Releasing the painting: "Around Consciousness" by Radovan Grujić at the Perjanički Dom

In the vastness of the cosmos, we operate under the same laws that move the stars and shape the flow of time throughout eternity...

Every work of art carries within it an echo of its creator's inner reality. This echo is not only a personal impulse, but also inherited layers of memories, myths, and universal signs that are reshaped through the act of art. Exhibition Eye of consciousness Radovan Grujić, installed in the Perjanički Dom of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Montenegro, does not only represent his artistic oeuvre, but also opens a space in which the visual language becomes a system of thought. Meaning is not established as a predetermined entity, but is constantly shaped through the internal dynamics of the artwork, while the boundaries between visual expression and the intellectual dimension subtly shift, creating a space in which the aesthetic and conceptual develop in a complex interrelationship. Art does not strive for completion, but remains an open process, inexhaustible in its possibilities of interpretation and always re-established through the act of perception.

Grujić's work is shaped in a field of contradictions: between spontaneity and thoughtfulness, reduction and complexity, introspection and universal meanings. His drawings and paintings do not interpret reality, do not document it or explain it, but rather open up the possibility of perceiving what is often invisible to the eye. Every line, layer of paint or dynamic painting process becomes a mental imprint, a rhythmic pulse of consciousness translated into a visual code.

In Grujić's art, form is not predefined. A line is not just a contour, but an energetic flow that permeates the surface of paper or canvas, recording a trace of movement, a thought impulse, a moment. Sometimes precise and subtle, almost mathematically measured, sometimes eruptive and chaotic, it bears witness to the inner struggle trapped in the painterly matter. Color, reduced to strong contrasts of light and dark, does not describe form but reveals the inner structure of the painting, its tensions and calms, its ability to communicate beyond the linguistic framework.

The uniqueness of Grujić's visual language is reflected in the complex stratification of form and meaning. For him, the image is not a closed entity, but a field in which complex spatial and conceptual relationships are formed. His compositions are not narrative but sensory structures, capable of activating the viewer's imagination. Human figures do not represent individual subjects, but bearers of universal properties, inner states and archetypal codes, functioning at a deeper level of visual communication.

Grujić's paintings are not hermetic or confined within the framework of aesthetic contemplation. They connect the perceptual and cognitive, the internal and the external, the individual and the universal. In his figures we see traces of the mythological, the ancient, the primordial - but they never become illustrations or belong to the past. His art does not rest on quotations and references, but on archetypal signs that transcend time and the specific moment of creation.

Text often appears in his works - not as an explanation, but as a fragment of an internal dialogue. Words emerge from the paint not to guide the viewer, but to open up an additional layer of meaning, to introduce a voice into the space of the painting, to break the silence of the visual language and create a rhythm between image and word, visual and conceptual thinking.

His work cannot be reduced to a single artistic process. The different layers of his paintings indicate multiple possibilities for reading. Sometimes figures dissolve in spaces of light, while in other works they are shaped through contrasts of darkness and color, creating an almost relief structure of the painting. In some works he uses monochrome surfaces whose vibration varies depending on the density of the pigment, while in others light accents define volumes in constant interaction with the environment. This sense of visual instability is not just a formal process, but the way in which Grujić frees the image from staticity and introduces it into a field of continuous transformation.

But where does art end and thought begin? Can a painting exist beyond the canvas, in the consciousness of the observer, in a space that is not seen but felt? If art is not just a perceptual phenomenon, but a search for truth, then Grujić's works do not function as finished compositions, but as mental horizons that invite us to step beyond the known, into spaces where a painting is not seen, but felt - not observed, but experienced. If art is a bridge between the world of the senses and the world of ideas, is Grujić's painting not more than a painting? Is it not a visual philosophy in which infinity is not depicted, but rather sensed?

"... Man is condemned to be free..." (Justin Gorder, Sofia's World)

Grujić's work confirms this essential truth - in his art, freedom is not a motif, but a principle of existence.

(The author is an art historian and theoretician)