At the beginning of September, a valuable donation arrived at the Regional Museum from France: six paintings by Ilija Ika Vukićević created during the seventies of the last century and one of his portraits from 1965, the work of the famous naive artist from Oparić, Janko Brašić. These paintings were donated to the museum by Nastassia Vukićević Sénal, the daughter of Ika’s brother Mihajlo.
Ilija Vukićević (1934–1992) is one of the most significant figures of artistic life and culture in Jagodina in the second half of the 20th century. He studied history and archeology at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade, but he loved painting and practiced it for three and a half decades. He exhibited regularly in the country and abroad until 1985, when his last exhibition was held in our museum. He is one of the founders and first members of the city’s Fine Artists Club. In the period from 1963 to 1974, he was employed at the Regional Museum of Jagodina, where he worked in various jobs. He was a conservator and documentarian in the Archaeological Department, he was also engaged in pedagogical activities, and from October 1965 to the end of June 1966, he was appointed acting director of the Regional Museum. He also collaborated with Radio Svetozarevo, where he prepared programs with topics related to the city’s history and culture, as well as with the local newspaper “Novi put” where he also tried his hand as a cartoonist.
In the yard of the family house in Ružice Milanović Street he built a studio that became a gathering place for the most prominent figures of cultural life in Jagodina. In this studio, many young artists received their first lessons in painting.
Ika was an interesting personality, and his friends called him “the good spirit of Jagodina”. He was also an avid mountaineer, interested in speleology, and had a collection of spiders. He died in Jagodina in 1992.
In the collection of the Regional Museum of Jagodina there are 14 paintings by Ilija Vukićević, and this donation will significantly enrich our fund.
It is interesting that the Vukićević family has been closely connected with our institution for generations. Ika’s uncle Dušan Vukićević was the first director of the Museum, through whose efforts the Regional Museum was formed. Ika was not only an employee of the Museum, but on his initiative the work of our museum was renewed in 1963, after it had stopped working a little earlier. Nenad Vukićević laid the foundations and launched the work of the Museum in the virtual world, because thanks to his support, the Regional Museum has its own website. With this precious gift, Nastassia Vukićević significantly contributes to the enlargement of the Collection of Paintings. We use this opportunity to express our great gratitude to her once again.
