Exhibition 'Jovan Kratochvil. Composition 100/24'

The retrospective exhibition of Jovan Kratochvil (1924-1998) is being held on the 100th anniversary of the artist's birth and a sufficient passage of time since his absence, in order to comprehensively review his rich and diverse artistic oeuvre for the first time.

The National Museum of Serbia opens the exhibition 'Jovan Kratochvil - Composition 100/24' on Friday, November 15th, at 6 pm, believing that only through the exhibition can one truly encounter, experience, understand, reassess, summarize, and possibly reposition Jovan Kratochvil's artistic legacy.

The exhibition of Jovan Kratochvil - Composition 100/24 brings together his most significant works from all creative phases, created from the 1940s to the 1980s. Starting from partisan art and socialist realism, through a journey towards abstract expression within socialist aesthetics and modernism, exploring work in various materials, to pioneering achievements in sculptures made of transparent polyester.

The exhibition curator, Lidija Ham Milovanovic, has selected a total of 100 exhibits, with sculpture being predominant. Additionally, Kratochvil's paintings, graphics, and drawings are presented, along with documentary exhibits on public monuments. Considering that Jovan Kratochvil often referred to his works as Compositions followed by a serial number in the year of creation, the exhibition layout, as a new spatial composition, is named in accordance with the artist's practice.

The selected material is mostly in the ownership of the Kratochvil 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 in Zrenjanin, Museum Zepter, as well as three works in private ownership. The selection of exhibits includes emblematic works by Kratochvil, as well as a selection of achievements that have marked his creative phases from the beginning to works that we believe represent both the latest and most inventive outcomes of his artistic pursuits.