FIRST MORE SUBSTANTIAL GIFTS OF ACADEMICS/ ARTISTS TO THE ART COLLECTION OF THE SERBIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES AND ARTS

Text topic: Legacy Institute and Cultural Policy of Serbia

Text author: Јелена Межински Миловановић

Art Collection of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SASA) has formed in parallel with the establishment of the institution itself. At first, art pieces have served the purpose of adorning the premises of the Academy. Gradually, the art collection has become profiled and intentionally complemented by portraits of academics and later with artwork of academics and artists. Immediately after founding of the SASA Gallery, at the end of 1970s, at the initiative of the SASA Department of Fine Arts and Music, the Art Collection was duly listed according to rules of museology. Systematic purchase of works by artists/academics was planned, according to a defined programme. Still, the largest number of works has become part of the Collection as gifts of SASA members and numerous other donors. The largest art donation were drawings and other art on paper by academic Ivan Radović, gifted to the Academy by his widow, Olga. Soon, other academics/artists began to select their works to donate, in order to be representative of their art. This is how the gifts of Nedeljko Gvozdenović, Ljubica Sokić and Aleksandar Deroko have laid the foundations for today’s Art Collection of the Arts Academy.