Zorić for "Vijesti": Childhood is not the past, but the core of artistic creation

Naod Zoric asks himself the question: "Is my childhood the past?" He says that by its nature and definition it should be called "the past", but...

"It was so close in time in space and in time on earth. Nothing is so far away, and so is the past. My childhood is so woven into me that I probably don't even realize it, that I probably draw the most from childhood, because what a person sees first, they feel first and smell first...", Zorić said last night for "Vijesti" on the occasion of the opening of the exhibition "The Quintessence of Bone" at the Petrović Castle.

It consists of a selection of works created between 2012 and 2025, as the exhibition curator pointed out, Natalija ĐuranovićThe audience also had the opportunity to see the premiere of some of the most recent works.

"Communication with tradition is continuous, and the characters in his paintings become more lively and convincing than life itself," Đuranović pointed out.

Zorić says that it is very important to him that tradition and collective memory are nurtured through art. "Simply because I came from someone, because there was something before me that made me who I am. That is what I am dealing with and that is why the title of the exhibition is 'Quintessence of Bone'. It actually means the core, the essence, the bone from which I came," the artist explains.

In this sense, the artist also speaks about freedom and its spirit, which he believes has not disappeared in Montenegro.

"I think that if that man, and we were talking about the past, carries that blood, that bone that was transmitted through time and came to him and became him, it cannot disappear. It is something internal to us, it is something primordial, it takes a long time to eradicate it. I think that is impossible," he says.

As he points out, he celebrates the freedom of the Montenegrin people in his art.

"I am impressed, amazed by how much awareness this man has of how important freedom is. Freedom, as a concept, is something that is most sublimely human. It may not be the greatest, but it is one of the most sublime human virtues - to fight for freedom, to think freely," he says.

He emphasizes the dimension of the willingness of the Montenegrin man he portrays to sacrifice, "to defend his doorstep, his wife, his family, his religion, his freedom and his country."

"And being so small in number and space... that fascinates me. When I think about those people, I feel ashamed. Would I be like that in such and such conditions? That's something that fulfills me, something where I feel like a thinking and human being who thinks something, tries to think something through, and it fulfills me to paint that man to whom I myself belong," said Zorić.

He successfully transfers his ideas and thoughts to the material using techniques such as oil on canvas, mixed media drawings on canvas, coloring, as well as his unique artistic expression.

"Naod's color scheme, inspired by the Montenegrin landscape, combines red, black and sepia, creating a specific mountain color that brings to life the authentic tones of Montenegrin nature," explains Đuranović.

Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Vladislav Scepanovic, said that when he thinks about the art of Naod Zorić, the German expressionist often comes to mind, Emil NoldeHe explains that Nolde is someone who is attached to strong colors.

He describes Zorić as an authentic phenomenon and artist and thinks it is a great thing to have such an artist in this region. He also emphasizes that he is not too alternative for the avant-garde, and not too traditional for a conservative view of art.

To portray a "stately, even proud" Montenegrin, he is right.

"And more than right to have the strongest faith in the values ​​he believes in, and his living conditions were nothing. He didn't even have a crust of bread to eat. He had that self-confidence and it's something that somehow reminds me of fire, of some energy, like something that burns inside him constantly. It lives inside him constantly - even when he sleeps," says Naod Zorić.