Dusan Jevtovic has been painting since 1956. In the last 45 years he created a wide artistic opus and he is placed among the most important naive artists of the world.

EXHIBITIONS

His work has been presented at the most representative Yugoslav exhibitions in the country and abroad (Salons and biennials of naive art in Jagodina, Munich 1968, Rome and Tokio 1971, Paris and London 1973, Vienna 1985…), as well as at some important international exhibitions (Lugano 1969, Naivi ´70, ´73 and ´77). He is also a participant in numerous art colonies in Strumica, Trebinje, Solatar, Karlovac, Sanski Most, Jagodina…

A REVIEW OF HIS WORK

Through his original stylization of hilly landscapes Jevtovic idealizes the picture of the scenery he remembers from his childhood, spiced with the drama of various situations in life which he deeply imbibed.

He received a number of awards for his artistic work, e.g.: the "Mirko Virius" award, the Golden Plaque of the Group of artists from Trebinje in 1977, 1979, 1986; the Great Award at the 4th biennial for the exhibited works in 1987 and the Award for the whole artistic work at the 7th biennial of naive art in Jagodina in 1995. He is written about in all the encyclopaedias and monographs on naive art.

Through a careful observation of the atmosphere of Jevtovic's works a striking similarity between the basic activities of the senses and the higher activities of mind can be noticed. Endless sets and arabesques of humans, interwoven with an unobservable web, radiate with a powerful spatial force. The stress is moved from the figures onto the movement; the action produces an effect of moving. Placing figures and their grimaces into an integral unity shows how a narration grows into art/a painting, a subject stops being the theme while the artist's expression itself becomes the theme.

Searching for the final shape of his artistic desires Jevtovic seems unable to satisfy with the number of figures. He raises the horizon completely to the upper border of the picture and he multiplies the plans. As if everything gave way to the force of human multitude. The intuitive ideal presentation of the homogeneity of a complex unit points to some instinctive dynamisms which applies to the unknown relations between the artist and the contents of the artistic work …

Free colorization, that is, its complete subduing to the artist's own will, shows actually a modern artistic sensibility. Complementary relations of pure colours, most frequently: red, yellow and blue, make the artist's colorization distinctly sounding. Contrary to the gloomy, calmer shades of green, grey and brown from his earlier phase, works made later would light up with redness like a ruby. The power of the dominating tone, which is successfully controlled by Jevtovic, harmoniously joins differently coloured parts making unusual effects with its chromatics. The red colour of the sky unites other elements compositionally and chromatically like a chromatic web through the roofs of the houses, wide horses, the clothes of cheerful people, other colourful pigments, letting them spread all over the composition.


Source: http://www.naiveart.rs/um08e.htm