LAZAR VOZAREVIĆ: “ICONISATION” OF THE MODERN PAINTING
LAZAR VOZAREVIĆ: “ICONISATION” OF THE MODERN PAINTING

Summary/Abstract: The history of modern art chronicles several examples of the reinterpretation and incorporation of elements of medieval visual culture into the works of Serbian authors who were active in the latter half of the 20th century. This discourse includes paintings by Lazar Vozarević (1925–1968), an artist who made a significant contribution to the emancipation of formal-linguistic aspects and elaboration of the structure of modern painting, taking inspiration from the iconography, morphology and metaphysical substance of the icons and frescos from the Middle Ages. The focus of the analysis presented in this article is on Vozarević’s creative process of “iconisation” of the modern painting, i.e. the implementation of trans-semiotic referencing, with elements of inclusion of historical templates in figurative and abstract works created between 1955 and 1968. Special attention is given to symbolic characteristics of nonEuclidean space, amorphous matter, geometric form, mystical light, and pure colour, which gave Vozarević’s Art Informel and Post-Art-Informel works a sublime character and the aura of a modern icon. These are non-traditionalist interpretations, paraphrases of mediaeval icons/ frescoes that articulate contemporary artistic speech and anticipate the creative method immanent to the postmodern epoch.

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