| I used to be a conceptualist, but I abandoned this form of expression during my studies. This decision was influenced primarily on the weight of the authority of my professor, Mladen Srbinović, who, for his part, was even unaware of the course I had taken. Gradually, through his courses he introduced me to a much richer world by revealing to me the beauty and inherent difficulties of purist painting. With time, I came to appreciate that this was something much more substantive and complex and that I felt cramped by the confines of conceptualism. That made me abandon it, albeit not quite – to this day I make use of some of its experiences, but I combine them with purist painting. The only thing was that after my studies came “the years that the locusts ate”, as Pekić would say. To secure an existence I taught at schools and for years did design work for printers. |
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After almost 20 years of this parallel work, I succeeded in letting go of this and devoted myself completely to painting. I am often asked if it is possible to live from art alone. You can see that it is possible. I don’t have a separate 140-metres-square studio, but work in a children’s room that I ‘usurped’. I have no great demands, but then again – I do have my freedom. I am not dependent on gallerists, buyers, politicians, or some sponsor.
As I converse with painter Vladimir Dunjić (1957, Čačak), in his little room/studio in a remarkably finely arranged New Belgrade apartment scrupulously adorned with his works, I notice that precision and measure is the virtue of this unusual artist. Subtle in his response to the outside world, Dunjić lucidly reveals its virtues and faults, transforming them into a certain representationality that invariably carries a ‘Dunjić-like recognisability’ whether in its critical or affirmative stance. One of the dominant points of this recognisability has evolved through the artist turning towards man, who constitutes the centre of the universe, where good and evil come together and/or fall out.
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In certain works, Dunjić relied on the Renaissance, above all on Flemish masters. In these works, it is as if Van Eyck’s characteristic The Arnolfini Portrait or A Man in a Turban (with half-drawn eyelids and lips pressed together) assumed a modern, reduced expression and the ability to transform into a series of potentially different characters.
His later works evince a certain influence from Japanese woodblock prints – again in more modern and reduced form. Particular symbols, followed by metaphors, gentle reverie and other elements have afforded Dunjić a highly accomplished representational harmonisation in which he frequently links ancient times with the present moment. |
– Admittedly, I was never inspired by the old masters in a way that could make me believe I could approach them – says Dunjić. – This is because they are artists of such stature that no contemporary artist could hope to attain their level. But the extent of freedom that modern art has achieved is much greater than ever before. In my view, the happiest synthesis would be combining parts of the traditional and the modern. In other words, I subscribe to an approach that adopts some of the experiences of earlier masters to express life, feelings and the character of modern man. It would be absurd for me to try to interpret in painting a man from Van Eyck’s time. But I have discovered that I can best express some of the dread extant in the modern world, some of its inarticulateness and alienation through the elements and techniques of the artist of the Renaissance. It is by these means, in my view, that I can most directly affect modern man – to point out for him the finer things or to emphasise faults such as consumerism, which is one of the direst diseases of today…
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I look at a Dunjić canvas before me on a wall – a symbolic representation of man in which is inherent all those hundreds of thousands of people opting for war, devastation and pestilence in the modern world. Man is represented only as a gray jacket with a necktie and shirt. The applications on the jacket on gray-painted soldiers and other attributes of war (Chinese toys) become visible only when approaching the canvas. The compositional arrangement of the painting, as well as in some others executed in more recent years, seems to be derived from the experience of modern-day photographers, fi lm directors and, above all, billboard designs. By applying a minimum of composition means, Dunjić has achieved a maximum in terms of story-telling, as well as in lightning effect by imposing both the question and the answer.
– The painting represents a warlord – explains Dunjić. – This is because war is today in the service of business. Warlords are dressed like businessmen. This particular painting is a magnified detail from my work called Service.
Dunjić goes on to explain that his work Pandora’s Box, currently adorning one of the walls of his workplace, was his manner of reckoning with those 20 years that the locusts ate, when he did odd jobs to ensure his existence. This work, consisting of 19 connected (or unconnected) images, as the painter sets out, hangs in the studio as an icon and a constant reminder.
– The painting Service also preceded Pandora’s Box. The painting, in a manner of speaking, progressed to assume new sections. With this 20-piece work, I paid tribute to Kafka (his portrait is painted on one of the sections). Unfortunately, Service is no longer in my studio despite my wishes – I was unable to defend it. It is now in Venezuela. This is why I painted Pandora’s Box – a new story with an identical structure. Its contents warn that we need not be part of a system that we find unsuitable. There is always something else we can do to avoid participating in something undesirable. The example in this respect is Porodica Bistrih Potoka (The Family of the Clear Streams). They have shown that there is a way to be found, that it is possible to retain one’s freedom, that we need not accept...
| – But a critical approach to contemporary society in a global sense is but one of my themes – continues Dunjić. – Others have to do with more subtle and delicate forms of life, and for them I find inspiration in women, cats, plants, flowers and butterflies. When I was younger, my interests were far broader. At the time, I walked several paths. But, as man feels he has increasingly less time left in this world, he tries to drive certain points home. For this reason, I deliberately narrowed my field of action. I have a mind to do the paintings in a concentrated form. This is invited by the difficulties inherent to the human eye. These paintings are only outwardly portraits that we perceive. In fact, I want to have these eyes from the portrait watch us. I also watch myself with these eyes. |
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I want to affect that kind of altered perception for introspection in which one can perceive things, events, people and feelings, more pure than when looking at them from without.
Although he says he works slowly, Dunjić has thus far painted in excess of 400 works form several cycles. He has had nearly 20 individual exhibitions and participated in numerous collective events, both at home and abroad. Also, he has received a number of recognitions for his work.
In late summer of 2007, Dunjić is preoccupied with work on his monograph as a designer and preparing the painting called Eurydice for an exhibition that will pay tribute to Gustave Moreau. The idea for the exhibition came from painter Ljuba Popović, a rallying point for a number of painters.
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