Mića Popović

Auto-portrait


Brčko Railway - Banovići


Mića Popović is one of the most distinguished, controversial and popular figures in contemporary Serbian art.
As a painter, he is best known for his informel period (1958-1968) and his "Scenes Painting". Among the Scenes Paintings, the most famous may be "May 1, 1985," which memorialized events surrounding an alleged attack on a farmer in Kosovo named Đorđe Martinović.

He also made several films in the 1960s, two of which ("The man from the oak wood" and "Brave men") were banned by the government for their unacceptable content.

In both his work and his life, he managed to reconcile rebellion and protest with a humanist tolerance and deep respect for the values of the past.
His works offer some of the sharpest social criticism of the shortcomings of the Yugoslav social system and its failure to live up to its promises. The criticism springs from his passionate patriotism and his desire to be involved, as an artist, in the destiny of his people: 'I have never submitted unreservedly to anything but the truth... It is the artists's duty to disturb the public.'

Mića Popović was elected a regular member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts in 1986.