Exhibition "Jovan Kratohvil. Composition 100/24"

The exhibition "JOVAN KRATOHVIL - COMPOSITION 100/24" will be held at the National Museum of Serbia from November 15, 2024, to January 26, 2025.

The retrospective exhibition of Jovan Kratohvil (1924-1998) is organized on the occasion of the artist's 100th birthday anniversary and a sufficient passing of time since his absence, in order to comprehensively view his rich and diverse artistic opus for the first time.

On Friday, November 15th, at 6 p.m., the National Museum of Serbia will open the exhibition with the belief that only through the exhibition is a true opportunity for direct encounter, experience, understanding, reevaluation, summarizing, and possible repositioning of Jovan Kratohvil's artistic legacy.

The exhibition setup of Jovan Kratohvil - Composition 100/24 unites his most significant works from all creative phases, created from the forties to the eighties of the 20th century. Starting from partisan art and socialist realism, through the journey towards abstract expression within socialist aesthetics and modernism, through explorations of works in various materials, all the way to pioneering achievements of sculptures made in transparent polyester.

The exhibition curator, Lidija Ham Milovanovic, the curator of the Collection of Yugoslav Sculpture at the National Museum of Serbia, has selected a total of 100 exhibits, among which sculpture dominates. Also presented are Kratohvil's paintings, graphics, and drawings, along with documentary exhibits about public monuments. Considering that Jovan Kratohvil often named his works Composition with an added serial number in the year of creation, and the exhibition setup as a new spatial composition has taken a name that continues the artist's practice.

The selected material is mostly owned by the Kratohvil family, and in addition to works from the National Museum of Serbia, the exhibition includes works from the Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade, the Museum of Yugoslavia, the Faculty of Fine Arts, the National Museum of Sumadija in Kragujevac, the Contemporary Gallery from Zrenjanin, Muzej Zepter, as well as three works in private ownership. The selection of exhibits includes Kratohvil's emblematic works, as well as a selection of achievements that have marked his creative phases from the beginnings to works that we believe represent the latest, simultaneously the most inventive starting point of his artistic quests.