Milorad Bata Mihajlović (1923 – 2011)
Milorad Bata Mihajlović was born on in Pančevo, Serbia. He studied Fine Arts Academy in Belgrade, which he left with the “Zadar artistic group”. He came to Paris in 1952 and since then has lived and worked in the French capital and occasionally in Belgrade. In 1985 he was elected as an additional member of Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Department of Fine Arts and Music. He had about hundred solo exhibitions in all continents. Numerous galleries and private collections in the Serbia and around the world hold his artwork.
Mihailović began painting in a spirit of realism and traditionalism and soon found the language of expressionism, which he later changed in a number of stylistic poetics. Mihailović has never worked in completely artabstract manner. He was a follower of intensive color painting, which had a long tradition of Serbian modernism. His artistic gesture is violent, euphoric, fast, sweeping, explosive, whirling, without any contemplation during operation. His expressive forms are distorted, barely recognizable, bathed in a rich chromatic palette and light. One can notice recognizable ornaments and details of the Serbian medieval fresco painting in his works.