Slobodan "Braco" Dimitrijević (born 18 June 1948) is a former Yugoslav and French conceptual artist. His works deal mainly with history and the individual's place in it. He lives and works in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

since 1980s. He has exhibited internationally since the 1970s, including at the

Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the UK ...

in 1985. He has participated in

documenta Documenta (often stylized documenta) is an Art exhibition, exhibition of contemporary art which takes place every five years in Kassel, Germany. Documenta was founded by artist, teacher and curator Arnold Bode in 1955 as part of the Bundesgarte ...

(1972, 1977 and 1992) and the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...

(1976, 1982, 1990, 1993 and 2009). His works are held in the collection of the

, MoMA

Museum of Modern Art New York The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, and includes over 200,000 works of arc ...

, and that of the

Centre Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the (), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English and colloquially as Beaubourg, is a building complex in Paris, France. It was designed in the style of high-tech architecture by the architectural team of ...

, among others.

Early life and work

Braco Dimitrijević was born on 18 June 1948 in

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ), ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'' is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 2 ...

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina, sometimes known as Bosnia-Herzegovina and informally as Bosnia, is a country in Southeast Europe. Situated on the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula, it borders Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the southeast, and Croatia to th ...

, FPR Yugoslavia. His father was the painter Vojo Dimitrijević, one of the most famous modern artists in Yugoslavia. He was named Slobodan after his father's friend who saved his life, a war hero Slobodan Princip. He started painting at the age of 5 and was featured in a TV show entitled ''Filmske Novosti'' (Film News) in 1957. His first conceptual work dates back to 1963. He went on to study at Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, from which he graduated in 1971. He then studied at

Saint Martin's School of Art Saint Martin's School of Art was an art school, art college in London, England. It offered foundation and degree level courses. It was established in 1854, initially under the aegis of the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields. Saint Martin's beca ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

from 1971 to 1973. In 1976, he wrote ''Tractatus Post Historicus'', which formed the theoretical basis of his early work.

Casual Passers-by

In the 1970s, Dimitrijevic gained attention when he began his ''Casual Passer-by'' series. The work features very big close-up photographic portraits of everyday people that were hung on buildings and billboard in different cities in Europe and America. He then went on to produce memorial plaques in honour of other people that he met. About the one he made for the

Lucio Amelio Lucio Amelio (13 September 1931 – 2 July 1994) was an Italian art dealer, curator, and actor. For decades he contributed to make Naples an international art centre encouraging the dialogue between European and American contemporary arts. Bio ...

's "Terrae Motus" collection he said: "I Stopped the first man i saw in the street, explained to him what my work was and then asked him to be the model for the foto".

Animals

His work from the 1980s which joined animals and works of art would go on to become an exhibition in 1998 at the Paris Zoo that was visited by over a million people.

New work

His ''Triptychos Post Historicus'' installations feature paintings by old or modern masters in conjunction with everyday objects and fruits/vegetables. More than 500 of these installations exist. Controversy arose when a man who visited the exhibition at the Tate realized that the paintings in question were not copies but the originals and reported this to

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

who then wrote about it.

Autobiography

In 2023, he released his autobiography: "Louvre is my atelier, the street is my museum" published by "Fraktura" Zagreb."Intervju: Braco Dimitrijević"
Danas.rs, 26.9.2023.

References

External links

Braco Dimitrijević

Galerie TORRI

artfacts entry
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Dimitrijevic, Braco 1948 births Yugoslav expatriates in France Living people Contemporary artists Yugoslav artists Artists from Sarajevo Alumni of Saint Martin's School of Art Bosnia and Herzegovina painters 21st-century Bosnia and Herzegovina artists