Janko Brašić ( sr-Cyrl, Јанко Брашић; Oparić, January 1, 1906 – June 15, 1994) was a Serbian

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

. He is considered to be one of the foremost contributors to the

naïve art Naïve art is usually defined as visual art that is created by a person who lacks the formal education and training that a professional artist undergoes (in anatomy, art history, technique, perspective, ways of seeing). When this aesthetic is ...

genre, with a worldwide reputation.

Biography

Brašić was born in 1906 in Oparić near

Jagodina Jagodina ( sr-cyrl, Јагодина, ) is a List of cities in Serbia, city and the administrative center of the Pomoravlje District in central Serbia. It is situated on the banks of the Belica (river), Belica River, in the geographical region of � ...

. He began painting in 1927, but his earliest dated works are from 1933 (

drawing Drawing is a Visual arts, visual art that uses an instrument to mark paper or another two-dimensional surface, or a digital representation of such. Traditionally, the instruments used to make a drawing include pencils, crayons, and ink pens, some ...

s and

self-portrait Self-portraits are Portrait painting, portraits artists make of themselves. Although self-portraits have been made since the earliest times, the practice of self-portraiture only gaining momentum in the Early Renaissance in the mid-15th century ...

in oil). He is considered as the founder of the Serbian naïve art. He died in his birth village of Oparić in 1994, where he lived and worked all his life.Н. Крстић, ''Завичајни хроничари'', in Наивна уметност у Србији, САНУ, Београд - МНМУ, Јагодина, 2003; 126

About himself

"I made my self-portrait as a testimony so that my fellow-countrymen would stay calm. If I painted someone else they could accuse me of the lack of resemblance since I got the picture and the man whose portrait I had made wouldn't be there for them to see him immediately. Well, this is how it was!… It was easy for me to make the portrait of myself … I looked at myself in the mirror and that's how I painted."''Vreme'', May 15, 1935

Artistic style

As a chronicler of his time, he managed for a moment to check the passing of the old and patriarchal way of life, preserving the fluid of the past time. Rustic, elemental realism is his way of maintaining the primeval contact with his environment. Void completely of professional routine, his painting makes a harsh, sonorous impression. In a review of his work, an art critic wrote: "The development of Serbian naive art officially starts with the work of Janko Brašić. His earliest works (

portrait A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face is always predominant. In arts, a portrait may be represented as half body and even full body. If the subject in full body better r ...

s) date from 1933. Rustic elementary realism is his way of expressing primordial relations with his surroundings. Lacking professional routine his paintings seem bitter and sounding. Scenes are mainly presented in a rural landscape; they possess bright colorization, without explicitly expressed focus. However, the most expressive are his psychological portraits. With almost six decades of fruitful work Janko Brašić will remain the symbol of naïve art in Serbia and Oparić will be widely famous as his homeland...".

Exhibitions and awards

His first group exhibition was organized in 1935 by th
Association of Serbian Artists
in the Cvijeta Zuzorić Art Pavilion in Belgrade. It was an exhibition of portraits, in which Brašić exhibited a portrait of King Peter II and a self-portrait in oil. Besides scenes from rural life, historical myths and anecdotes – portraits dominate in Brašić's opus. The greatest collection of his paintings is a
Museum of Naïve and Marginal Art (MNMA)
Jagodina, Serbia.

Gallery

Brašić Janko, Sedeljka.jpg, ''Gathering'', 1959, oil on canvas, 75x100 cm, MNMA, Jagodina Brašić Janko, Portret ćerke.jpg, ''Portrait of Daughter'', 1939, oil on canvas, 66x41 cm, MNMA, Jagodina Brašić Janko, Kosovski boj.jpg, ''Battle of Kosovo'', 1970–71, oil on canvas, 205x415 cm, MNMA, Jagodina

References

Literature

* М. Бошковић; М. Маширевић, ''Самоуки ликовни уметници у Србији'', Торино, 1977 * Н. Крстић, ''Наивна уметност у Србији'', САНУ, Београд - МНМУ, Јагодина, 2003

External links

Janko Brašić - Museum of Naïve and Marginal Art, Jagodina, Serbia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brasic, Janko Naïve painters 20th-century Serbian painters 1906 births 1994 deaths Serbian male painters 20th-century Serbian male artists