Moderna gallery

The Modern Gallery was founded in 1961 in Titograd (Podgorica) and since its inception, its purpose has been to collect, preserve, and present works of artistic value. It operated independently until 1974 when it became part of the Public Institution Museums and Galleries. 

The works preserved in the Modern Gallery are realized using various materials and techniques – oil on canvas, pastel, watercolor, graphics, drawings, sculptures in bronze, stone, wood, gypsum, as well as new materials, and more. The collection of the Modern Gallery, as documented since 1963, includes works that best illustrate the genesis of visual arts during the 20th–21st century in Montenegro, from realism to new trends in abstract and associative, as well as contemporary art. Some of them are anthology achievements, significant not only for Montenegrin but also for the art of the entire former Yugoslav region to which they belonged. The gallery houses works by eminent authors of Yugoslav visual arts, such as Petar Lubarda, Milo Milunović, Jovan Zonjić, Branko Filipović Filo, Dado Đurić, Vojo Stanić, Stevan Luketić, Ivo Šulentić, Božidar Jakac, Lazar Vozarević, Maksim Sedej, Bogumil Karlavaris, Luka Tomanović, Drago Đurović, and others. 

… pod linkom opširnije

In the post-war period, characterized by organized efforts to improve culture and visual arts and their institutional direction, with the establishment of the Middle School of Arts in Cetinje in 1945, the Association of Visual Artists of Montenegro in 1947, and the Art Gallery in Cetinje in 1952, – the Modern Gallery in Titograd was founded in 1961. Throughout its decades of activity, during which prominent artists exhibited their works, it followed the development of contemporary visual art.

The collection of the Modern Gallery represents visual art from the first half of the 20th century with several works by artists educated in Belgrade and other European centers (Rome, Vienna, Prague, Paris), who embraced contemporary influences in their artistic expression: expressionism, secessionism, poetic realism, intimism, and social art. Authors from this period include, besides I. Šobajić, P. Poček, and S. Bocarić (who were educated in the spirit of academic realism during the Principality of Montenegro), M. Milunović, P. Lubarda, J. Zonjić, M. Vušković, M. Vukotić, and S. Vujović. 

The collection of the Modern Gallery is mostly comprised of works created in the second half of the 20th century, characterized by the pluralism of artistic poetics – from existing, more classical, to abstract, associative, and metaphysical-oneiric painting (B. Filipović Filo, G. Berkuljan, A. Prijić, M. Božović, M. Đuranović, Đ. Pravilović, M. Dado Đurić, and others). Authors of this generation adopted new, specific ways of expression. In this regard, in 1984, the first installation was performed in the Modern Gallery as a new type of visual art. Exploring within the domain of visual arts, new generations of artists further expand the boundaries of their interests, themes, materials, and techniques.