Following last year’s exhibition Paja Jovanović and Gustav Klimt. One Era, Two Artists, Three Museums, which brought together two great painters of different nationalities, the Gallery of Matica Srpska once again presents a dialogue between two creators this autumn. The exhibition Prayer as Mercy will connect Czech painter Alphonse Mucha with contemporary Serbian artist Predrag Đaković, who lives and works in Prague.
Exhibition
PRAYER AS MERCY
Alphonse Mucha and Predrag Đaković
October 20 – November 17, 2024
Gallery of Matica Srpska, Gallery Square 1, Novi Sad
On Friday, September 20, at 8:00 PM, the exhibition Prayer as Mercy. Alphonse Mucha and Predrag Đaković was ceremoniously opened. At the opening, the attendees were addressed by Dr. Tijana Palkovljević Bugarski, Director of the Gallery of Matica Srpska; Dr. Danilo Vuksanović, Assistant Director of the Gallery of Matica Srpska and curator of the exhibition; film director Lordan Zafranović; artist Predrag Đaković; and H.E. Mr. Jan Bondy, Ambassador of the Czech Republic to Serbia.
Dr. Tijana Palkovljević Bugarski greeted the audience: “We decided to present a comparison. We chose a European artist of Czech origin, Alphonse Mucha, and his famous work Charity, which has never been seen in our country and has never been exhibited publicly, as it belongs to a private collection. We compared and placed it in dialogue with the work of a Serbian painter who has been living and creating in Prague for 40 years, but who originally came from our Novi Sad.”
Dr. Danilo Vuksanović spoke about the exhibition: “The painting Charity has an interesting history and symbolism. The red cross behind the girl in white at its center served as inspiration for Peđa Đaković to create this entire series exhibited here.”
Lordan Zafranović observed: “I am thrilled with the exhibition, which displays the richness of evil in paintings that make me tremble, but I am also amazed by all of you who have come in great numbers to witness contemporary art.”
Predrag Đaković praised the Gallery of Matica Srpska and collector Martin Šetina: “You have made me incredibly happy. Without the Gallery of Matica Srpska and my great friend Martin Šetina, this exhibition would not have happened. Thank you!”
H.E. Mr. Jan Bondy declared the exhibition open with the words: “It is a great honor for me to visit Novi Sad on such a beautiful occasion. I want to thank the Gallery of Matica Srpska for organizing this exhibition and for presenting Czech art in Serbia, in Vojvodina.”
The exhibition Prayer as Mercy represents a dialogue between the artistic works of two painters from different eras: Alphonse Mucha, who worked in the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, and Predrag Đaković (1964), a contemporary artist. Thematically, the exhibition depicts the suffering of the Serbian, Czech, and Jewish peoples that occurred in the 20th century, highlighting tragic events that we must not forget but instead, through the power of artistic expression, engrave in collective memory to ensure they are never repeated. The public will have the opportunity to encounter for the first time Alphonse Mucha’s monumental work Charity from 1886 (154×451 cm) and three drawings from his mature phase from private collections of Czech collectors. Mucha’s works inspired Predrag Đaković to create artistic works and installations, thus providing a new framework in his own artistic opus for the Holocaust as an inexhaustible source of artistic creation. Nine compositions by Predrag Đaković, executed in various materials, together with four other works by Alphonse Mucha, interpret in a contemporary way the tragedy of our civilization in the turbulent historical flow.
The idea of the exhibition is to emphasize the importance of dialogue between European cultures in the aim of creating a better and more tolerant society based on humanistic ideas of love and respect, so that the terrible suffering of innocent people can be avoided in the future.
Alphonse Maria Mucha (1860–1939) was a Czech painter and one of the most important artists of the Art Nouveau movement. He studied painting in Munich and Paris and attracted considerable public and critical attention with his famous posters, advertisements, illustrations, as well as his painting of the renowned Slav Epic. Today, his works are part of numerous museum and private collections, while a unique museum dedicated to this artist exists in Prague.
Predrag Đaković (1964) is a Serbian contemporary artist who has lived and worked in Prague for forty years. He attended his first drawing lessons in the famous Šumatovačka Street in Belgrade under Sergej Jovanović, and later graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. He has exhibited independently in Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, the United States, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, England, and Montenegro. He has received numerous awards for his work, and his pieces are part of significant art collections worldwide. He is also successfully involved in music.
During the exhibition, a rich accompanying program will be held, including various lectures on Fridays at 7:00 PM, guided tours by the curator on weekends at 1:00 PM and 5:00 PM, and creative workshops for children and teenagers on Saturdays. The accompanying program can be followed on the official website (https://www.galerijamaticesrpske.rs/pretraga-dogadjaja/) and on the social networks of the Gallery of Matica Srpska.
The curator of the exhibition is Dr. Danilo Vuksanović, Assistant Director of the Gallery of Matica Srpska.
The realization of the catalog and the exhibition was enabled by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia, the Provincial Government of Vojvodina, and the City of Novi Sad.
The media sponsors of the exhibition are RTV Vojvodina, Radio 021, Naxi Planeta Radio, Radio Beseda, Color Press Group, Kulture.rs, and Ringier Serbia doo – Blic.