Radomir Damnjanović Damnjan: Difference between revisions

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”’Radomir Damnjanović Damnjan”’ ({{lang-sr-Cyrl|Радомир Дамњановић Дамњан}}; 10 December 1935 – 10 July 2025) was a Serbian-Italian painter and [[Conceptual art|conceptual artist]]. Over a career spanning six decades, he explored and expanded traditional art forms, often questioning prevailing notions of creativity and authorship. His artistic practice encompassed a wide range of media, including painting, photography, video, and installation.<ref name=”:0″ />

Damnjan exhibited at [[Documenta]] in [[Kassel]] (1964), the [[São Paulo Art Biennial]] (1963), the [[Biennale de Paris|Paris Biennale]] (1965), the [[Venice Biennale]] (1966, 1976), the [[:fr:Biennale de Tokyo|Tokyo Biennale]] (1967), and the International Biennial of Young Artists Danuvius (1968).<ref name=”:2″ /><ref>{{Cite web |last=Łanuszka |first=Magdalena |date=2024-04-10 |title=”The Art That Remains. Collection – International Biennial of Young Artists Danuvius 1968″ Exhibition at the Slovak National Gallery in Bratislava |url=https://herito.pl/en/ahice-en/the-art-that-remains-collection-international-biennial-of-young-artists-danuvius-1968-exhibition-at-the-slovak-national-gallery-in-bratislava/ |access-date=2025-10-08 |website=herito |language=en-US}}</ref> He lived and worked in [[Milan]], Italy.

== Early life and education ==

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== Global recognition ==

Damnjan‘s international recognition ~~came~~ early in his career. He participated in ~~prestigious~~ art exhibitions, ~~such as~~ [[Documenta]] in Kassel (1964) ~~and~~ [[São Paulo Art Biennial]] (1963), [[~~Biennale de Paris|~~Paris Biennale]] (1965), [[Venice Biennale]] (1966, 1976), [[:fr:Biennale de Tokyo|Tokyo Biennale]] (1967), and ~~[https://herito.pl/en/ahice-en/~~the~~-art-that-remains-collection-international-biennial-of-young-artists-danuvius-1968-exhibition-at-the-slovak-national-gallery-in-bratislava/~~ International Biennial of Young Artists Danuvius] (1968).<ref name=”:2″ />

Damnjan international recognition early in his career. He participated in art exhibitions, [[Documenta]] in Kassel (1964) [[São Paulo Art Biennial]] (1963), [[Paris Biennale]] (1965), [[Venice Biennale]] (1966, 1976), [[:fr:Biennale de Tokyo|Tokyo Biennale]] (1967), and the International Biennial of Young Artists Danuvius (1968).<ref name=”:2″ />

His works are ~~part~~ of the collections of major ~~world~~ museums ~~such as~~ the [[Centre Pompidou]] in Paris, [[Mumok|MUMOK]] in Vienna, ~~etc~~.

His works are the collections of major museums the [[Centre Pompidou]] in Paris [[Mumok|MUMOK]] in Vienna, .

== Death ==

Serbian painter and conceptual artist (1935–2025)

Radomir Damnjanović Damnjan

Born	Radomir Damnjanović Damnjan (1935-12-10)10 December 1935
Died	10 July 2025(2025-07-10) (aged 89)
Known for	Visual artist

Radomir Damnjanović Damnjan (Serbian Cyrillic: Радомир Дамњановић Дамњан; 10 December 1935 – 10 July 2025) was a Serbian-Italian painter and conceptual artist. Over a career spanning six decades, he explored and expanded traditional art forms, often questioning prevailing notions of creativity and authorship. His artistic practice encompassed a wide range of media, including painting, photography, video, and installation.^[1]

Damnjan exhibited at Documenta in Kassel (1964), the São Paulo Art Biennial (1963), the Paris Biennale (1965), the Venice Biennale (1966, 1976), the Tokyo Biennale (1967), and the International Biennial of Young Artists Danuvius (1968).^[2]^[3] He lived and worked in Milan, Italy.

Early life and education

Damnjan graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Belgrade in 1957 and completed his postgraduate studies in 1959. By the late 1950s, he had become actively involved in the Yugoslav art scene, holding solo exhibitions at the Gallery of the Graphic in 1958 and 1960, and participating in the Danas Group.^[1]

His early works featured minimalist landscapes incorporating symbolic and abstract elements. This approach later developed into explorations of primary geometry and conceptual art, setting him apart from the dominant artistic movements in Yugoslavia at the time.^[1]

Art

Throughout his career, Damnjan underwent significant transformations in his artistic practice, reflecting his continual engagement with diverse artistic forms.

1950s – Figurative painting

In the early stages of his career, Damnjan produced figurative works aligned with the postmodern artistic trends of the period, such as Kalemegdan (1955).^[4] These works reflect his interpretation of contemporary landscapes, incorporating elements of symbolism and metaphysical inquiry.

1960s – Minimalism and abstract art

During the 1960s, Damnjan adopted a minimalist and abstract approach, simplifying forms to their fundamental elements. His series Sandy Shores (1961) and Elements in Space (1963–64) exemplify this period, emphasizing the interplay between form and spatial composition.^[1]

1970s – Conceptual and appropriative art

During the 1970s, Damnjan fully embraced conceptual art. His work adopted a more activist and reflective character, seeking to provoke critical engagement rather than aesthetic approval. In 1974, he relocated from Belgrade to Milan, where he became actively involved in the Italian art scene.^[1]

That same year, he held his first solo exhibition in February at Carla Ortelli Studio, presenting In Honour of the Soviet Avant-Garde (1973), a series of eight black-and-white photographs marking his initial use of photography as an artistic medium.^[2]^[1] This exhibition, along with later shows—particularly those at the Multhipla Gallery—brought him international recognition, including coverage in Flash Art magazine and inclusion in Achille Bonito Oliva‘s influential book Europa-America. Le avanguardie diverse (1976).^[1]

During this period, Damnjan also created his “primary paintings”, characterized by monochrome fields that emphasized colour, form, and the conceptual nature of the painting process itself.

Appropriation and misinformation

Damnjan’s artistic development during the Cold War coincided with global and regional social changes and the rise of electronic media. This environment influenced his exploration of new media and the themes of appropriation and misinformation in art.^[5]

He increasingly focused on the conceptual and intellectual dimensions of art, questioning traditional notions of originality and authenticity. In his Forgery series (1975–1976), Damnjan reinterpreted well-known works by Giorgio de Chirico and Carlo Carrà, adding his own painted seals to mark them as reinterpretations. These works examined the concepts of creativity, authorship, and intellectual property.^[4]

Damnjan used a stamp reading “Work of Verified Artistic Value” to authenticate his pieces, satirically commenting on the art market’s value system. This practice reflected the influence of Marcel Duchamp and extended the discussion surrounding originality and authorship in contemporary art.^[1] His Misinformation series (1972–1975) developed these ideas further, featuring monochromatic fields paired with incongruent inscriptions that encouraged reflection on how information is created and interpreted.^[1]

In this period, Damnjan increasingly worked with mass media such as photography, film, and video. Series like Nine Times Damnjan (1975) and Nothing Superfluous in the Human Spirit (1976) explored questions of perception and identity.^[1] His engagement with performance art blurred the boundaries between reality and representation, with video works and short films such as Man Made of Newspaper or the Possibility for Communication (1973), Flag (1974), Reading Marx, Hegel, and the Bible (1975), and The Daily Ritual of Drinking Coffee (1976) highlighting his interest in performativity and self-reflection.^[5]

1980s – Re-examination of painting

For Damnjan, the 1980s marked a significant return to painting within a renewed conceptual framework. His works from this period incorporated stains, colour fields, and lines, emphasizing the act of painting as a process rather than a means of representation.^[2] This phase reflected a broader exploration of the medium, focusing on the emotional, material, and performative aspects of creation.

During this time, Damnjan also began integrating ready-made materials into his practice, merging still life composition with everyday items such as bottles and shelves, as seen in Still Life with Bottles (1982). This approach blurred the boundaries between art and daily life, echoing the experimental tendencies of Dada and Fluxus movements.^[1]

1990s – Expansion of painting

During the 1990s, Damnjan expanded his artistic practice to include body painting, using faces—both his own and those of others—as canvases for his work. Pieces such as Portrait of Ješa Denegri (1999) illustrate this fusion of painting and body art.^[2] He also produced reliefs presented as wall-mounted works, introducing a three-dimensional dimension to his exploration of painting.

2000s onwards – Problematic (Paradoxical) painting

From the 2000s onwards, Damnjan continued to expand the possibilities of painting by integrating new technologies and further examining the relationship between shape and colour. In his Painting series, he created canvases featuring coloured stains that transformed initial chaos into a sense of order, engaging viewers’ visual perception and evoking the principles of entropy.^[6]

Recent work: Painting series (2020)

Among the artist’s final works, the Painting series (2020) represents a synthesis of painting and sculpture. Damnjan conceptually appropriated the medium of sculpture to create paintings that exist in both physical and digital forms, each connected to the blockchain.^[7] Through this body of work, he continued to explore the dematerialisation of art in both physical and conceptual spaces, where the boundaries between painting and sculpture became increasingly fluid.^[7]

The physical works were constructed from industrial-grade metal and treated with synthetic pigments and fluorinated paints to ensure durability against environmental effects. Through the use of unconventional pastel and vivid colours, Damnjan extended his ongoing investigation into the expressive and structural potential of colour and form.

Works from the Painting series (2020) were exhibited at the 62nd Annale: New Fundamental Tendencies in Poreč, Croatia, in 2022,^[8] alongside other artists from the Marinko Sudac Collection and in collaboration with the Institute for the Research of the Avant-Garde. This exhibition situated Damnjan’s practice within the context of contemporary digital and conceptual art.

Most recently, works from the series were presented at the Ras Al Khaimah Fine Arts Festival (RAKFAF) in the United Arab Emirates in 2024.^[9]

Global recognition

Damnjan achieved international recognition early in his career. He participated in several major art exhibitions, including Documenta in Kassel (1964), the São Paulo Art Biennial (1963), the Paris Biennale (1965), the Venice Biennale (1966, 1976), the Tokyo Biennale (1967), and the International Biennial of Young Artists Danuvius (1968).^[2]^[3]

His works are included in the collections of major international museums, including the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien (MUMOK) in Vienna, among others.

Death

Damnjan died in Milan on 10 July 2025, at the age of 89.^[10]

Legacy and impact

Damnjan worked across various media, including painting, drawing, graphics, photography, film, video, and performance. During the 1960s, early in his career, Damnjan was a painter of symbolic, abstract, and minimal features. From the 1970s on, he used the new media^[11] – video, photography and performance, while the painting was closer to its analytical stream. At the turn of the ninth decade of the last century, time saw Damnjan turn to ‘still life’ and ‘(self-)portraits’, which implemented floor or wall installations painted in the spirit of postmodern citation as ‘new pointillism‘.

Solo exhibitions (selection)

1958 Graphic Collective Gallery, Belgrade
1962 Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade, Studio G, Salon Wider, Zagreb
1966 Gallery of Contemporary Art, Zagreb
1967 Obere Zaun Galerie, Zurich
1968 Galerie im Zimmertheater, Tübingen
1969 Small Gallery, Ljubljana
1970 Salon at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Skopje, Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade, Gallery of Contemporary Art, Zagreb
1973 Gallery of Student Cultural Center, Belgrade
1974 Student Centre Gallery, Zagreb, Studio Carla Ortelli, Milan
1975 Multhipla Galleria, Milano, Museum of Contemporary umetnosi, Belgrade
1976 Galleria Stefanon, Lecco
1977 Studio 16/e, Turin, Galleria Civica, Modena, Galleria Performing Arts Center, Genova, Gallery Nova, Zagreb
1978 Pilot Galleria, Milan
1979 Gastaldello Galleria, Milan, Kunsthalle, Tübingen
1981 Gallery of Contemporary Art, Zagreb
1982 Art Gallery, Milan
1985 Galerie Ingrid Dacić, Tübingen
1986 Museum of Contemporary Art, Retrospective Exhibition, Belgrade
1987 Modern Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Skopje
1992 Gallery kulurnog Student Center, Belgrade
1996 Fondazione balls, Milan
1997 Art Pavilion Cvijeta Zuzoric, Belgrade, Center for Visual Culture, Novi Sad
1999 Galerie Peter Lindner, Vienna
2006 Federico Bianchi Contemporary Art, Milan
2012 Federico Bianchi Contemporary Art, Milan; Gallery Magacin, Belgrade
2017 Zuccato Gallery, Poreč; Museum of Contemporary Art of Vojvodina, Novi Sad

Actions

1965 Overflowing of the river Sava, Belgrade
1974 Free artwork, The Gallery of Student Cultural Center, Belgrade, Disinformation, Cinema Balkans, Zagreb
1989 Flame Pyramid, Stazione di Lambrate, Milan, Pyramid of cabbage, Esplanade Hotel, room 321, Zagreb
1993 Natura morta, Fondazione Mudima, Milan
1995 The Great Pyramid of cabbage, Anker House Gallery, Belgrade

Performances

1973 The man from the newspaper or the ability to communicate, 12 min. Gallery of Student Cultural Center, Belgrade
1975 Identity – the destruction of books, Marx, Hegel and the Bible, 25 min. Trigon ’75, Graz
1976 Dinner with Terry Doxey from London, 30 min. Gallery of Student Cultural Center, Belgrade
1978 From labor to creative work, 25 min, Gallery of Student Cultural Center, Belgrade, from labor to creative work, 30 min. Gallery of Contemporary Art, Zagreb
1979 From labor to creativity (version II), 30 min. Gallery of Student Cultural Center, Belgrade, Dal Lavoro allacreatività, 25 min. Studio 16/e, Torino
1982 Grande natura morta, 25 min. Il Festival Internazionale d’Arte Video, Locarno, From Work to creativeness, The 4th Biennial of Sydney, Vision in Disbelief, Sydney
1986 Large Still Life, April meetings, Gallery of Student Cultural Center, Belgrade
1996 Chattanooga Choo Choo and the United Belgrade Still Life, Die Weise stadt, Museum Moderne Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna
1997 Record of a portrait – Ješa Denegri, Gallery Zvono, Belgrade

Artworks on film tape

1973 The man from the newspaper, 8 mm, b/w, 3 min.
1974 Bandiera, super 8 mm, color, sound, 11 min., Per il Futuro, Super 8 mm, color, 10 min.

Video artworks

1975 Identity – the destruction of the books of Marx, Hegel and the Bible, b/w, 20 min. PAL, sound, Trigon ’75, Graz
1976 Daily ritual of coffee drinking, 30 min, b/w, 3/4 inches, PAL, sound, Reading the same text, b/w, 20 min, 3/4 inches, PAL, sound, Reading Marx, Hegel and the Bible in the light of a matches, b/w, 30 min, 3/4 inches, PAL, sound, Spot in space or position of individuals in society, b/w, 30 min, 3/4 inches, PAL, sound, Tübingen
1977 Movement as a general need, 26 min, b/w, 3/4 inches, PAL, sound, Revolution as a game of minorities, 17 min, b/w, PAL, sound, Tübingen
1982 Great still life, 25 min, color, 3/4 inches, PAL, sound, Locarno
1983 Metaphysical Duchamp, Video D.C. 83, Ljubljana

Publications (selection)

Gillo Dorfles, Ultime Tendenze nell’arte d’oggi, Feltrinelli, Milan, 1973, p. 149
Achille Bonito Oliva, Europe – America, The different Avantgardes, Decco Press, Milan, 1976, p. 126
Gillo Dorfles, La body art, l’arte moderna, Fratelli Fabbri, Milan, 1977, p. 225
Ješa Denegri, 10 Years Autumn Styring, Paul Kaufman, Graz, 1978, p. 171
Radomir Damnjan, Niente di superfluo nello spirito, Edition Dacić, Tübingen, 1978
Rafel Tous and Giner, Metronome, Libres d’Artista/Artist’s Books, Berlin, Barcelona, 1981, p. 194

Awards

1963 Award ‘Vanda Svevo’, 7th Biennial in São Paulo, São Paulo
1968 Awards on International Biennial ‘Danubius ’68’, Bratislava
1981 Award Il Festival di arte video, Arte Video in Europa, Locarno

References

Sources

Documentation of the Museum of Contemporary art, Belgrade
Denegri, Ješa (2010). “Nothing Superfluous in The Work of Art”, In: Radomir Damnjanović Damnjan – monograph. Vujičić Collection. ISBN 978-86-87869-03-5.
Denegri, Ješa (2018). Damnjan – radovi na papiru. Arte Media d.o.o. ISBN 978-86-89543-12-4.
Denegri, Ješa (2013). Radomir Damnjanović Damnjan. Galerija RIMA. ISBN 978-86-88255-21-9.
Denegri, Ješa (2018). Radomir Damnjanović Damnjan – retrospektiva 1965-2018: dela iz Kolekcije Trajković %5BRadomir Damnjanović Damnjan – retrospective 1965-2018: works from the Trajković Collection%5D. Fondacija Kolekcija Trajković. ISBN 978-86-91-5275-7-0.
Denegri, Ješa (2022). Radomir Damnjanović Damnjan’s “Paintings-objects”, In: “62nd Annale New Fundamental Tendencies”, Open Public University Poreč, Institute for the Research of the Avant-Garde. ISBN 978-953-56706-5-0.
“RADOMIR DAMNJANOVIĆ DAMNJAN“. Avantgarde Museum. Retrieved 3 October 2024.
“New Fundamental Tendencies | 62nd Annale“. Avantgarde Museum. Retrieved 3 October 2024.
“The 2024 Festival“. Ras Al Khaimah Art. Retrieved 3 October 2024.
Trini, Tommaso (2010). Acting on Void, In: Radomir Damnjanović Damnjan – monograph. Vujičić Collection. ISBN 978-86-87869-03-5.

Radomir Damnjanović Damnjan: Difference between revisions

Early life and education