While I’m pondering how to talk about Sarajevo and Bosnia-Herzegovina, let me share with you a Bosnian artist I discovered. The exhibition just opened last week at the, uh, art museum, which I only visited because I came across it. But I was quite taken by Dobrivoje Beljkašić, whose works are being exhibited on the centenary of his birth.
It turns out that the majority of Beljkašić’s works were
destroyed in an artillery bombardment on the old city hall, which was also the
home of the National and University Library of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The
attack was intended to destroy B-H’s cultural heritage. It did a good job—more than
two million manuscripts, books and periodicals went up in flames.
Man—I thought I was going to get away from barbarism for a
while. But when you're intent on genocide, you go after the spirit as well as the body.
Anyway, Beljkašić and his wife moved to Bristol, England,
where they lived until his death in 2015. Although he had vowed never to paint
again, he did in fact create more art.
What struck me was the variety of media Beljkašić used over
the course of his career, and how he played with images. Viz:
Portrait off a Roma girl (1952, I think):
I loved this swaggering rooster:
Two takes on the Latin Bridge (titled the Princip Bridge):
Venice:
Drawing of a fantasy (note the date):
Coastal pathway in England:
Don’t recall what this was:
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