Forgotten Idols X

'Forgotten Idols X' by Katarina Dordevic, Acrylic on Canvas Painting

This 39.37" x 27.55" acrylic on canvas painting by Katarina Dordevic examines the possibilities of presenting an idea with the limited use of visual elements and figuration in the visual field. Therefore, an open interpretation area is created, in which the observer's attention can switch from the impossibility to personalize the subject to the desire to humanize the context. The relationship between motif and object in the painting brings up to the question of the involvement of literary and mythological sources and division into essential emotions and visual articulation of the idea. An adequate answer, as a literature form, can be found in the authentic form of a myth, which was transmitted orally from one generation to another. Each narrator would gauge the best ways to reach the listeners by adding or subtracting parts. The lack of a specific, strictly set form has contributed to topic variations, alternations, modifications, and ultimately to compression of the content to universal values. Myth creates generalized meanings by establishing the bridge between past and future. Structural duality in a myth is based on the typology of characters, motifs, plot of a story and impossibility of precise definition, chronological disposition and visual formatting. The similarity of contents, sameness of the objects or participation of the main character in different situations allows the transfer of meaning trough isolated segments which possess the integrity and the autonomy, and may be organized into concept.

Glimpses of the distant stars and the Moon enclosed by the tumultuous clouds in a foreboding of rain are the reflection on the circle of life. Symbolical blue color of the drawings on the painting illustrates water that gives us life and soak up droughty fields. The idols in the center of the composition, created as linear shapes, are metaphors of hope, fear and happiness in uncertain anticipation of new crops to grow. The main idea is about the harmonious coexistence and balance between human and nature, and furthermore, it refers to equilibrium between our inner and outer psychological space.

'Forgotten Idols X' has been exhibited across Serbia, Turkey, Bulgaria, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Katarina Dordevic is a painter, printmaker and full time professor of painting, born in Nis, Serbia, where she currently lives. She graduated and post graduated from the University of Arts in Belgrade (MFA in Painting, 1994) and she is currently undertaking a Fine Arts Doctorate at the same university. Katarina has an academic career spanning more than 18 years at the University of Nis in Serbia and she has been artist-in-residence and guest lecturer in fine arts at the Fundación Valparaiso in Spain, the 33officinacreativa Foundation in Italy, the Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen in UK, the University of Veliko Tarnovo in Bulgaria and the Akdeniz University in Turkey.
Her works has been exhibited in a number of solo and group exhibitions throughout Europe and Asia and her paintings, drawings and printmaking are included into public and private collections. She has received various awards for the artistic achievements in Serbia, Canada and Czech Republic.
Katarina’s creative practice takes the form of paintings, drawings, printmaking and objects. The experience gathered during numerous travelling to various countries and places has been huge source of inspiration for her artwork, which pointed out some similarities between cultures, traditions, people, faiths, and differences, as well. Nature phenomena, reflection of light, atmosphere of local places and patina with which the archaeological remnants are covered influenced her art, therefore vibrant, rich textures outspread compositions of her paintings. She constructs intimate, private and personal interior from the elements of the world heritage and myth narratives and puts it in the contemporary context, emphasizing its universal symbolic potential.