The Art of Sava Sekulić - Learn by Yourself
Draw and Write with a Stone in Your Hand
Life for Sava Sekulić was a constant barrage of personal tragedy worsened by societal calamity. Despite two World Wars, political instability, poverty and homelessness Sekulić managed to survive, while maintaining a drive to create that never faltered. His intuitive understanding of the human condition in our ever-changing world resonated with both the post-war critics who first recognized his talent as well as contemporary viewers. Ultimately, he left us with a body of work that is compelling, both visually and psychologically.
Born in the rural Croatian[i] village of Bilisani in 1902, Sekulić belonged to a generation destined for hardship. The region was poor, and even basic education was a luxury beyond the reach of most families. Despite these challenges, young Sava enjoyed a stable, albeit threadbare childhood in a naturally beautiful environment untouched by economic development. In the absence of formal schooling Sava’s father taught his children the importance of self-reliance, encouraging them to, “Learn by yourself, draw and write with a stone in your hand.”
In 1912 Sava’s life changed dramatically with the death of his father. His mother quickly remarried and sent him and his older sister to live with relatives. Soon WWI broke out and fifteen-year-old Sava was conscripted into the army, soon becoming a casualty of war. This young man who, unbeknownst even to himself, would one day become an internationally known artist, had lost an eye.
Disabled war veterans were a common sight throughout the newly created Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Benefits were few and Sava, who was still adapting to his injury, was left to take whatever job he could find. Wandering throughout Croatia and Serbia working odd jobs until reaching Belgrade, where he finally found steady work and settled down. Although married in 1924, his happiness didn’t last after both his first child and wife died allegedly due to complications in childbirth
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In 1932, at the age of thirty and alone, Sekulić taught himself to read. His newfound literacy led to a greater understanding and appreciation of poetry – in both reading and writing it. Sekulić also began to illustrate his poems. While best remembered for his artwork, many of his paintings have poetic text written on the back which, if carefully interpreted, may enhance our understanding of his otherwise enigmatic artwork[ii]. Proud of being self-educated, Sekulić signed his paintings "CCC" which stands for Sava Sekulić Samuk. "Samuk" translates to “alone” which can also be interpreted as “self-taught”.
Throughout periods of personal hardship - poverty and the social upheaval of WW2, Sekulić remained consistently creative; painting and writing poems and plays. According to some accounts, Sekulić aspired to public recognition as both a visual artist and a writer. The degree to which this is true is difficult to determine. Diaries, if kept, no longer exist. Nor does any written correspondence. Many of his paintings and poems were destroyed during WWII or lost as he frequently moved during the post-war years. It’s not surprising that he remained completely anonymous until the 1960s, given the limited opportunities for artists at this time.
As Yugoslavia recovered from WWII, many people abandoned their impoverished countryside villages hoping to find employment in urban areas. To accommodate this migration, scores of large apartment complexes were built in accordance with a socialist model of urban planning, including community centers where people could meet as they once had in the village squares and churches of the past. This artificial means of creating a sense of belonging didn’t always work (many of the large new urban apartment complexes were inherently alienating concrete brutalist structures which fostered isolation and anonymity). Fortunately for Sava, this period of urban reconstruction and development provided unexpected opportunities. Finally having a stable living situation, he was able to join a local artists’ group and attend adult art classes. At last his creations were publicly displayed, albeit initially only at a local community center in the Serbian town of Jagodina.[iii]
In 1969 Sava’s life took a dramatic turn when his work was discovered by Katarina Jovanovic, who directed the local adult education center. She gave him his first solo exhibition and brought Sekulić to the attention of curators at a local museum of naïve art. At the age of 67, Sava finally gained professional recognition and with Katerina Jovanovic’s encouragement he began devoting all his time to painting and poetry. By the mid-1970s his work was featured in major galleries in Yugoslavia and by 1985, he was shown in German for the first time at the Munich Galerie Charlotte, which specializes in naïve art, art brut and outsider art.
Decades after his death in 1989, Sava Sekulić’s work continues to intrigue. Historical “portraits” such as Matija Gubec[iv] transformed conventional heroes into hybrids - part man, part animal - icons from his own fantasy world. Similarly, Sekulić morphed his Queen Bajavitovica into a cross between a pagan swan goddess and an icon of the Virgin Mary. Patterns are drawn from sources as diverse and the folk art of his village childhood to the hard-edged brutalist architecture of Yugoslavia’s post-war era. Contrasts abound in Sekulić’s work - in his 1970 painting Fortschritt (Progress) he simultaneously references space exploration and rural life using pattern and form. The foundational importance of nature is emphasized in This Being Feeds the Whole World (1979) and even more directly in Hirsch-City (1989) in which a giant beast supports box-like modern buildings.
Inspired by nature, mythology, and history, Sekulić’s singular imagination enabled him to mix visual metaphors freely.
i] At the time of Sekuic’s birth Croatia was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, specifically within the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia.
[ii] Very little information is available regarding Sekulic’s poetry.
[iii] From 1946 to 1992 the town was renamed Svetozarevo (Serbian Cyrillic: Светозарево, [sʋetozǎːreʋo]) after the 19th-century Serbian socialist Svetozar Marković.
[iv] Gubec was a Croatian revolutionary, and a leader of the Croatian–Slovene Peasant Revolt of 1573