Petar Omčikus(1926-2019)
Peter Omčikus (Susak, Rijeka, Croatia, 1926) is a Serbian painter and member of Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences. He lives and works in Paris. From 1941 to 1943 he attended School of Applied Arts in Belgrade. He entered Academy of Fine Arts in 1945 in class of Professor Ivan Tabakovic.
For further artistic development, together with Kosara Boksan (his future wife) and six of his colleagues he went to Zadar, Croatia. They all lived, worked and created art in an abandoned palace. Today this group is called “Zadar group”. Omcikus return to Belgrade in 1951, becoming one of the founders of “The Eleven” art group. The following year, with Kosara Boksan he went to live in Paris, and later in 1957 built a studio in Gentilly, where he lives today. In Vela Luka on Korcula island (Croatia) they built their second home. At their own initiative, starting from 1968, three international meetings of artists were organized. Participants of first meeting created a multitude of mosaics and a monument in the center of Vela Luka.
In 1984, Omčikus got the Grand Prix at the IX International Exhibition of original drawings in Rijeka. The first retrospective was organized in 1989 in his Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade. He received the traditional “Politika” newspaper prize for painting for this show a year later.