Ivan Tabaković (1898 Arad, Romania – Belgrade, Serbia 1977)
Ivan Tabaković was Yugoslav and Serbian painter and ceramist, one of the founders of “Zemlja” (Earth) group.
He studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest, Hungary and then at the Royal Academy of Applied Arts in Zagreb, Croatia. Educated by Ljubo Babić in Zagreb and by Hans Hofmann in Munich directed his painting to the foundations of the modernist vocabulary. Working at the Anatomy Institute in Zagreb, hanging out with Croatian artist Postružnik and the establishment of the art group “Zemlja” (1929), emphasize the author’s tendency to satirical critique of human weaknesses and flaws, which will rise to the level of parables, allegories, personifications. This culminated in painting “Genius” (1929) which was the peak of the Zagreb period (1925-1930) derived from the activities in the art group “Zemlja”.
Novi Sad period (1930-1938) marks the gradual abandonment of the morphological and stylistic concept of group “Zemlja”, as evidenced by the work of social themes. It is characterized by a variety of superior representations of private and public spaces, still lifes and landscapes, brilliant drawings, with elements of melancholy and sophisticated use of color, richly nuanced.
Belgrade period (1938-1977) includes a variety of research and creative phases. The first phase continues already established melancholy poetic, often infused with elements of the grotesque, irony and sarcasm. Because of this Tabaković faced passionate politically motivated criticism in the early postwar years. The second phase is characterized by the autonomous research of fundamental principles of modernist paintings, especially its two-dimensional plane, as well as non-mimetic approach and using of clean, non-descriptive artistic elements. Other studies went in the direction of the object, sculpture, collage and photo-montage. It is this eccentric, creative, experimental period of the second half of the twentieth century that makes Ivan Tabaković one of the most important, extremely individual, indigenous innovator of Serbian modern art.