Ida Ćirić - Illustrations

The exhibition Ida Ćirić – Illustrations is a venue organized within The Salon of Contemporary Art of The Museum of Applied Art, thirty years after she exhibited the illustrations at The Salon of The Museum of Applied Art, and one year after her death. It represents a review of her works in the field of children’s book illustration, as well as of some works of the applied arts. Ida Ćirić illustrated 52 books, and the most of the original illustrations are shown at this exhibition.

Art historian Vesna Lakićević Pavićević wrote a critical study on the artist’s work in the catalogue of the exhibition. She says: ”The illustrations done by Ida Ćirić are intended for children and youngsters, in the first place. They do not appear on the pages of Radović’s Poletarac (Fledgeling, 1973-1975), or, for that matter, of Erić’s Čitanka godišnjih doba (The Reader of the Seasons) by mere chance. As a genre, as illustrations for the young, they possess imaginative and innovative characteristics of a creative intelligence. One often wonders what creative intelligence is, and which illustrators do posses it. There is imagination there, in the first place – that essential part of creative intelligence – that helps visualization of new ideas. In this sense, perception, an important aspect of creativity, implies the way an author sees and reacts to new information. Certainly, painting and graphic arts are her ’field of knowledge’, by which she achieved her goal – the expression of her own vision and experience of the world.“

The author of the exhibition Ida Ćirić – Illustrations is Ida’s son, Rastko Ćirić who, aided by other members of the family, collected the works and compiled her biographic information. At the proposal of the Council of the Salon of Museum of Applied Art, one section of this exhibition features art works done by the members of the Ćirić family that represents one of rare examples in which quality and important contribution to the history of Serbian applied arts embraces several generations of illustrators and designers born to this family. Ida’s husband, Miloš Ćirić (1931-1999), belongs to those artists and professors who laid down the foundations of the post-war graphic communication in Serbia. Their sons, Rastko and Vukan, have contributed significantly to the development of the applied arts during the last thirty years. Their daughters Iva, Mina and Manja follow the trail, so that we may expect them to give new impetus to Serbian applied arts.

Talking to Aranka Farago in 1965, Ida explains the influence that Vukan and Rastko had on her work: “The company of my two sons, with whom I experience anew everything that amuses or saddens them, inspired me to do illustrations for children exclusively. It is my wish to represent actions as simply as I can, and to make the drawings themselves bring joy and educate along with texts in children’s books, to point the merry adventures from their lives to children, to reveal a lovely and joyful world that surrounds them.”

The exhibition The Ćirić Family gives an insight into the art work of the Ćirić family which allows new interpretation of creativity and renewed understanding of the principles of autonomy, compromise and success.