Why the spirit of the place?

It would be very hard to find in the whole of Serbia
a place more glorious and among the people more respected than the monastery of Studenica, the famous endowment of the Nemanjic dynasty, over nine centuries old, built under the Radocelo, above the river Studenica, with the Church of Virgin Mary and King's Church,
dominant belfry and residential quarters. It is located
in one of the most beautiful natural ambiences, in days begone a deserted hunting ground of wild beasts, now
a space of irresistible freshness and stimulation, crisscrossing of genuine natural beauties and spiritual mindfulness.

Although this place, according to a close and well-known tradition, for over three decades has hosted several art colonies, especially in the organization of tourist agencies of the city of Kraljevo, this new enterprise of Mr. Cvorovic has been conceived as an initial, symbolic project, with the intention of having such séances and artists' gatherings visit all major places in Serbia, particularly those where tradition and nature, sacral and profane characteristics have reached a very high level of harmonization.

On the lessons of enormous number of original art colonies, from those well in their fourth and fifth generations, such as the famous artists' fraternities
at the end of 19th and at the beginning of 20th centuries, to those official ones, under the sponsorship of local municipalities and state institutions, and finally to those based on private initiative, there are now quite free art colonies, the inception of which has formed the foundation of this art workshop, including among its participants
a considerable number of genuine veterans, who while young artists were participants of the few colonies established almost half a century ago, especially in Vojvodina. Among those artists it is worth mentioning
such renowned names as Olivera Grbic, who by the broadness of her concept and painterly qualities ranks among the best landscape painters we have of poetic realism, Desa Kerecki, with her minute, subtle and fairytale-like light visions, Aleksandar Lukovic, a master
of figural irony and grotesque, author of endless series
of scenes and views like clown performances. Here is one of the most inventive artists in our contemporary art, Branko Miljus, a painter, draftsmen, and graphic printmaker, who incorporated a most luxurious plastic and esthetic substance into the world of symbols and signs; Slavoljub Cvorovic, inventive graphic printmaker and painter of refined sensibility or Mario Djikovic, a visionary
of new figurations and powerful symbolic turbulence and post-modern coagulations; Ljubica Mrkalj, an exceptional new-wave realist, world personage and poetess; the inventive and gifted Jasna Nikolic, with dense drawing
and plastic imaginative agglomerations; and finally representatives of the youngest generations, such as Tatjana Tomic and Marko Antonovic.
The collection and range of so conceived workshop is certainly completed by the very sensitive, coloristically convincing artists such as Ana Marija Dragojevic,
Stanislava Puzigaca, and Beba Suvajdzic, which is
the best illustration of unpredictable outcome of direct
or indirect occasions for inspiration by this venerable
"spirit of the place".

Dusan Djokic