Bequest of Milenko Šerban
Milenko Šerban was born in
Čerević in 1907. He belonged to the generation of artists which
contributed to the formation of modern Serbian and Yugoslav art in
1920s and 1930s. He studied painting at the Colarosi Academy and he was
the
pupil of Andre Lothe in Paris.
He was holding one man exhibitions since 1926. He was the member of
artistic groups "Oblik" and "Šestorica" (The Six). His
retrospective exhibitions were held in Belgrade in 1966, 1974 and 1997,
Novi Sad in 1968 and 1997, Sremska Mitrovica
in 1974.
Although in post-WW II period his painting had a moderate intimist
tone, his early opus was characterized by the expressionist and
colouristic tendentions. Later he enters vigorously and powerfully into
almost abstract areas. The bequest of Milenko Šerban comprises a
representative selection of 35 works (oil on canvas, pastel):
portraits, still lives, landscapes from Vojvodina and vedutas of
Belgrade -
traditional motives through which Šerban provided his work a
great deal of autonomy.
He also jumped into new pictorial solutions and enriched the poetics of the seen with personal impulses. With his early paintings, especially with the landscapes from Srem and Fruška Gora, and with the series of expressive portraits, Milenko Šerban set high norms of expression.
Milenko Šerban was a great erudite, who contributed
creatively to different segments of art and culture - painting,
scenography, costume, pedagogic work. As a scenographer, he was among
the first who aimed to modernize the scenography, accepting the
contemporary artistic practice. The bequest of Milenko Šerban
includes also the collection of his friends and contemporaries' works
and the collection of
applied art.
The collection of 18 paintings and sculptures comprises works of Šerban's friends and contemporaries: Nadežda Petrović, Zora Petrović, Petar Lubarda, Milo Milunović, Stojan Aralica, Marko Čelebonović, Milan Konjović, Ivan Tabaković, Nedeljko Gvozdenović, Ivan Radović, Peđa Milosavljević, Milivoj Nikolajević, Krsto Hegedušić, Petar Dobrović, Sreten Stojanović and Mihailo Tomić.
This unique document about the artistic and cultural currents in this region during the pre- and post-WW II periods represents a significant study collection.
Collection of applied art consists of 7 items: furniture, carpet, tableware, dating from 17th to 19th century. The items would make a representative part of each museum or private collection.
Milenko Šerban was a curator and a director of the Matica
Srpska Museum in Novi Sad, a prominent scenographer of Serbian National
Theatre and National Theatre of the Danube Banovina in Novi Sad, and
also of the Yugoslav Drama Theatre
in Belgrade; a professor at the Applied Arts Academy and Academy for
Theatre, Movie, Radio and Television in Belgrade.
He died in Belgrade in 1979.