PETAR LUBARDA - ONE OF THE GREATEST SERB PAINTERS OF ALL TIME

BIJELJINA, JULY 26 /SRNA/ – Painter Petar Lubarda /1907–1974/, a member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts /SANU/ and the former Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts, was born on July 27, 1907.

Lubarda left a written statement requesting that certain biographical details be included in all references to his life.

He attended primary school in Ljubotinj, Cetinje, and Herceg Novi, and secondary school in Herceg Novi, Šibenik, Sinj, and Nikšić, where he began painting.

He enrolled at the School of Fine Arts in Belgrade in 1925 and briefly continued his studies in Paris in 1926. He returned to Montenegro in 1932 and later that year moved to Belgrade.

Lubarda held his first solo exhibition in Nikšić in 1925, followed by exhibitions in Paris and Rome in 1927 and 1929. From 1927 onward, he participated in numerous group exhibitions both in Yugoslavia and abroad.

He became a member of the Serb Artists Association "Lada" in 1938, joined the Independent Artists Group in 1951, and was also a member of the Association of Fine Artists of Serbia, the Association of Fine Artists of Montenegro, and the Union of Fine Artists of Yugoslavia.

Between 1941 and 1944, during World War II, he was held as a prisoner of war in camps in Germany and Italy.

His father, a royal army officer, was executed by the Partisans, and as a result Lubarda reportedly faced difficulties in his artistic career for a period because he was considered ideologically unsuitable.

From 1945, Lubarda was professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Belgrade. In 1946, he moved to Cetinje, where he helped establish the first professional art institutions in Montenegro.

He became a corresponding member of SANU in 1959 and a full member in 1961. He also left a letter with the Academy requesting that, whenever his works are exhibited, it be explicitly stated that he was ethnically a Serb.

Art critics regard Lubarda as one of the greatest Serb painters of all time and maintain that his works "The Battle of Kosovo" and "Journey into Space" would merit inclusion in any anthology of world art.

In 1973, Lubarda donated his artistic legacy to the City of Belgrade.

He was buried in the Alley of Distinguished Citizens at the New Cemetery in Belgrade.

In 1997, the Petar Lubarda Award, Montenegro's highest recognition in the field of visual arts, was established in his honour.