Graphics - Reaching a human with a line

The graphics in the art of Mića Popović originate from drawings. Colour, volume and substance stay in a picture, but the line, that necessary element of a drawing “coloured” the graphics of Mića Popović. The framework of his complete opus are people who were felt, observed and thought by the artistic being of Mića Popović. By painting, he was crossing the borders which some artists did not dare, but by drawings he achieved to immortalize any human being, anywhere and at any moment of that small, but only one life. He was drawing the familiar and unknown, sad, happy, worried, rebellious, young, aged, poor, sleepy and with wide open eyes- but always people.

„When one faces a great number of the drawings of Mića Popović, which were being drawn during the fifty long painter’s years, he feels a little bit discouraged in front of that energy of sight (and seeing) which conquers the world as the part of his own experience, not only as the sum of objective visual facts. To this painter, a drawing is a process of arranging painting experience in a specific visual system and repertoire of forms, relations of forms and space, forms and lines, forms and stain, forms and light, in order to finally “stop” on the form of human figure and its inner world. A drawing, then, according to him, is not only a lexical structure which will be transformed and woven into some future piece of visual art, but the way of discovering the world and the attitude of the world to the essence of a work of art“¹.

The unquestionable connection between a drawing and a graphic as two media is almost the genetic one and it is completely obvious in the graphics of Mića Popović.

The map with the graphics “People” contains ten graphics of Mića Popović made in the techniques of deep print (engraving). 70 copies have been printed, of which ten was numbered in Roman figures from I to X and 60 in Arabic numerals from 1 to 60. The number of this map is 18. It was published in 1985. Especially for this occasion the text was written by Vanja Kraut.

The map with the graphics “Mexico” contains ten serigraphies of Mića Popović. It was printed in 104 copies, of which 20 are with the mark EA and Roman numerals from I to XX and the others are in Arabic numerals from 1 to 4. The number of this map is EA VI. It was published in 1986. The text for this occasion was written by Jovan Ćirilov.

The maps with the graphics “People” and Mexico” are the part of the legacy at the Permanent Exhibition of the Paintings of Mića Popović and Vera Božičković Popović in Loznica.

Marina Cvetanović,
art historian

¹Mića Popović: Drawings, edited by Sreto Bošnjak, 1994, p.5.

Mexico

This map contains ten serigraphies of Mića Popović from the cycle „Mexico“and a specially written text for this occasion by Jovan Ćirilov.
The map was printed in 104 copies of which 20 is with the mark EA and the Roman numerals fro I to XX, 80 with Arabic numerals from 1 to 80 and 4, for the participants in this project, with the mark NS, and Arabic numerals from 1 to 4.
Realization: Zoran Božović; printed by: Milan Grbić; box: Bookbinder’s Petković.
The number of this map is: EA VI.
Belgrade, 1986

On the following link you can read the text "Mexico seen with the eyes of Mića Popović" by Jovan Ćirilov.

People

This map contains ten graphics of Mića Popović done in the techiques of deep print and the text of Vanja Kraut especially written for this occasion. Seventy copies of this map were printed, of which ten have been numbered in Roman figures from I to X and sixty in Arabic numerals from 1 to 60.
The graphics were printed on the paper Velin arches blanc 200 g/m2.
Idea and realization: Zoran Božović; print: Jakov Đuričić.
The number of this map is 18.
Belgrade, 1985.

On the following link you can read the text "People" by Vanja Kraut.