JNA 2, 26204 Opovo
The Jovan Popović Gallery was built in 1970, according to the project of architects Spasoje Krunić and Milorad Berbakov. It was named after a prominent 19th century painter, Jovan Popović (1810–1864), born in Opovo.
The gallery was officially opened in December 1970, with an exhibition of Jovan Popović’s paintings organized in cooperation with the National Museum of Belgrade. The interest of the general public, but also cultural workers and artists in this event was huge. The ceremony was also attended by the painter Petar Lubarda (1907-1974), who had a solo exhibition at the Olga Petrov Culture Centre only a year before. Architects Spasoje Krunić and Milorad Berbakov, as well as their professor, architect Bogdan Bogdanović, also attended the exhibition and the official opening of the gallery. The exhibition was opened by the gallery manager Velibor Stefanović together with the art critic Nikola Kusovac. On that occasion, the monograph of the painter Jovan Popović was presented as the first publishing endeavor of the gallery.
Shortly after the opening, the gallery organized exhibitions by Ivan Meštović (1971), Uroš Knežević (1972), Pavel Đurković (1972), Zoran Petrović (1973), Arsenije Petrović (1974), Đuro Jakšić (1982), Milan Konjović (1990) and many others. For decades, the gallery has successfully cooperated with numerous cultural institutions, such as the National Museum in Belgrade and the Matica Srpska Gallery in Novi Sad, the Contemporary Gallery in Pančevo, the National Museum in Pančevo, the City Museum in Vršac, the Contemporary Gallery in Zrenjanin, the Museum of African Art Belgrade and many others.
The building is located in the immediate vicinity of the Orthodox Church of St. Nicholas and the Elementary School Dositej Obradović. The building was positioned farther away in relation to the street and oriented in the northwest-southeast direction, which made it possible to see the church in the background when entering and exiting the gallery, so the gallery building communicates with it on an aesthetic level. With the central axis, from the main entrance to the exit, the compositional assembly of the gallery is divided into two symmetrical segments, resembling the Vojvodina-type houses in immediate surroundings. ( Đorđe Alfirović, Ekspresionizam u srpskoj arhitekturi, OrionArt, Beograd, 2016, str.110.)
The most significant works in the gallery’s collection are the two paintings by the artist after whom the gallery was named – Priest’s Wife from Vršac and Portrait of an Unknown Citizen, both in the permanent exhibition space. In the park in front of the gallery, there is a bust of Jovan Popović, whose author is the Serbian painter Olja Ivanjicki (1931–2009), while the bronze relief at the main entrance to the gallery was made by Ivan Grabovac.
Web site: https://onbopovo.org.rs/galerija-jovan-popovic/
Photos from Jovan Popović Gallery archive; authors: Čeda Vučković and Mario Leone Bralić
