Artistic expression of mental state, imagination and memory

Solo exhibition Sabahete Beke Masličić "Retrospective - 56 years of creativity" will open on Wednesday, October 29th in Podgorica, at the Art Pavilion of the Association of Fine Artists of Montenegro (ULUCG) at 19 pm.

"The exhibition presents a concise overview of the artist's oeuvre to date, who, through her artistic research and pedagogical work, confirms her status as a prominent figure in contemporary Montenegrin fine arts. In her 56-year-long creative work, from the very beginning of her painting career, with her way of working, her artistic sensibility, and her conceptually and artistically refined achievements, she ranks among artists of recent ideas and realizations," the statement reads.

The exhibition, which will be available to the public until November 11, consists of works that can be divided into several thematic units: landscapes, still lifes, and less represented figural compositions.

Symbolically, 56 works from the author's previous oeuvre, spanning the same number of years, have been selected for this occasion. Paintings created during her stay in Paris, which are unusual in their elementalism and inner, closed strength, will also be exhibited.

"We tried to present all the developmental phases through which the artist questioned all the key elements of her medium, always in relation to the recent artistic, social and cultural context of the spirit of the times," ULUCG point out.

The organizers, however, single out landscape as the dominant theme in which the artist "conjures her variations of the perceived ambience with formal structures ranging from lyrical abstraction to expressionism."

"Sabaheta Beka Masličić takes landscape as the starting point in her own work, and during the creative process she is guided by a passion for exploration and a research nerve that results in the discovery of a new field of authentic painterly values," reads the text of the catalog accompanying the exhibition.

There are two thematic areas within which Beka explores new possibilities of expression, the announcement emphasizes.

"Absorbing the world around her and the lessons she learned during her education at the famous Art School in Herceg Novi, the artist focuses on searching through the creative process in the field of themes close to her, Boka and Polimlje. Simultaneous work on two completely different motifs has created a pronounced dichotomy in the approach and realization of a particular theme. Beka paints a part of the coast near Herceg Novi, emotionally close to her, as she originally feels it - expressively with a multitude of colors, movements and vibrations, open compositions filled with richly saturated and often relief-shaped canvas surfaces. It is a world of lyrical impressions, those of dreamy landscapes with stone houses, gardens and with miraculous cypress, palm and laurel trees," the text describes.

With an emphasis on moderation in color harmonies, the artist shows an interest in the beauty of the painting's subject matter.

"Its ultimate goal is the expression of one's own mental state, imagination, memories, the flickering of creative excitement before the whiteness of the canvas. This inner drive and creative act of expressing the noblest personal feelings makes the magic of painting become a transmitter of mysterious testimonies of spontaneous optimism through the primordial duration of the world of spiritual beauty," ULUCG states.

Sabaheta Beka Masličić was born in 1947 in Berane. She graduated from the Art School in Herceg Novi in ​​1966 and the Academy of Fine Arts in Pristina. She studied at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris (2006). She worked as an art teacher in Berane (1966-2010). She illustrated a large number of books, textbooks and reading materials published by the Montenegrin Institute of Education. She has been a member of ULUCG since 1991.