided we are honest, becomes a theme that permeates most of the artist's work, but it is not the only one in the oeuvre. I simply never thought about it, so every painting dragged me into some strange creative uncertainty, which I also consider good, because when at the beginning of the work you know how the painting will look, you don't recognize energy and imagination in it, and it just turns into likability, that is, kitsch.
I would not classify painters according to the subject they deal with, but according to their handwriting and recognition.
If the picture opened in the palette of Mediterranean colors, the theme related to this climate would simply be imposed and honestly I don't run away and I have no fear that it would be i.e. that it will be excessively pathetic or prosaic. There is only one rule: sit down at the easel, apply colors and look for shapes and forms. Time and work create a painter in a technical sense, but ideas and talent cannot be taught. It is something that the artist carries within himself. And this is what separates science from art.
When did you feel the artist in you? What was that feeling like?
Any job that a person does, and everyone else either doesn't want to or doesn't have the talent for it, becomes his preoccupation. Sometimes he also succeeds and knows how to find his way in the sea of uncertainty that the love of art, by itself, unfortunately carries, especially in a reality such as ours, in a society that is more interested in elementary existence, and the "elite" is pressured by the complex of the non-existence of a multi-generational elite . Dominion has been forcibly introduced into our society. Many people like it, but still feel that they got that status undeservedly. When you are an artist from the earliest days of your life, then you were born for it, and if you discovered this inclination in yourself in later years, it means that you did not know how to do anything else, nor did you love anything else. It's never too late for anything in this world, it's just that the chances of achieving it are less.
You were born in the house where saint Leopold Mandić was born, in Herceg Novi, on Škver. The spirit of this saint and his image is present in some of your paintings.
The house where I was born is one of the oldest in Herceg Novi and therefore has a long history and a long memory of everything that happened over time, as well as the people who passed through it or lived in it for a longer or shorter period of time. . He was born in that house Saint Leopold Mandic, which is why it has its own importance but, unfortunately, not enough attention is paid to it by the public. For many years, different people, among them Vojo Stanić, had a greater or lesser influence on the existence and duration of this house. My modest contribution came when the facade was painted. Entrepreneur Milia he had no idea what colors to mix, so I suggested he take ocher and yellow and a lot of white. Since then, it's been called the yellow house and it's on all the postcards of Novi, more because Milija didn't know how to mix colors, than because my idea was good. Its color stood out from other houses... but it deserved it.
In the full sense of the word, you can be said to be a painter of the Mediterranean. How do you feel the Mediterranean?
The Mediterranean, in itself, is a picture in the most beautiful colors. And when it's dark, the sea gives it mysticism and romance. The sea does not have its own color, it is always in the colors of the sky and clouds. So many sunny days surround this city with golden and emerald colors, so you can't escape from that color. For me, the Mediterranean is a way of life... music, attitude towards coexistence, tolerance, peace and ease of living. It's so beautiful here that people don't have time to think about nonsense. One of them is giving oneself too much importance, which is mostly the result of ignorance or the current moment. The new one is fighting. It will be difficult, but klapa will still be on the shores of Boka Kotorska for a long time - the only name that sublimates hundreds of years of turbulent history and culture.
Fernan Brodel wrote: Everything is possible in the Mediterranean, which is also confirmed in your pictures?
Imagination is limitless. More often, he is an imaginative man who lives in scarce nature. He longs to change that state of affairs, so such people are even more cruel in their desires and ambitions to escape from ugliness, and therefore successful. Nothing is avoided here, except the search for imperfection, because even that, not very often, but sometimes it gets boring. Everything that is a combination of water and air is pleasant. Water is man, and air is life. The earth is painful and heavy, it is trodden on, tormented and suffered. They sail on the sea and fly in the sky, that's why it's nice to see them both. And those are the pictures we see every day. I guess that's why we're unusual.
Your paintings are a kind of script of Mediterranean abundance and stinginess, waves and rocks, man and his destiny. It is more difficult for a painter to write and speak. The pictures are his speech, his letter. What do your pictures say? What messages are they sending to the world? What messages are you sending? Every artist has his own message. They are not always visible and legible, but they radiate. What is it that radiates from your pictures, what is it that they are saying?
In principle, one should not fall into the trap of narrative in a work of art. You need to complicate the narrative. Most will not understand it, few people will find something, and the one who created the work will remain silent. The worst thing is to ask the artist to explain what he wanted to say with his work... either the one who asks does not understand art or the one who creates is sketchy, there is no middle ground. The role of art is to awaken the imagination and what, in fact, we want to see or hear. If it's too banal, it doesn't arouse the imagination, so it's useless. Today's time simplifies and trivializes everything, so people have become like that. The race for time and money renders all art meaningless, especially painting. You need to make a picture quickly and attractively, there is no time for something to grow up and mature. Art becomes chicken on concentrate. Cities that are the creation of certain historical circumstances are springing up, like Andrićgrad. But what is a city without a church, school and cemetery and the passage of time, of course. Man is as he is, at a given moment, in existing circumstances, in the current historical framework. So that the messages of paintings and art, in general, are a sincere and credible reflection of such and such a man, his observations, experiences, desires, imbued with current times and life. At least that's my view. That it should be so and that it is so when it comes to honest and true art.
How do you manage in today's world? What is the role of the artist in the time in which he lives. No one can escape from his time.
- Every artist manages in the way that society and environment dictate. Coping means adapting. Both are excruciating. There is no artist who has not adapted. Some with politics, and some by merging with the social milieu. Small countries needed "big" artists. In big societies, even a small artist is a big one. The worst are small people in small states and societies.
Finally, which painters do you like? Appetizers you like?
Actually, I don't have a painter that I particularly like. Maybe they are the ones who create works in the spirit of magical realism. De Chirico could be the one. I try to think as little as possible about the work of painters whose style I belong to. If you immerse yourself too much in the study of creators who were role models for many painters, there is a danger that you will not develop your own handwriting and creativity. However, you should listen to your feelings and ignore, at all costs, the artists you admire.
When it comes to the appetizers I like, I'll tell you what I don't like. I am afraid of mountains because they are rough and dangerous. Ravnica is depressing and boring. If I were to choose a region that would be closest to my perception of space, then it would definitely be the fields of Tuscany.
Bonus video:
