Radomir Damnjanović Damnjan

Radomir Damnjanović Damnjan (Serbian Cyrillic: Радомир Дамњановић Дамњан, Mostar, 10 December 1935) is a Serbian painter and conceptual artist. He lives and works in Milan and Belgrade.

Biography

He graduated on the Academy of Fine Arts in Belgrade in 1957, a post-graduate studies 1959. First time he exhibiting in Belgrade in 1958, and in numerous group exhibitions at home and abroad take part from 1959. He exhibited in The Documents in Kassel (1964), biennials in São Paulo (1963), Venice (1966, 1976), Tokyo (1967) and Bratislava (1968). As a Fulbright scholar was in Los Angeles and New York in 1971-1972. From 1974 he had lived in Milan.

Art

Damnjan deals with painting, drawing, graphics, photography, film, video and performance. During the sixties, early in his career, Damnjan the painter symbolic, abstract and minimal features. Since the seventies he used to the new media - video, photography and performance, while the painting closer to its analytical stream. At the turn of the ninth decade of the last century, the theme turns Damnjan 'still life' and '(self)portraits' which implements a floor or wall installations painted in the spirit of postmodern citation as 'new pointillism'.

Solo exhibitions (selection)

• 1958 Graphic Collective Gallery, Belgrade
• 1962 Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade, Studio G, Salon Wider, Zagreb
• 1966 Gallery of Contemporary Art, Zagreb
• 1967 Obere Zaun Galerie, Zurich
• 1968 Galerie im Zimmertheater, Tübingen
• 1969 Small Gallery, Ljubljana
• 1970 Salon at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Skopje, Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade, Gallery of Contemporary Art, Zagreb
• 1973 Gallery of Student Cultural Center, Belgrade
• 1974 Student Centre Gallery, Zagreb, Studio Carla Ortelli, Milan
• 1975 Multhipla Galleria, Milano, Museum of Contemporary umetnosi, Belgrade
• 1976 Galleria Stefanon, Lecco
• 1977 Studio 16/e, Turin, Galleria Civica, Modena, Galleria Performing Arts Center, Genova, Gallery Nova, Zagreb
• 1978 Pilot Galleria, Milan
• 1979 Gastaldello Galleria, Milan, Kunsthalle, Tübingen
• 1981 Gallery of Contemporary Art, Zagreb
• 1982 Art Gallery, Milan
• 1985 Galerie Ingrid Dacić, Tübingen
• 1986 Museum of Contemporary Art, Retrospective Exhibition, Belgrade
• 1987 Modern Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Skopje
• 1992 Gallery kulurnog Student Center, Belgrade
• 1996 Fondanzione balls, Milan
• 1997 Art Pavilion Cvijeta Zuzoric, Belgrade, Center for Visual Culture, Novi Sad
• 1999 Galerie Peter Lindner, Vienna
• 2006 Federico Bianchi Contemporary Art, Lecco

Actions

• 1965 Overflowing of the river Sava, Belgrade
• 1974 Free artwork, The Gallery of Student Cultural Center, Belgrade, Disinformation, Cinema Balkans, Zagreb
• 1989 Flame Pyramid, Stazione di Lambro, Milan, Pyramid of cabbage, Esplanade Hotel, room 321, Zagreb
• 1993 Natura morta, Fondazione Mudima, Milan
• 1995 The Great Pyramid of cabbage, Anker House Gallery, Belgrade

Performances

• 1973 The man from the newspaper or the ability to communicate, 12 min. Gallery of Student Cultural Center, Belgrade
• 1975 Identity - the destruction of books, Marx, Hegel and the Bible, 25 min. Trigon '75, Graz
• 1976 Dinner with Terry Doxey from London, 30 min. Gallery of Student Cultural Center, Belgrade
• 1978 From labor to creative work, 25 min, Gallery of Student Cultural Center, Belgrade, from labor to creative work, 30 min. Gallery of Contemporary Art, Zagreb
• 1979 From labor to creativity (version II), 30 min. Gallery of Student Cultural Center, Belgrade, Dal Lavoro allacreatività, 25 min. Studio 16/e, Torino
• 1982 Grande natura morta, 25 min. Il Festival Internazionale d'Arte Video, Locarno, From Work to creativeness, The 4th Biennial of Sydney, Vision in Disbelief, Sydney
• 1986 Large Still Life, April meetings, Gallery of Student Cultural Center, Belgrade
• 1996 Chattanooga Choo Choo and the United Belgrade Still Life, Die Weise stadt, Museum Moderne Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna
• 1997 Record of a portrait - Ješa Denegri, Gallery Zvono, Belgrade

Movies

• 1973 The man from the newspaper, 8 mm, b/w, 3 min.
• 1974 Bandiera, super 8 mm, color, sound, 11 min., Per il Futuro, Super 8 mm, color, 10 min.

Video

• 1975 Identity - the destruction of the books of Marx, Hegel and the Bible, b/w, 20 min. PAL, sound, Trigon '75, Graz
• 1976 Daily ritual of coffee drinking, 30 min, b/w, 3/4 inches, PAL, sound, Reading the same text, b/w, 20 min, 3/4 inches, PAL, sound, Reading Marx, Hegel and the Bible in the light of a matches, b/w, 30 min, 3/4 inches, PAL, sound, Spot in space or position of individuals in society, b/w, 30 min, 3/4 inches, PAL, sound, Tübingen
• 1977 Movement as a general need, 26 min, b/w, 3/4 inches, PAL, sound, Revolution as a game of minorities, 17 min, b/w, PAL, sound, Tübingen
• 1982 Great still life, 25 min, color, 3/4 inches, PAL, sound, Locarno
• 1983 Metaphysical Duchamp, Video D.C. 83, Ljubljana

Books (selection)

• Gillo Dorfles, Ultima Tendenze nell'arte d'oggi, Feltrinelli, Milan, 1973, p. 149
• Achille Bonito Oliva, Europe - America, The different Avantgardes, Decco Press, Milan, 1976, p. 126
• Gillo Dorfles, La body art, l'arte moderna, Fratelli Fabbri, Milan, 1977, p. 225
• Ješa Denegri, 10 Years Autumn Styring, Paul Kaufman, Graz, 1978, p. 171
• Radomir Damnjan, Niente di nello spirito superfluo, Edition Dacić, Tübingen, 1978
• Rafel Tous and Giner, Metronome, Libres d'Artista/Artist's Books, Berlin, Barcelona, 1981, p. 194

Awards

• 1963 Award 'Wanda Svevo', 7th Biennial in São Paulo, São Paulo
• 1968 Awards on International Biennial 'Danubius '68', Bratislava
• 1981 Award Il Festival di arte video, Arte Video in Europa, Locarno

Sources

• Documentation of the Museum of Contemporary art, Belgrade
• Radomir Damnjanović Damnjan, monograph, Collection Vujičić, Belgrade, 2010 ISBN 978-86-87869-03-5