{"id":186168,"date":"2025-08-30T14:28:24","date_gmt":"2025-08-30T12:28:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/?p=186168"},"modified":"2025-08-30T14:28:25","modified_gmt":"2025-08-30T12:28:25","slug":"martyrdom-of-a-great-painter-on-this-day-the-ustase-executed-sava-sumanovic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/martyrdom-of-a-great-painter-on-this-day-the-ustase-executed-sava-sumanovic\/","title":{"rendered":"MARTYRDOM OF A GREAT PAINTER: On this day, the Usta\u0161e executed Sava \u0160umanovi\u0107!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In Sremska Mitrovica, on August 30, 1942, one of the best Serbian painters between the two wars was executed\u2026<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was born on January 22, 1896, in Vinkovci, where his father worked as a forestry engineer, to father Milutin and mother Persida (1875\u20141968), n\u00e9e Tubi\u0107. When he was four years old, the family moved to \u0160id. He attended high school in Zemun, where he began to be interested in art. He would later oppose his father’s wish for him to become a lawyer and in 1914, he enrolled in the High School of Arts and Crafts in Zagreb. He finished this school with the best grades in 1918. It was then that he began to publicly exhibit his works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his early works, Sava insisted on atmosphere and skillfully used colored shadows and thin layers of paint. In addition to painting, he was involved in illustration, graphics, and scenography. Sava \u0160umanovi\u0107’s painting in this period shows the influences of Art Nouveau and Symbolism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the autumn of 1920, Sava went to Paris and rented a studio in Montparnasse. His teacher was Andr\u00e9 Lhote, a prominent art educator of the analytical cubism movement. In Paris, he socialized with Rastko Petrovi\u0107, Modigliani, Max Jacob, and other artists. The influences of cubism are visible in this but also in later phases of the painter’s work. It can be justifiably said that Sava \u0160umanovi\u0107 brought this painting language to Serbia and that his works remain the most representative example of domestic Cubist painting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Doru\u010dak na travi<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In the following years, he lived and painted in Zagreb. The public and critics did not accept his works, so in protest, he signed his paintings with a French transcription. In 1924, he wrote the studies “A Painter on Painting” and “Why I Love Poussin’s Painting,” works that are the starting point for understanding his aesthetics. He stayed in Paris again in 1925, where he accepted the influences of Matisse’s painting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1927, Sava \u0160umanovi\u0107 painted “Breakfast on the Grass,” which received excellent reviews in France. A little later, in 7 days and nights of intense work, he painted the picture “The Drunken Boat,” which he exhibited at the Salon des Ind\u00e9pendants. The inspiration for the painting was Arthur Rimbaud’s poem of the same name, which came to him through Rastko Petrovi\u0107, who recited it to him. The other inspiration was Th\u00e9odore G\u00e9ricault’s painting “The Raft of the Medusa.” The critics greeted this work with mixed reviews, and Sava, exhausted from the work, took the negative ones very hard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He returned to \u0160id in 1928, tired of the difficult living conditions, work, and bad reviews. In \u0160id, he painted Srem landscapes. His solo exhibition in Belgrade was very positively reviewed by critics. The money from the sale of the paintings allowed him to go to Paris again. Significant paintings were created there: “Luxembourg Park,” “The Red Carpet,” “Bridge over the Seine.” These works are characterized by poetic realism and moderate coloristic expressionism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the Second World War, \u0160id became part of the Independent State of Croatia and the Cyrillic alphabet was a forbidden script, so Sava, out of protest, did not sign his name but only marked the year the painting was created.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Pijana la\u0111a<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u0160umanovi\u0107’s works from the later period are distinguished by bright colors and a lyrical atmosphere. He adapted his style, which he himself called “as I know and can,” to the motif.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After returning to \u0160id in 1930, he painted local landscapes and nudes. For three years, he worked on the cycle of large canvases “The Women of \u0160id,” and later on the cycle “Grape Pickers,” dedicated to the grape harvest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the Second World War, \u0160id became part of the Independent State of Croatia and the Cyrillic alphabet was a forbidden script, so Sava, out of protest, did not sign his name but only marked the year the painting was created.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Velika Gospojina, August 28, 1942, Sava, along with 150 other Serbs from \u0160id, was arrested by the Usta\u0161e around 6 a.m. and taken to Sremska Mitrovica. All of them were shot after torture, probably on August 30, after which they were buried in a common mass grave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his honor, the Sava \u0160umanovi\u0107 painting award was established.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Source<\/strong><\/strong>: Nationalgeographic.rs<\/a> Photo:<\/strong> Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Sremska Mitrovica, on August 30, 1942, one of the best Serbian painters between the two wars was executed\u2026 He was born on January 22, 1896, in Vinkovci, where his father worked as a forestry engineer, to father Milutin and mother Persida (1875\u20141968), n\u00e9e Tubi\u0107. When he was four years old, the family moved to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2169,"featured_media":186171,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[634,8425,4260,5136],"class_list":["post-186168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history","tag-istorija","tag-sava-sumanovic","tag-slikar","tag-slikarstvo","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Serbiantimes.info EN","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2169"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186168"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186168\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":186196,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186168\/revisions\/186196"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}