The Constellation of Olja Ivanjicki

 

            Olja Ivanjicki, a sculptor, a painter, a poet, a multimedia artist and a visionary. She was an architect and fashion designer, and one of the founding members of MEDIALA art group, a famous art association created in Serbia in the 1950’s. Olja, one of the greatest names of Serbian art passed away on June 24th, 2009.

            In life, Olja admired continuity and permanence above all other things. She used to say that she was not striving for success but for eternalness.

            The art opus of Olja Ivanjicki shows her ability to unite elements like astronauts and Renaissance, Russians and Americans, myths and Hollywood stars, interplanetary quests and pop humor, earthlings and extraterrestrials, and show them together in a great chronology of time and continuity.

            She used to say that art is about thinking, noting and recording contemporary life. A true philosopher is the one who sees further, advises, concludes and classifies.

            Seeing further than most, Olja used to amuse herself by thinking up names of new constellations, like Eve’s rib and Adam’s knee Constellation, Lemur’s Constellation, Atlantis Code and many others. Through her work Olja Ivanjicki created a brand new kind of constellation that brought together Jean Cocteau, Andre Malraux, Andre Gide, Paul Valery, Leonardo da Vinci, Nicolas Poussin and many others. She too belonged to this stellar company, and with her contemplative and creative character she brought astral dust into our lives and became a part of universal infinity.

            Those fortunate enough to have known Olja Ivanjicki understand what a unique experience it was just talking to her. She had a gift of making us believe. We owe her our faith in Miracles, and in Art as a form of salvation for the mankind.

            In her honor and her being universal as the law, her name and work will illuminate The Way for those that have eyes to see and ears to hear – Olga Olja Ivanjicki, a Russian soul, a cosmopolitan spirit, a heroine and a beauty, a philosopher and a prophet, universal mind and a cosmic beam sent to mankind, to God and Angels to whom in the end she trusted the decision of her final departure, the Relocation of her soul.

 

Olga Olja Ivanjicki Foundation

Suzana Spasic

 

 

Olga Olja Ivanjicki, painter, sculptor, poet, multimedia artist

 

            Olja Ivanjicki was born in Pancevo (Serbia) as the only daughter of Russian emigrants Vasily Vasilenko Ivanjicki and Veronica Michailovna Piotrovska. Upon receiving her Master of Arts degree at the Belgrade University, she received a grant from the Ford Foundation to study Arts in the United States. She was also a Fulbright Artist in Residence at the Rhode Island School of Design.

            In recognition of her art, Olja Ivanjicki received “the Best Painter of the Twentieth Century” award; the “July 7th” award and “Vukova” award for Lifetime Achievement in Yugoslavia. She became an International Woman of the Year (IBC Cambridge 1995), she was placed among the “first 500 leaders of the world”(ABI, USA 1998); “first 2000 Intellectuals of the World” (IBC Cambridge 1999); “Exceptional Individuals of the 20th Century” (IBC Cambridge 2000) and among “Leading live legends of the world in 2001” also by IBC Cambridge. She was one of the founders of Niš Art Foundation for young artists, and she helped establish „Mediala Art” Salon in 2006, as well as Olga Olja Ivanjicki Foundation in 2007.

            Olja Ivanjicki held over ninety individual exhibitions and took a part in more than thousand group exhibitions. She was the artist who first brought Pop Art to Belgrade. Paintings and sculptures of Olja Ivanjicki are parts of numerous museum and private collections, worldwide.

            Olja Ivanjicki was a member of the Serbian Artists Association and one of the founders of the legendary group MEDIALA that gathered young painters, writers, philosophers, and composers eager to further their art and knowledge. Together they created nothing less than a 20th century art movement.  

            From 2003 to 2005, Olja Ivanjicki took a new direction and made several architectural projects, for the new WTC site in New York; for the new Belgrade Bridge over Danube; she took part in Peugeot Design Contest, making a unique vision for a futuristic automobile; she worked on fashion shows and designed costumes for Die Fledermaus (The Bat), operetta by Johann Strauss II.

 

Olga Olja Ivanjicki died in Belgrade, on June 24th, 2009.