Svetog Save 5, 22240 Šid
The Museum of Naïve Art – Ilijanum Sid was founded in 1971 as a legacy of self-taught painter from Šid, Ilija Bašičević Bosilj with the aim of “…improving and developing art culture, systematically collecting, preserving and organizing the artworks of Ilija Bašičević – Bosilj and the works of other naive artists painters and their presentation through permanent and occasional exhibitions…”.
Ilija Bašičević Bosilj was born in Šid, in a farming family. After completing three grades of elementary school, he devoted most of his life to farming. He started painting in 1957 at the age of 62. Ilija exhibited his works for the first time in 1962 as part of a group exhibition, and for the first time independently in 1963. Thanks to numerous performances, he was quickly recognized as one of the most original phenomena in the world of the then Yugoslav naive. Unfortunately, the inability of the profession and the public to accept the fact that an uneducated and artistically unrealized man for so long can create such authentic works, as well as the vanity of certain experts in Yugoslav art at the time, resulted in a unique situation in the history of art: Ilija Bašičević Bosilj had to proves the authorship of his works before the state commission in Zagreb in 1965. At the Third Triennial of Naive Art in Bratislava in 1972, Ilija was posthumously awarded the recognition of the international jury for achievements in the field of naïve art. In 2007, the prestigious British magazine Raw Vision ranked Bosilj among the world’s fifty most important self-taught artists.
The art collection of the museum today consists of 287 paintings by Ilija Bašičević Bosilje and 50 works by other famous naive and self-taught artists, namely: Germain van der Steen, Ivan Vecenaj, Ivan Generalic, Josip Generalić, Fridrich Gerlach, Franz Klekawka, Mijo Kovacic, Tivadar Kosut, Djordje Kreca, Salom Safed Moskowitz, Vangel Naumovski, Leonardus Neerwoort, Nikifor, Gertude O’Brady, Ivan Rabuzin, Milan Rasic, Manfred Sobl, Martin Sirocic, Matija Skurjeni, Emerik Fejes, Franjo Filipovic, Jean Fous, Pieter Hagoort, Pal Homonai, P. Schepers and Ondrej Steberl. The museum is open to visitors every working day from 8 am to 6 pm, on Saturdays and holidays from 10 am to 4 pm, and on Sundays for announced group visits (more than 10 people) from 10 am to 4 pm.
Web site: https://www.muzejilijanum.rs/
Facebook page: https://sr-rs.facebook.com/mnu.ilijanum/
Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/muzej_ilijanum/
