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He was born in Šid in 1895. He spent his childhood and youth as a
shepherd. He began doing painting in 1957. He donated his collection
of paintings as the legacy to his native town. Ilija’s oeuvre can be
classified into a few thematic units. Most numerous are the
presentations of the Biblical, especially Old Testament motifs. Then
the motifs inspired by epics, legends and myths followed. In the
Iliad Cycle, which has nothing in common with the famous Homer’s
epic but is related to the painter’s name, the artistic allusions to
the real world and his fights against human foolishness, duplicity
and hypocrisy are often. Then, he portrays the cycle with figures of
real and imaginary animals. A significant part of his oeuvre
includes the flying astrological beings. Ilija’s works are not
descriptive, but are allegorical with multi-layered and symbolical
context. He does not make difference between the presentation of an
apocalyptic angel or modern astronaut, kings of Apocalypse and kings
of Iliad, between a simple and an apocalyptic bird etc. Ilija
creates the anti-illusionistic, the abstract. |
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He does not use perspective; he eliminates reminiscences; he
generalizes and prefigures by using symbols. Two-headed beings
denote the duplicity of everything presented. In Biblical scenes or
Serbian myths, legends and epics, the dynamics and morale prevail,
while in scenes from Iliad we find humour, irony and grotesque. In
these presentations, the artist tried to demythologize Biblical
heroes and historical characters. His works are not descriptive,
since they are the product of a self-taught visionary and
instinctive neo-primitive. He most often used allegory with a
multi-layered connotation. The mere names of his paintings, like in
Sekulić and Jakić, help us to get acquainted with his world full of
personal symbolism. He created in anti-illusionist and abstract
manner, eliminated reminiscences and generalized due to his purely
authentic understanding of the realistic. Ilija’s dynamic treatment
of the coloured structure points to outstandingly modern dimension
of his pictorial expression. The backgrounds in his paintings are
often empty and flat, while rhythmically sequenced figures are
floating, animated with wavy lines. The colour is raw, of visible
ductus. Golden background is characteristic in the paintings of the
special cycle. He had exhibitions in the country and abroad and was
awarded many times. The greatest collection of his paintings is in
the museum Ilijanum, in Šid (Serbia). |
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MUSEUM OF NAÏVE AND MARGINAL ART -MNMA