Virtual Gallery of the Regional Museum of Jagodina
Author of the exhibition: Jasmina Trajkov
In memoriam: Ljubodrag Janković - Jale (1932–2022)
Ljubodrag Janković – Jale was born in Pirot in 1932. His father Radomir was a factory worker in Jagodina, and mother Ružica was a housewife. He finished elementary school and four grades of the lower Grammar school with a graduation in Jagodina, his hometown.
From 1947 to 1951, he attended the High School of Applied Arts (graphics department) in the class of Professor Mihajlo S. Petrov. Then, in 1954, he graduated from the Academy of Applied Arts (painting department) in the class of Professor Vinko Grdan.
Until 1968, he dealt with various disciplines in the field of applied art, and as an illustrator he collaborated with several publishing houses. In 1962, he was elected an assistant at the Department of Applied Painting at the Academy of Applied Arts in Belgrade, and five years later he was elected assistant professor (on the subject of the Evening Nude).
He became a member of The Applied Artists and Designers Association of Serbia (ULUPUDS) in 1957, and from 1961 he was a member of The Association of Fine Artists of Serbia (ULUS). In addition to a series of solo exhibitions, he participated in many collective exhibitions in the country and abroad.
He taught as a full professor (on the subject of Act) at the Faculty of Applied Arts in Belgrade until his retirement in 1997.
He died in Belgrade, on June 9, 2022.
Ljubodrag Janković Jale, a prominent Serbian painter and professor at the Faculty of Applied Arts in Belgrade, passed away in Belgrade on June 9, 2022. Jagodina was his homeland, where he received his first lessons in painting and where he became interested in fine arts. Supported by his teacher Ljubiša Petrović and Vojin Veličković Vojkan, art pedagogue, professor at the Gymnasium, he went to school in Belgrade. After graduating, he became a lecturer at the Academy of Applied Arts. He was engaged in oil painting as well as graphics, drawing, sculpture, and occasionally worked as an illustrator in several publishing houses. He has won numerous awards.
He has been exhibiting regularly since 1957. He organized his first solo exhibition, out of about forty in total, in 1962 at the ULUS Gallery in Belgrade. He has participated in more than 150 group exhibitions in the country and abroad, presenting himself in Zagreb, Sarajevo, Skopje, Barcelona, Lima, New York, Paris, Beijing, Moscow, etc. He organized a large retrospective exhibition organized by the “Plavo” Foundation in the Art Pavilion “Cvijeta Zuzorić” in 2018. He has not forgotten his homeland, so he organized five solo exhibitions in Jagodina. He first exhibited in the Museum of Naive Art in 1974, in the Regional Museum in 1986, in 1998 in the Center for Culture, and again in the Regional Museum in 2008, and also in 2021, which was one of Jale’s last independent exhibitions.
His works are kept in the National Museum of Serbia, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade, the Museum of the City of Belgrade, the Military Museum and all important museum and gallery spaces in Serbia, as well as private collections in the country and abroad. Twelve works by this prominent artist are kept in the collection of our museum: four oils, six drawings and two graphics. Most are a gift from the artist himself.
In memory of Ljubodrag Janković Jale, with whom it has always been a great pleasure and honor to cooperate, expressing our great respect, we have prepared a virtual exhibition where we presented his works from the fund of the Regional Museum of Jagodina.
