Worlds

VLADIMIR VOJVODIĆ, MASTER OF POETIC REALISM AND CLASSICALLY COMPREHENDED PAINTING
Hails Distant and Concealed
They are not skillfully analyzed photographs, painting nature from memory, or searching for a stronghold in the common idea of mimesis. They are purely artistic solutions, brought almost to abstraction. Like chamber music or poetry, these paintings awake the deepest in a human, introduce us to the higher circles of existence, they recuperate and renew. Because the artist is an alchemist, a wizard, a mediator between worlds and knower of secrets

By: Dejan Đorić

Watching the paintings of Vladimir Vojvodić, an observer can see, feel and know what painting really is. His works are expressions of mindfulness, mastering the craft, passion, being in love with painting he discovered in his youth. As concise definitions of what painting can and should (even today) be, they lead into a spiritual adventure, a return to painting at the time many have deserted it.
Similar to old masters, he is a painter who knows how to paint. Like Chardin, he can create an artistically provocative sight from anything: a painting with its complex elements and features. Although to an inexpert observer his oils on canvas might seem as skillfully analyzed photographs of landscapes or painting nature from memory, they are purely artistic solutions, brought almost to abstraction. Vojvodić studies color, light, space, composition, local tone, shadow and details in presentations which bring the observer the joy of painting in the easiest way.

EXAGGERATION IS AN EXPRESSION OF helplessness

Sharp and smooth at the same time, this kind of painting provokes emotions and caresses the senses. The world of grasses, meadows, flowers, bushes, trees, forest glades and paths, cherry orchards and shadowed sky, breathes with scents and sounds of nature, both distant and concealed ones. His paintings are simple and universal as far as the art of painting landscape allows it, general places with hidden atmospheres, densities and characters.
Painter Milo Milunović considered all exaggerations in art an expression of helplessness. In that sense, Vojvodić discovered a measure in creating, an ideal spiritual distance from the painting corresponding to the closeness to nature. Like chamber music or poetry, his works provoke the personal and the deepest within the observer: memories, dreams, anticipation, joy, sorrow… Can and may we ask for more from art?
With the works of Vladimir Vojvodić we discover the truth of painting – celebration and calmness of the spirit, meditation and contemplation.

REALISM WITH THE CHARACTER OF INITIATION

Theoretically capable of explaining his work, the painter does not find a stronghold in the common idea of mimesis, presenting reality, verism or transferring the real into two-dimensional. Like unique triggers of the conscious and subconscious, energy worlds open up in his illuminated canvases, vibrations hidden in nature are visualized, and an everyday sight brings the observer to exultation. Strong natural pulsations, the spirit of the place, scents, sounds, colors and energies flowing between the earth and the sky, which the artist speaks about, enter the painting opening the senses. His realism has a character of initiation, the painter has an intention to initiate the inner within a human, and some owners of his oils say that they have a recuperating effect on them. They relax the eyes and the soul. A painting is healing; it has always been such, because the artist is a sorcerer, mediator between worlds and knower of secrets.
Vojvodić could not concentrate his vitamin for the eyes and the soul without renewing the best painting elements. ”Without the need to consult theory of art or style, using only raw sensitivity and ability to create an illusion on the canvas using color, I attempt to find the right measure of the density of information that can reach the observer’s mind”, explains the painter and bases his approach to art. ”I don’t want to change the world. I try to influence the observer’s perception of the world.”
Unlike anyone in our environment, perhaps even Europe, Vojvodić based his painting on mastering the craft, without any compulsion, improvisation and experimenting. Able, (self)reliable and valuable, he is a personality who is returning the faith into the ancient meaning of artistic creation.

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International Recognitions and Awards
Vladimir Vojvodić was born on November 9, 1958 in Šabac, where he graduated from the gymnasium. He studied painting and graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrade (1979-1985). From 1985 to 1995, he researched different techniques and mediums, participated at many solo and group exhibitions, international biennales in the country and abroad, and numerous art colonies. His landscapes, as well as still-lives, portraits and graphics, brought him international recognition and five awards. His works are included in more than a hundred collections in the country and abroad. He has a continuous cooperation with reputable Dutch and American gallery owners and has been presented in the book Reality of Art. Introduction to Studying Realism (Belgrade, 2009).
As an exceptional poetic realist and one of the best new masters of classically comprehended painting, he surpassed the limits of his environment and became internationally recognized.