Status of monument -> National monument
Published in the “Official Gazette of BiH” no. 36/09.
Pursuant to Article V para. 4 Annex 8 of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Article 39 para. 1 of the Rules of Procedure of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments, at a session held from 20 to 26 January 2009 the Commission adopted a
D E C I S I O N
I
The movable property consisting of the collection of works of art and personal effects of Jovan Bijelić is hereby designated as a National Monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The National Monument consists of the following collections:
a) Fourteen (14) paintings and drawings from the collection of works by academic painter Jovan Bijelić:
- Portrait of Vera Milenković, 1928, oil on canvas, 200x150 cm;
- Old Belgrade, date unknown, oil on canvas, 98x78 cm;
- Tower with houses, 1932, oil on canvas, 86x74 cm;
- Village in Bosnia, 1932, oil on canvas, 88x75 cm;
- Portrait of Vukoslava Bartoli, 1929, oil on canvas, 77x104 cm;
- Plitvice, 1960, oil on panel, 93x104 cm;
- Portrait of the merchant Svetozar Marin, 1938/39, oil on canvas, 54x68 cm;
- Jajce in Bosnia, 1930/31, oil on canvas, 124x110 cm;
- Still life, date unknown, oil on canvas, 73x59 cm;
- Portrait of a woman, date unknown, oil on canvas, 42x78;
- Café – spit, date unknown, watercolour, 62x51 cm;
- Seated nude, date unknown, drawing, pencil on paper, 61x83 cm;
- Portrait of a man, date unknown, drawing, pencil and charcoal on paper, 61x83 cm;
- Still life, 1932, oil on canvas, 70x100 cm;
b) Four (4) paintings by other artists:
- Vojo Dimitrijević, Portrait of Jovan Bijelić, 1957, oil on canvas, 68x84 cm;
- Pavle Vasić, Portrait of Jovan Bijelić, 1951, Indian ink on paper, 42x33 cm;
- Krunoslav Kern, Birthplace of Jovan Bijelić, 1978, watercolour, 65x53 cm;
- Predrag Goll, Birthplace of Jovan Bijelić, 1978, oil on canvas, 62x52 cm;
c) Collection of personal effects of academic painter Jovan Bijelić:
- Seating – three small and one large peškun (stool);
- Coffee set (tray, two coffee-cup [fildžan] holders, sugar bowl, coffee pot [džezva]);
- Palette;
- Brushes (17 brushes);
- Kilim carpet.
The National Monument is housed in the Jovan Bijelić Museum, 111 Bosanska street, Bosanski Petrovac.
The provisions relating to protection measures set forth by the Law on the Implementation of the Decisions of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments, established pursuant to Annex 8 of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Official Gazette of the Federation of BiH nos. 2/02, 27/02, 6/04 and 51/07) shall apply to the National Monument.
II
The Government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (hereinafter: the Government of the Federation) shall be responsible for providing the legal, scientific, technical, administrative and financial measures necessary for the protection, conservation and presentation of the National Monument.
The Commission to Preserve National Monuments (hereinafter: the Commission) shall determine the technical requirements and secure the funds for preparing and erecting signboards with basic details of the monument and the Decision to proclaim the property a National Monument.
III
The Government of the Federation shall provide suitable physical and technical conditions for the safekeeping of the National Monument and provide the conditions for the expert conservation and restoration of the paintings and drawings.
The display and other forms of presentation of the National Monument in Bosnia and Herzegovina shall be carried out on the basis of conditions to be stipulated by the federal ministry responsible for culture.
IV
Everyone, and in particular the competent authorities of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Canton, and urban and municipal authorities, shall refrain from any action that might damage the National Monument or jeopardize the preservation thereof.
V
The removal of the collection as a whole or individual items thereof (hereinafter: the movable heritage) from Bosnia and Herzegovina is prohibited.
By way of exception to the provisions of paragraph 1 of this Clause, the temporary removal from Bosnia and Herzegovina of the movable heritage for the purposes of display or conservation shall be permitted if it is established that conservation works cannot be carried out in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Permission for temporary removal under the conditions stipulated in the preceding paragraph shall be issued by the Commission to Preserve National Monuments (hereinafter: the Commission), if it is determined beyond doubt that it will not jeopardize the movable heritage in any way.
In granting permission for the temporary removal of the movable heritage from Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Commission shall stipulate all the conditions under which the removal may take place, the date by which the items shall be returned to Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the responsibility of individual authorities and institutions for ensuring that these conditions are met, and shall notify the Government of the Federation, the relevant security service, the customs authority of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the general public accordingly.
VI
The Government of the Federation, the Federal ministry responsible for culture and the Federation heritage protection authority shall be notified of this Decision in order to carry out the measures stipulated in Articles II to V of this Decision.
VII
The elucidation and accompanying documentation form an integral part of this Decision, which may be viewed by interested parties on the premises or by accessing the website of the Commission (http://www.aneks8komisija.com.ba)
VIII
Pursuant to Art. V para 4 Annex 8 of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, decisions of the Commission are final.
IX
This Decision shall enter into force on the day following its publication in the Official Gazette of BiH.
This Decision has been adopted by the following members of the Commission: Zeynep Ahunbay, Martin Cherry, Amra Hadžimuhamedović, Dubravko Lovrenović, and Ljiljana Ševo.
No: 04-02-40/09-1
21 January 2009
Sarajevo
Chair of the Commission
Dubravko Lovrenović
E l u c i d a t i o n
I – INTRODUCTION
Pursuant to Article 2, paragraph 1 of the Law on the Implementation of the Decisions of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments, established pursuant to Annex 8 of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a “National Monument” is an item of public property proclaimed by the Commission to Preserve National Monuments to be a National Monument pursuant to Articles V and VI of Annex 8 of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina and property entered on the Provisional List of National Monuments of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Official Gazette of BiH no. 33/02) until the Commission reaches a final decision on its status, as to which there is no time limit and regardless of whether a petition for the property in question has been submitted or not.
On 8 November 2007 the Una-Sana Canton Institute for the Protection of the Cultural Heritage in Bihać submitted to the Commission a proposal to designate the movable property of the collection of works of art and personal effects of Jovan Bijelić of Bosanski Petrovac as a national monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Pursuant to the provisions of the law, the Commission proceeded to carry out the procedure for reaching a final decision to designate the said property as a National Monument, pursuant to Article V para. 4 of Annex 8 and Article 35 of the Rules of Procedure of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments.
Statement of Significance
The academic painter Jovan Bijelić was born in Bosanski Petrovac in 1884. He graduated from art school in Cracow, and then lived for a time in Bihać before moving to Belgrade, where he lived until his death in 1964. He made his name as one of the leading figures of 20th century Yugoslav art, thanks both to his works of art and to his influence on artists of the younger generation. He is regarded as a leading colourist expressionist of the 1930s. His works are to be found in every major gallery and museum in former Yugoslavia. The importance of Bijelić’s work gained recognition in his native town in 1972 when the Jovan Bijelić Museum was opened.
II – PROCEDURE PRIOR TO DECISION
In the procedure preceding the adoption of a final decision to proclaim the property a national monument, the following documentation was inspected:
- documentation on the property in question from the Bosanski Petrovac Centre for Culture and Education, which operates the Jovan Bijelić Museum,
- documentation on the property in question from the Bihać Regional Museum,
- documentation on the property in question from the Art Gallery of Bosnia and Herzegovina,
- available reference works dealing with the property in question.
The findings based on the review of the above documentation and the condition of the site are as follows:
1. Details of the property
Location
The collection of works of art and personal effects of Jovan Bijelić of Bosanski Petrovac is housed in the Jovan Bijelić Museum, 111 Bosanska street, Bosanski Petrovac.
Historical information
The Jovan Bijelić Memorial Museum in Bosanski Petrovac was founded in 1972, though the idea was first conceived in 1966 in the former AVNOJ and Pounja (Una Valley) Museum in Bihać. The idea grew out of the wish to commemorate the academic painter in some way in his native town. At first the intention was to house the museum in Bihać, but after an Initiative Committee was set up for the purposes of founding the museum and suitable premises to house it were offered by the Bosanski Petrovac Town Council, the decision was taken to base the museum in Bosanski Petrovac. Dr. Smail Tihić was engaged to work on the creation of the museum. He compiled a paper on its formation, organization and operation, and purchased a number of paintings by Jovan Bijelić from private owners, mainly from the artist's later works. He also took over from the family the artist's personal effects and the furniture from his studio, and collected some of the documentation on the artist's life. The museum was duly founded in 1972. A late 19th century two-storey building in the town centre was allocated as the museum's exhibition and office space. The building had long housed the first and only pharmacy in the Petrovac area.
The first exhibits in the Museum consisted of works from the Art Gallery in Sarajevo, the National Museum in Belgrade, the Museum of Modern Art in Belgrade and the Regional Museum in Bihać. With time, fourteen paintings by Jovan Bijelić and four by other artists were purchased, mainly from private collections; these now form the collection of the Jovan Bijelić Memorial Museum in Bosanski Petrovac (Latinović, Raunig, 1972, 2-3). As well as the paintings by the artist that were on display in and owned by the Jovan Bijelić Memorial Museum in the early 1990s, the Museum also had on display paintings by Jovan Bijelić that were on loan from the Regional Museum in Bihać and the Art Gallery in Sarajevo.
The works by Jovan Bijelić were on display in the Memorial Museum in Bosanski Petrovac until 30 August 1995, when on account of the war and, in particular, the action known as Oluja (Storm), they were moved to the Fine Art Gallery of Republika Srpska, or what is now the Museum of Modern Art of Republika Srpska.
Receipt no. 27/95 dated 30 August 1995 states that “works of art of great value are being moved from Petrovac to Banja Luka in view of the fact that Petrovac was in a war zone and there was a risk that the paintings would be damaged or destroyed. The paintings are being handed over for safekeeping to the Gallery in Banja Luka for the duration of the war danger in the Petrovac area. On cessation of the war danger the paintings will be returned to the Jovan Bijelić Gallery in Petrovac, which is the owner thereof.”(1) The receipt is for the following paintings and personal effects belonging to Jovan Bijelić:
- Portrait of Vera Milenković, 1928, oil on canvas, 200x150 cm;
- Village in Bosnia, 1932, oil on canvas, 86x67 cm;
- Muslim burial ground, 1917, oil on canvas, 104x71 cm;
- Bosnian landscape with river, 1929, oil on canvas, 90x70 cm;
- Red mist, 1956, oil on panel, 91x78 cm;
- Old Belgrade, date unknown, oil on canvas, 98x78 cm;
- Tower with houses, 1932, oil on canvas, 86x74 cm;
- Village in Bosnia, 1932, oil on canvas, 88x75 cm;
- Still life, 1932, oil on canvas, 70x100 cm;
- Portrait of Vukoslava Bartoli, 1929, oil on canvas, 77x104 cm;
- Plitvice, 1960, oil on lessonite, 93x104;
- Portrait of Svetozar Marin, 1938/39, oil on canvas, 54x68 cm;
- Coastal scene, 1932, 78.8x95.5 cm;
- Jajce in Bosnia, 1930/31, oil on canvas, 124x110 cm;
- Landscape of Bosnia, 1939, oil on panel, 68x50 cm;
- Still life, date unknown, oil on canvas, 73x59 cm;
- Portrait of a woman, date unknown, oil on canvas, 42x78 cm;
- Café spit, date unknown, watercolour, 62x51 cm;
- Seated nude, date unknown, drawing, 61x83 cm,
- Portrait of a man, date unknown, drawing, 61x83cm.
Four (4) paintings by other artists from the collection:
- Vojo Dimitrijević, Portrait of Jovan Bijelić, 1957, oil on canvas, 68x84 cm;
- Pavle Vasić, Portrait of Jovan Bijelić, 1951, Indian ink on paper, 42x33 cm;
- Krunoslav Kern, Birthplace of Jovan Bijelić, 1978, watercolour, 65x53 cm;
- Predrag Goll, Birthplace of Jovan Bijelić, 1978, oil on canvas, 62x52 cm.
Collection of personal effects of academic painter Jovan Bijelić:
- Seating;
- Brass coffee set;
- Palette;
- Brushes;
- Kilim.
In 2002 the Art Gallery of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo contacted the Fine Art Gallery of Republika Srpska, now the Museum of Modern Art of Republika Srpska, requesting the return of three paintings by Jovan Bijelić (Landscape from Bosnia, oil on canvas, 1923, 64x82cm; Muslim burial ground, oil on canvas, 1917, 67x100 cm; Coastal scene, oil on canvas, 1932, 78.8x95.5 cm), which had been in the collection in Bosanski Petrovac since the exhibition in the late 1980s. The request to return the works of art was accompanied by documentation providing proof of ownership (photographs, accession details, a detailed description). The governing board of the Fine Art Gallery of Republika Srpska resolved, despite the extant receipt, to transport the paintings to the owners. The paintings were delivered to the Art Gallery in Sarajevo on 13 December 2002.
In late 2004 the Bosanski Petrovac Centre for Culture and Education, of which the Jovan Bijelić Memorial Museum is part, notified the Museum of Modern Art in Banja Luka that the Jovan Bijelić Memorial Museum was being “restored in both legal terms and material and technical terms,” and that it would soon be in a position to take over the collection of works of art and personal effects of Jovan Bijelić. On 30 August 2005, the tenth anniversary of their removal from the Museum, the collection of works of art by Jovan Bijelić was returned to Bosanski Petrovac (Labović-Marinković, 2005, 4).
2. Description of the property
Jovan Bijelić was born on 30 June 1884 in the hamlet of Revenik, village of Kolunići, near Bosanski Petrovac. He attended primary school in Petrovac and was then sent by his parents to Sarajevo to continue his education. There he attended grammar school and the school of applied arts, followed in 1906 by the art school of Jan Karel Jankovski. In 1908, with support from Prosvjeta, the Serbian educational and cultural society, he enrolled in the Art School in Cracow, from which he graduated in 1913. After spending some time visiting and furthering his education in Paris and Prague, he was appointed as assistant drawing master at the Great Grammer School in Bihać in 1915/16 (Tihić, 1972, 11- 39), remaining there for three school years. As well as teaching, he spent his time painting, mainly in oils on canvas, showing some of his works at an exhibition held in October 1917 in Sarajevo, and again in 1919 in Zagreb. His works were very well received at both exhibitions. Bijelić's Bihać period is usually regarded as a time when he was still seeking his own voice: the works he produced at this time are derivative, based on the knowledge he acquired while at art school – impressionism, secessionism, naturalism, Cézannism, expressionism and abstraction (Tihić, 1972, 40-43). His success at the Zagreb exhibition was the deciding factor in his being accepted for the post of stage designer in the National Theatre in Belgrade (Tihić, 1972, 40- 43). He came to Belgrade in November 1919, and remained there until his death on 12 March 1964.
In 1919- and 1920, Bijelić was producing “symbolic canvases without the customary themes and subjects, consciously attempting to blend Parisian aesthetic rationalism with German expressionism” (Protić, 1964, 7). Later, his painting turned into “a kind of museum-like realism” (Protić, 1972, 12). Typical works of this period are the Portraits of Milan Dedinac and Brane Ćosić, Girls with Books, a series of still lifes (of which the best-known is his 1927 Still Life in the Art Gallery of BiH in Sarajevo), and various nudes, such as that of the Grande Baigneuse of 1929 from the Pavle Beljanski collection. His pupil Đorđe Popović wrote of this period: “For a full ten years his approach would be the same. Throughout this time his palette remained unchanged. Zinc white, ivory black with its range of warm to cool tones, kraplak, vermilion-red, caput mortuum, raw sienna, burnt sienna(2), yellow ochre, cadmium yellow and cadmium orange, chrome green, Prussian blue and ultramarine. No new colour ever entered his palette. He avoided fully porous backings, because he liked his paintings to be luscious, with the shine of oil, and sometimes a rich impasto; the usual French style of matt paintings did not suit him.” (Tihić, 1972, 119- 160, Protić, 1972, 12).
Bjelić's work took a new turn in the 1930s, when he opted for pure colour and bold strokes. All changes thereafter would remain within this framework. Two paintings regarded as Bijelić's chefs-d'oeuvre, and indeed as masterpieces of Yugoslav art in general, date from this period: Bosnian Landscape, and Little Girl in a Pram, from 1933, which are in the Museum of Modern Art in Belgrade (Protić, 1972, 14). From this time, colour became Bijelić's principal means of expression (Tihić, 1972, 161-184).
Bijelić spent World War II in Belgrade, producing some fine works, the most suggestive of which is Dark Landscape from the collection in the Museum of Modern Art in Belgrade.
After 1950 there were some quite significant changes to his work, more of an aesthetic than a painterly nature, reflected in his attitude to weather and the object. He painted almost nothing other than landscapes with low horizons and stormy skies, occupying two-thirds of the canvas, using shades of red, yellow, blue and green. In these paintings the brush-strokes are forceful, swirling upwards, with the colour often bleeding. The actual subject disappears, leaving only an allusion to it and an eruption of colour (Tihić, 1972, 207-218). His earlier explosive tones of many colours yield to a palette of chocolate-brown, dark brown, grey and largely neutral tones.
In the mid 1950s, Bijelić lost his sight, regaining his sight in one eye after an operation in 1958. After this he created a cycle of smallish, wholly abstract canvases (Tihić, 1972, 79-82). His favourite subjects were Bosnian landscapes, but instead of the Bosnian hosues and villages of his earlier work, his canvases now featured “curiously shaped hills and mountains, characterized by an inner tension of mass, marked plasticity of forms, and a degree of geometrical values” (Tihić, 1972, 214).
Jovan Bijelić showed his works at many exhibitions, both in Yugoslavia and abroad. He was also noted for his teaching work, in which he passed on his know-how to Nikola Graovac, Đorđe Popović, Pavle Vasić, Aleksa Čelebonović, Danica Antić, Dušan Vlajić, Peđo Milosavljević and others. He designed the sets for several plays performed in the National Theatre in Belgrade. He also worked as an illustrator, and wrote a number of short stories.
The Una-Sana Canton Institute for the Protection of the Cultural Heritage in Bihać submitted to the Commission a proposal to designate the following works of art and personal effects of the academic painter Jovan Bijelić as a national monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina:
- Jovan Bijelić, Portrait of Vera Milenković, 1928, oil on canvas, 200x150 cm;
- Jovan Bijelić, Bosnian landscape with river, 1929, oil on canvas, 90x70 cm;
- Jovan Bijelić, Red mist, 1956, oil on panel, 91x78 cm;
- Jovan Bijelić, Old Belgrade, date unknown, oil on canvas, 98x78 cm;
- Jovan Bijelić, Tower with houses, 1932, oil on canvas, 86x74 cm;
- Jovan Bijelić, Village in Bosnia, 1932, oil on canvas, 88x75 cm;
- Jovan Bijelić, Portrait of Vukoslava Bartoli, 1929, oil on canvas, 77x104 cm;
- Jovan Bijelić, Plitvice, 1960, oil on panel, 93x104 cm;
- Jovan Bijelić, Portrait of the merchant Svetozar Marin, 1938/39, oil on canvas, 54x68 cm;
- Jovan Bijelić, Jajce in Bosnia, 1930/31, oil on canvas, 124x110 cm;
- Jovan Bijelić, Landscape of Bosnia, 1939, oil on panel, 68x50 cm;
- Jovan Bijelić, Still life, date unknown, oil on canvas, 73x59 cm;
- Jovan Bijelić, Portrait of a woman, date unknown, oil on canvas, 42x78;
- Jovan Bijelić, Café – spit, date unknown, watercolour, 62x51 cm;
- Jovan Bijelić, Seated nude, date unknown, drawing, pencil on paper, 61x83 cm;
- Jovan Bijelić, Portrait of a man, date unknown, drawing, pencil and charcoal on paper, 61x83 cm;
- Jovan Bijelić, Still life, 1932, oil on canvas, 70x100 cm;
- Jovan Bijelić, Muslim burial ground, 1917, oil on canvas,104x81 cm;
- Jovan Bijelić, Coastal scene, 1932, 78.8x95.5 cm,
- Jovan Bijelić, Landscape from Bosnia, oil on canvas, 88x85 cm;
- Vojislav Dimitrijević, Portrait of Jovan Bijelić, 1957, oil on canvas, 68x84 cm;
- Pavle Vasić, Portrait of Jovan Bijelić, 1951, Indian ink on paper, 42x23 cm;
- Krunoslav Kern, Birthplace of Jovan Bijelić, 1978, watercolour, 65x53 cm,
- Predrag Goll, Birthplace of Jovan Bijelić, 1978, oil on canvas, 62x52 cm.
The proposal thus covers 24 paintings and drawings, twenty the work of Jovan Bijelić himself and four by other artists. The documentation submitted states that three of the paintings (Bosnian Landscape with River, 1929, oil on canvas, 90x70; Red Mist, 1956, oil on panel, 91x78 cm; and Landscape from Bosnia, 1939, oil on panel, 68x50 cm) are being claimed by the Una-Sana Cantonal Museum in Bihać, and another three (Muslim burial ground, 1917, oil on canvas, 104x71 cm; Coastal scene, 1932, 78.8x95.5 cm; and Landscape from Bosnia, 1932, oil on canvas, 64x82 cm) are on loan from the Art Gallery of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo.
The Commission to Preserve National Monuments has written to the Una-Sana Cantonal Musuem in Bihać and the Art Gallery of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo to notify them of the application to designate the collection of works by Jovan Bijelić as a national monument and asking if they will agree for the works by the artist from their holdings to be designated as a national monument under the auspices of the Bosanski Petrovac Centre for Culture and Education.
A letter dated 6 January 2009, ref. 08-01/09, from the Una-Sana Cantonal Museum in Bihać states that they are not willing to have their three works by Jovan Bijelić (Bosnian Landscape with River, 1929, oil on canvas, 90x70; Red Mist, 1956, oil on panel, 91x78 cm; and Landscape from Bosnia, 1939, oil on panel, 68x50 cm) as a national monument under the auspices of the Bosanski Petrovac Centre for Culture and Education, and expresses the view that the works in question should be designated as a national monument under the auspices of the Art Collection of the Una-Sana Cantonal Museum. In a letter of 31 December 2008 they state that they are the owner of these three works by Jovan Bijelić, and that the Museum is drafting an application to designate the works by Jovan Bijelić in the Art Collection of the Una-Sana Museum in Bihać as a national monument (letter ref. 663-01/08 of 31 December 2008).
A letter dated 8 January 2009, ref. 01-5/2, from the Art Gallery of Bosnia and Herzegovina states that they signed an agreement with the Bosanski Petrovac Centre for Culture concerning the loan of three paintings by Jovan Bijelić Muslim burial ground, 1917, oil on canvas, 104x71 cm; Coastal scene, 1932, 78.8x95.5 cm; and Landscape from Bosnia, 1932, oil on canvas, 64x82 cm), the property of the Art Gallery of Bosnia and Herzegovina. When the agreement expired in early October 2007, they signed an annex to the agreement under the terms of which the works remain on loan to the Centre. They have stated that when the collection of paintings by Jovan Bijelić in the Bosanski Petrovac Centre for Education and Culture is designated, it should not include the works that are the property of the Art Gallery of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In the light of the views expressed by the Museum of Una-Sana Canton and the Art Gallery of Bosnia and Herzegovina set out in the above letters, the Commission to Preserve National Monuments rendered a decision to designate eighteen paintings from the collection in the Jovan Bijelić Memorial Museum in Bosanski Petrovac as a national monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina:
1. Portrait of Vera Milenković
Artist: Jovan Bijelić
Date: 1928
Technique: oil on canvas
Size: 200x150 cm
Signature: top left Bijelić (Cyrillic)
A girl in a violet skirt and grey-green, long-sleeved blouse is portrayed standing in a room, a short string of pearls around her neck and an open book in her hands. On a low chair to the left is a round earthenware dish of fruit. On the wall, top right, is a painting of a coastal scene. The painting is mainly in shades grey-green and brown, with touches of impasto (Tihić, 1972, 245)
2. Old Belgrade
Artist: Jovan Bijelić
Date: date unknown (1930s)
Technique: oil on canvas
Size: 98x78 cm
Signature: bottom right Bijelić (Cyrillic)
The foreground consists of a terracotta-coloured road from which a side road branches off in the middle of the picture, with along the roads a row of houses surrounded by greenery, one bearing a sign in Cyrillic – Inn. The background consists of dark green to almost brown hills with a stormy blue sky.
3. Tower with houses
Artist: Jovan Bijelić
Date: 1932
Technique: oil on canvas
Size: 86x74 cm
Signature: bottom left Bijelić (Cyrillic)
The centre of the painting is filled with a number of red-roofed houses with many windows. In the background, behind the houses, are two tall, square towers, and behind them a hill and a blue-grey sky.
4. Village in Bosnia
Artist: Jovan Bijelić
Date: 1932
Technique: oil on canvas
Size: 88x75 cm
Signature: bottom left Bijelić (Cyrillic)
A river is depicted running from the middle of the picture to the lower left corner, with a number of houses with jutties along its banks, set in lush meadows. The background consists of brown hills beneath a grey-blue sky.
5. Portrait of Vukoslava Bartoli
Artist: Jovan Bijelić
Date: 1929
Technique: oil on canvas
Size: 77x104 cm
Signature: top left Bijelić (Cyrillic)
A middle-aged woman in a short-sleeved whitish dress is portrayed sitting in an arm chair, hands in her lap, wearing an amber necklace. The background is neutral. The artist's attention was focused on achieving a physical likeness of the model. (Tihić, 1972, 247).
6. Plitvice
Artist: Jovan Bijelić
Date: 1960
Technique: oil on panel
Size: 93x104 cm
Signature: bottom right Bijelić (lat.)
A greyish-white lake from which water gushes in a great arc is set in a brownish-green mountain landscape. The sky is brownish-white with blue-grey shadows. (Tihić, 1972, 297).
7. Portrait of the merchant Svetozar Marin
Artist: Jovan Bijelić
Date: 1938/39
Technique: oil on canvas
Size: 54x68 cm
Signature: top left Bijelić (Cyrillic)
A middle-aged, dark-haired man with an imposing moustache is seated in a chair, wearing a whitish shirt and red tie, facing the observer. He is holding a bottle in his right hand and a glass of wine in his left. Behind him is the bust of a woman wearing a bluish blouse and a red scarf around her neck.
8. Jajce in Bosnia
Artist: Jovan Bijelić
Date: 1930/31
Technique: oil on canvas
Size: 124x110 cm
Signature: bottom right Bijelić (Cyrillic)
The top part of the painting shows the old Jajce fort under a swirling grey-blue sky, with numerous small houses. Below the town is the vertical of the Pliva waterfall.
9. Still life
Artist: Jovan Bijelić
Date: date unknown
Technique: oil on canvas
Size: 73x59 cm
Signature: bottom right Bijelić (Cyrillic)
A shallow white dish full of fruit, a glass and a tray with a watermelon and a banana stand on a dark table, against a neutral background.
10. Portrait of a woman
Artist: Jovan Bijelić
Date: date unknown
Technique: oil on canvas
Size: 42x78 cm
Signature: top right Bijelić (Cyrillic)
A youngish woman with short brown hair, wearing a blue blouse with a dull white and red patterned short-sleeve overshirt is seated in an armchair, arms folded, holding a ring. The background is neutral. The left of the painting is mainly blue – the arm of another person.
11. Café – spit
Artist: Jovan Bijelić
Date: date unknown
Technique: watercolour
Size: 62x51 cm
Signature: bottom right Bijelić (Cyrillic)
A number of low houses stand alongside a terracotta-coloured road. The house in the middle has a sign in Cyrillic – café, the spit is turning. A tall red chimney emerges from the window facing the street. To the left and right of the café are trees, and the background is soft green.
12. Seated nude
Artist: Jovan Bijelić
Date: date unknown
Technique: pencil drawing on paper
Size: 61x83 cm
Signature: bottom right Bijelić (Cyrillic)
A nude girl is seated on a chair in a room, her right hand in her lap and her head resting on her left arm, which resting on the back of the chair. Her left foot is resting on her right.
13. Portrait of a man
Artist: Jovan Bijelić
Date: date unknown
Technique: pencil and charcoal drawing on paper
Size: 61x83 cm
Signature: bottom right B. (Cyrillic)
A half-length portrait of a man with a moustache in profile, wearing a dark jacket, white shirt and tie.
14. Still life
Artist: Jovan Bijelić
Date: 1932
Technique: oil on canvas
Size: 70x100 cm
Signature: bottom centre Bijelić (Roman script)
A rectangular tray with a slice of watermelon and another of musk melon, together with a few grapes and an apple in the corners of the tray, is depicted on a dark table. Behind the tray is a tall round dish full of grapes on a pedestal. To the right of the tray is a bluish vase with a faded yellow flower, and next to it a white plate of fruit. The background is neutral – the left-hand corner depicting a whitish curtain with a red pattern, and the right-hand a shelf with a vase.
15. Portrait of Jovan Bijelić
Artist: Vojislav Dimitrijević(3) (1910-1981)
Date: 1957
Technique: oil on canvas
Size: 68x84 cm
Signature: bottom right D. Vojo (Roman script)
Half-length portrait of an elderly man in a brown suit, his hands crossed on a walking stick in the middle of the painting, and his head bent towards his hands and the stick, looking at the observer. The background of the painting is red with touches of blue.
16. Portrait of Jovan Bijelić
Artist: Pavle Vasić(4) (1903-1993)
Date: 1951
Technique: Indian ink on paper
Size: 42x23 cm
Signature: bottom right P Vasić 51 (Cyrillic)
Half-length portrait of a middle-aged man in a suit, shirt and tie, facing the observer.
17. Birthplace of Jovan Bijelić
Artist: Krunoslav Kern(5) (1935-1992)
Date: 1978
Technique: watercolour
Size: 65x53 cm
Signature: none
The painting depicts a single-storey white house with a gabled roof, surrounded by a wooden fence and set in an abundance of greenery.
18. Birthplace of Jovan Bijelić
Artist: Predrag Goll(6) (1931)
Date: 1978
Technique: oil on canvas
Size: 62x52 cm
Signature: none
The painting consists of a number of geometrical surfaces, each filled with varying shades of blue.
The collection of personal effects of academic painter Jovan Bijelić consists of the following items:
1. Kilim
Date: first half of the 20th century
Technique: weaving – klečanje
Material: wool (weft and warp)
Size: 200x300 cm
The kilim is rectangular, with white fringes at each end. Visually, it consists of two parts – the central section, and the border or ćenar.
The ground colour is red, and the pattern consists of five parallel interconnected wheel-and-star designs, the wheels in blue and red and the stars within them in white, claret and red.
The ground colour of the ćenar is black, with a turtle pattern in red, blue, light blue, off-white and petroleum green. The ćenar is separated from the central panel and the outer edge by a hook pattern, where the hooks are outlined in white.(7) The outer edges of the kilim are red.
2. Peškun stool
Technique: carving
Date: late 19th century
Size: 42.5x45 cm
Hexagonal stool, the top decorated with a rosette design from which tendril-like branchlets with leaves and flowers extend towards the edges of the stool, with blind arcades along the edges of the stood. The stool has six legs, between which is a carved apron. At mid point on the ledge is a lower shelf decorated with the same design as the top.
3. Peškun stool
Technique: carving
Date: late 19th century
Size: 425x45 cm
Hexagonal stool, the top decorated with a rosette design from which tendril-like branchlets with leaves and flowers extend towards the edges of the stool, with blind arcades along the edges of the stood. The stool has six legs, between which is a carved apron. At mid point on the ledge is a lower shelf decorated with the same design as the top.
4. Peškun stool
Technique: carving
Date: late 19th century
Size: 45x42.5 cm
Hexagonal stool, the top decorated with a rosette design from which tendril-like branchlets with leaves and flowers extend towards the edges of the stool, with blind arcades along the edges of the stood. The stool has six legs, between which is a carved apron. At mid point on the ledge is a lower shelf decorated with the same design as the top.
5. Peškun stool
Technique: carving
Date: late 19th century
Size: 72x63 cm
Hexagonal stool, the top decorated with a rosette design from which tendril-like branchlets with leaves, flowers and bunches of grapes extend towards the edges of the stool, with blind arcades along the edges of the stood. The stool has six legs, between which is a carved apron. At mid point on the ledge is a lower shelf decorated with the same design as the top.
6. Coffee set
Date: first half of the 20th century
a) tray
Technique: embossing, nickle-plating
Material: copper
Size: 20 cm
The tray is round, with a curved rim, and is embossed with a design of two mosques.
b) Two fildžan (handle-less coffee-cups, finjan) holders
Technique: embossing, nickle-plating
Materijal: copper
Size: 56x68 mm
The fildžan holders have slightly curved rims. The surface is covered with embossed lines.
c) Sugar bowl
Technique: embossing, nickle-plating
Material: copper
Size: 6.8x5.6 cm
The sugar bowl consists of a round bowl and conical lid topped by a star and crescent moon. The surface of the sugar bowl is covered with embossed lines and dots.
d) Coffee pot
Technique: embossing, nickle-plating
Material: copper
Size: 12.3x5.8 cm
The coffee pot is pear-shaped, with a curved spout and a handle, to which a lid is attached, topped by a star and crescent moon. The surface of the coffee pot is decorated with embossed motifs of two circles and zigzag lines.
7. Radio
Type of radio: Tesla 57B, apparatus no. 03
Year of manufacture: 1957
Manufacturer: Nikola Tesla Radio Industry Belgrade
The radio is in the shape of a rectangular wooden box, with four tuning, wave-band and volume-control dials, one of which is missing, in front at the bottom. The loudspeaker, in the shape of an inverted trapeze, is also on the front, with the station display panel below it.
8. An artist's palette, with 17 brushes.
3. Legal status to date
The collection of works of art and personal effects of Jovan Bijelić of Bosanski Petrovac has not previously enjoyed protected status.
4. Current condition of the property
The Jovan Bijelić Memorial Museum in Bosanski Petrovac is part of the Bosanski Petrovac Centre for Culture and Education. The collection of paintings is housed on the ground floor of the Museum at no. 111 Bosanska street. The adaptation of the building was completed in the summer of 2005, and the collection of paintings and personal effects of Jovan Bijelić is accordingly housed in suitable conditions.
III – CONCLUSION
Applying the Criteria for the adoption of a decision on proclaiming an item of property a national monument (Official Gazette of BiH nos. 33/02 and 15/03), the Commission has enacted the Decision cited above.
The Decision was based on the following criteria:
A. Time frame
B. Historical value
C. Artistic and aesthetic value
C.i. quality of workmanship
C.iv. composition
C.v. value of details
D. Clarity
D.ii. evidence of historical change
D.iii. work of a major artist or builder
D.iv. evidence of a particular type, style or regional manner
E. Symbolic value
E.v. significance for the identity of a group of people
G. Authenticity
G.i. form and design
G.vi. spirit and feeling
H. Rarity and representativity
H.ii. outstanding work of art or architecture
The following documents form an integral part of this Decision:
- documentation from the Bosanski Petrovac Centre for Culture and Education and the Bihać Regional Museum,
The documentation annexed to the Decision is public and available for view by interested persons on written request to the Commission to Preserve National Monuments of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Bibliography
During the procedure to designate the collection of works of art and personal effects of Jovan Bijelić in Bosanski Petrovac as a national monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina the following works were consulted:
1963. Bratislava Vladić Krstić, “Tekstilna ornamentika zapadne Bosne” (Textile Ornamentation of Western Bosnia), Jnl of the National Museum in Sarajevo, NS vol. XVIII, Saraejevo, 1963, 133-144.
1968. Miodrag B. Protić, Jovan Bijelić, Museum of Modern Art, Belgrade, Belgrade, 1968.
1972. Miodrag B. Protić, “Jovan Bijelić”, in: Nada Miljković (ed.): Srpski slikari i vajari XIX i XX veka (19th and 20th century Serbian Painters and Sculptors), Belgrade, Jugoslavija Publishing House, 1972.
1972. Boško Latinović, Branka Raunig, Smail Tihić, Jovan Bijelić, in: Branka Raunig (ed.), Bosanski Petrovac Town Council and Bihać Regional Museum, 1972.
1972. Smail Tihić, Jovan Bijelić, in: Jelena Čehić (ed..), Cultural Heritage Series, Sarajevo, Veselin Masleša, 1972.
1978. Bratislava Vladić Krstić, “Ćilimarstvo u Bosni i Hercegovini” (Kilim-Making in BiH), Jnl of the National Museum in Sarajevo, NS vol. XXXII/1977, Sarajevo, 1978, 225-296,
2005. Exhibition catalogue: Zbirka Spomen muzeja Jovan Bijelić Bosanski Petrovac (The Collection of the Jovan Bijelić Memorial Museum in Bosanski Petrovac), Museum of Modern Art of Republika Srpska, for the publisher: Ljiljana Labović Marinković, Banja Luka, 2005.
2007. Exhibition poster: Spomen muzej Jovana Bijelića Bosanski Petrovac (The Jovan Bijelić Memorial Museum in Bosanski Petrovac), Bosanski Petrovac, Centre for Culture and Education, 2007.
12.01.2009. http://www.galerijakrug.ba/enciklopedija?start=4
12.01.2009. http://www.madlart.com/artists/?id=696
12.01.2009. http://www.galerijabalen.net/cr/artists/predraggol.htm
(1) ed. Lj. Labović Marinković, Zbirka spomen-muzeja Jovan Bijelić Bosanski Petrovac, Banja Luka, 2005, 2.
(2) Translator’s note: Or possibly raw umber and burnt umber, since both umber and sienna are clay earth pigments. The word in the original is “zemlja”, meaning simply “earth.”
(3) Born 1910 in Sarajevo, where he died in 1981. Graduated from state art school in Belgrade and then visited André Lot’s studio in Paris. He was involved in founding the Collegium artisticum, the Artists’ Society of BiH and the Fine Arts School in Sarajevo, where he worked as principal and professor. He was a full member of the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Bosnia and Herzegovina
(from: http://www.galerijakrug.ba/enciklopedija?start=4, 12 January 2009)
(4) Pavle Vasić was born in Niš in 1907. After graduating from Law School in Belgrade, he studied, graduated in, and gained his doctorate in the history of art. He trained as an artist at Art School in Belgrade (1922-1924) and in Jovan Bijelić’s studio (1926-1929). He was briefly an assistant at the National Museum in Belgrade. After spending the war years in captivity, he became a grammar school teacher and then taught at the Academy of Applied Arts and the Department of Art History of the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade, and the Art Academy in Novi Sad. From 1930 to his death he also worked as an art critic. He was one of the leading theoreticians, researchers and connoisseurs of modern Serbian art, and the author of some 30 books and more than 3,000 articles, studies, forewords and reviews of exhibitions. He also gave many notable lectures at home and a few abroad. As an artist he is noteworthy for his many watercolours. (from: http://www.madlart.com/artists/?id=696 12 January 2009)
(5) Krunoslav Kern was born in Slavonski Brod in 1935. He graduated in art from the School of Pedagogy in Rijeka. He joined the Croatian Artists' Society in 1969, and died in Slavonski Brod in 1992.
(6) Predrag Goll was born in Pisarovina in Croatian on 15 October 1931. He graduated from the Fine Arts Academy of Zagreb under Prof. Đuro Tiljak in 1956, and gained his post-graduate degree under Prof. Antun Mezdjić. (from: http://www.galerijabalen.net/cr/artists/predraggol.htm 12 January 2009)
(7) The presence of a woven line (known as vežena in the Petrovac region) around the hook motif is typical of Petrovac carpet-making.
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