EXHIBITION Once Upon a Time in Belgrade… The World of Vidosava Kovačević

The Pavle Beljanski Memorial Collection, in collaboration with the Odbrana Media Centre and the heirs of Vidosava Kovačević, is presenting the exhibition Once Upon a Time in Belgrade… The World of Vidosava Kovačević, which opens on 17th December 2025 at 7 p.m. At the opening, the audience will be addressed by Colonel Dr Miljan Milkić, Director of the Odbrana Media Centre; Radovan Jokić, Acting Director of The Pavle Beljanski Memorial Collection; Siniša Vlajković, an heir to the Kovačević family; and Dr Igor Borozan, author of the accompanying catalogue text, whose efforts brought together the institutions and the family to realize this project.

Once Upon a Time in Belgrade… The World of Vidosava Kovačević is the first solo retrospective of painter Vidosava Kovačević (1889–1913) to be held in her native Belgrade.

Her brief artistic career lasted less than a decade, yet it demonstrates her inner maturity and keen intuition. In that short time, she left a lasting mark on the artistic scene of Belgrade and Serbia. Her work, created during a period marked by the gradual departure from academic painting principles and the emergence of diverse avant-garde movements, stands as a testament to the so-called transitional period in European and Serbian civic Modernism.

From her early copies and drawings executed according to the academic rules of the School of Arts and Crafts in Belgrade to her adoption of modern movements such as Symbolism, Academic Impressionism, and above all, Expressionism, Kovačević’s work reflects the influence of her teachers Rista and Beta Vukanović and Marko Murat – Munich-educated artists who introduced contemporary tendencies to the Serbian art scene.

To present her oeuvre as comprehensively as possible, the exhibition at the Grand Gallery of the Central Military Club includes all available works preserved by The Pavle Beljanski Memorial Collection, The National Museum of Serbia, The Belgrade City Museum, The Gallery of Matica Srpska, The National Museum in Valjevo, The Art Gallery Nadežda Petrović, as well as works held by her heirs and private collectors. In addition to over one hundred of her artworks, the exhibition features a variety of objects from the family estate and museum collections providing insight into her immediate environment — the household of academic and historian Ljubomir Kovačević — the world in which she grew up and which inspired her. This context situates her within the social milieu of Belgrade’s civic society at the turn of the 19th to the 20th century.

The exhibition was made possible by the Provincial Secretariat for Culture, Public Information, and Religious Affairs and the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Serbia. The curatorial work was carried out by of Jasmina Jakšić Subić, senior curator at The Pavle Beljanski Memorial Collection, in close collaboration with Siniša Vlajković, heir to the Kovačević family, Jelena Knežević, museum advisor and Head of the Gallery of the Central Military Club, Jelena Sekulović, museum advisor, and numerous other associates.

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue designed by Veljko Damjanović, featuring an article by Prof. Igor Borozan, PhD. The display was designed by Aleksandra Rešnjak Pešić. A series of lectures held during the exhibition will further illuminate the world and artistry of Vidosava Kovačević.