Artist

Ivana Benović (1983)

Follow this artist

Search

Collector as Curator

The word “collection” basically represents an assemblage of objects which are mutually similar by nature, and are, with an aim, “collected” or in other words purveyed through purchase, gifts, exchange or in another way. Every collection is determined by taste, tendencies as well as by abilities of the one that builds it. Artist Jozef Cornell, conditioned by necessity, has lined up an interesting collection of discarded objects from which he made his own assemblages and each of them represents by itself a small collection. The need to collect is often characterized by having a dose of fetishism, which occasionally results in bizarre collections such as the famous „Wunderkammern“of the Russian tzar Peter the Great.

First art collections were made during the time when art was still viewed as décor, so that their owners relied on pure aesthetic when choosing works that were supposed to decorate their private or public spaces. However, was the contemporary nobleman or cleric who was ordering works of Michelangelo and other contemporaries intentionally and consciously compiling something that we would in our terms define as “a collection of contemporary Roman/Fiorentine art”? The epoch of modern art brought about numerous changes not only in the way of viewing and experiencing art but also in the way we experience artists, since only the modern art movement and the first avantgarde movement brought about revolt and awakening of artists which became conscious of the value of their own “authorship”. Among other, this has also brought about counterpoising author's signature and the value and significance of his work. Ambroise Vollard could have lauded to having “two Picasso's” while it can be reasonably presumed that Pope Julius II did not speak of having “two Michelangelo's” even though already the contemporaries called Michelangelo “Il divino”.

Author's signature, in a methaphoric sense ofcourse, or better said “authorship” is what today determines the so-called “aura” of an artwork, if we partake the lucidly applied Benjamin's term, and if we agree that it still exists despite the possibilities of technical reproducing, which is vindicated decades back by artwork auction results. Actually, high prices which were accomplished for a certain artwork, a need to own a certain work in one's ownership, as well as the fact that museums of art are visited almost as pilgrimage sites, represent a subject of special discussion, but it can be supposed that all these aspects at the core are conditioned by a specific aura which is created around art and artworks.

A distinct notion represents a financial, material value of an artwork and thereby there is a financial and material side of compiling an art collection. As an expression of creativity, as a result of inspiration, as a manifestation of talent or idea, as an inner need of an artist, an artwork is priceless, in the exact sense of the word. As there is no price for invested thought, creativity, effort, the fact that no artwork can be done exactly the same over again, are factors that can not be measured by numbers, but are at the same time factors which explain why some paintings are bought or sold for the price of a new canvas and colors while others even reach “breaking news” prices at auctions at Sotheby's and Christie's.

Awareness about value or pricelessness of an artwork brought up the idea that purchasing of artworks is viewed as an investment, which has put the artist's signature in first place, and has to some extent suppressed the “aura” moment by giving place to material value. New collectors were lead by, as a matter of fact, a very correct premise that an artwork is the only investment whose price grows with time. An artwork's age and its radical defining in the context of time and place brought about the need to search for works, which were estimated in art history as important and key works for a particular period, school, movement, or artist, for museum/public collections as well as private collections.

This kind of attitude creates problems when collecting works of contemporary art, which is usually necessary for functioning of the market and thereby for the whole “art system”. Up to recent times, museums were lead by the rule that only works which are older than fifty years can be in a steady collection, and up to the founding of the MOMA museum in New York in the 1930s, the idea of a museum of modern (contemporary) art was utopia. Investing in to something that is “verified” and that already has its clear definition in art history, which can not be impaired by new introspectives and revisions, was always more tempting to those who, in having an art collection, first of all saw potential material interest. On the other hand, early and today famous collectors of contemporary art such as Ambroise Vollard, Gianni Matioli, Peggy Guggenheim, Rene Drouen and others were art lovers and they respected works of their contemporaries, and had financial means to support them by buying their works. However, it should not be forgotten that collections of those collectors, who lead by their own taste and tendencies invested in works of their contemporaries, are today the ones that stand at the core of many museum collections.


Collector as curator

The idea of preparing an exhibition of works of contemporary Serbian art which are held in private collections grew mainly from the wish to emphasize the significance of collectors for the development of the art market in an environment in which, due to lack of developed institutions, currently the market stipulates the existence and maintenance of the art system. With the goal to determine but without the intention to criticize the situation, which is conditioned by the environment in which in the state of prolonged transition currently the field of creative, cultural and at core non-material suffers the most, this exhibition wishes to highlight that, even in such conditions, the art market in Serbia exists and is developing itself.

Through a few dozens of works of many significant representatives of the local art scene starting with the 1960s up to the contemporary young artists, the exhibition “Collector as curator” presents representative works from private collections of those collectors, artwork dealers, gallerists, patrons of arts in Serbia which had, it can be freely said, courage to have an adventure and invest in artworks of contemporary artists. As a result of their individual undertakings determined mainly by personal taste and tendencies towards certain movements and authors, some of the most representative collections of contemporary art in Serbia were built, which can be compared to museum collections not only by choice of present names but also by chronological timeline, similarities of poetics of represented authors and all other characteristics which distinguish high quality museum collections. In such a way, a collector/individual drew nearer to curators/selectors who define the structure of a public collection which has for its aim to objectively represent the intersection or status of phenomena in art of a certain period. This exhibition strives to represent the individual choice of an art lover, who most often is not an expert in this field, as a choice which results with equivalent success such as teams of experts achieve when they define composition, concept and apperance of a museum collection.

With regard to the fact that it strives to emphasize the importance of collecting local contemporary art, at the exhibition in Gallery Arte are presented only those artists which are still actively working. Works of certain authors were chosen as representative works for special apperances, groups and movements, such as works of Miodrag Protić as the representative artist of the December group, the first progressive and oriented-towards-modernism group in post-war Serbia, but also as an artist who has since then been persistently developing his own poetic of geometric abstraction. This line of geometric abstraction painting is continued by works of Bora Iljovski as well as by some younger artists such as Saša Pančić, while a different type of abstract painting, which has a more expressionistic nature, is presented through the work of Đorđe Ivačković. As soon as painting in our art has received its autonomy, it was revived in different aspects which have once followed contemporary tendencies in international art, as is the case with non-modern varieties of pop-art which are shown here in early works of Dušan Otašević and Predrag Nešković, or the kinds of pop art which sometimes enter the conceptual domain, which are represented by works of Damnjan and Bojan Bem. Proto-postmodern painting Mediale is represented by early works of Dado Đurić, Ljuba Popović, Vlada Veličković as well as by authors which have taken their poetic from the heritage of Mediale and the fantastic painting, such as Miloš Šobajić and Voja Stanić. Conceptual art, which likewise chronologically did not lag behind the european and world art scene, being especially interesting for an exhibition of this type when one has in mind its usually questioned commercial aspect, is represented here by works of one of its most vibrant representatives in our environment, Raša Todosijević, but also Vladan Radovanović who in a distinctive way develops analysis of correlation between painting, word and sound. The „new painting“ of the 1980s and the divergent scene of the 1990s are presented by works of Čeda Vasić, Mileta Prodanović, Marija Dragojlović, Mrđan Bajić, Zdravko Joksimović, Gordan Nikolić, Milan Stašević, Dragan Azdejković, Aleksandar Cvetković and Vladimir Dunjić. Art at the beginning of the new century is presented by works of Đile Marković, Uroš Đurić, Mihael Milunović, Selman Trtovac, Biljana Đurđević and Dejan Kaluđerović, many of which already have their place in museum or other public collections, while a special place is reserved for younger artists, such as Marko Crnobrnja, Andrea Ivanović Jakšić, Ivana Ivković, Tadija Janičić and Maja Obradović, for whom it is especially significant to mention that their works are present in collections of private collectors.

Artworks presented here belong to different private collections, and if we focus on art owners of certain works, we will easily confirm that exhibited art collections have their own chronological and conceptual frame, thereby each of them could represent a separate unit in the frame of modern and contemporary Serbian art. Exhibited artworks are representative works of art opuses of certain artists or of a poetic of certain art streams. Selections represented in the exhibition confirm (when speaking of artists who have established themselves over time) and presume (when speaking of young artists) vision and ability of art collectors of contemporary art to anticipate phenomena, authors and works which will over time gain necessary aura which, on the other side, also shows the material value (sometimes to such an extent that the cause and consequence interchange while works gain aura thanks to the price payed for them). Finally, by subtle choice of young and still relatively unknown artists, an art collector is the one who among other can contribute to making them famous and at the same time can elevate the value of his collection.

Having in mind the historical examples, given in the introduction, which speak of art collectors as of those who supported their contemporaries by buying, selling and exhibiting their works, often played an essential role in promoting certain artists and art movements. It can be concluded that a collector of contemporary art takes part in writing and creating art history (even at a national level) as much as do artists, theorists, critics, curators and public institutions.

Ivana Benović

(translation by Jelena Popović)