FIFTY YEARS OF GRAPHIC COMMUNICATIONS IN SERBIA 1960/2010

Author of the exhibition: Radomir Vuković
Curator to the exhibition: Slobodan Jovanović, curator, MAA

The exhibition “Fifty Years of Graphic Communications in Serbia 1960/2010” is one of its kind and represents the final stage of a comprehensive research endeavour which had been carried out in the last ten years by the architect and designer Radomir Vuković. Works of designers active in this region are displayed at the exhibition. In view of the general trend of globalization this approach is aimed at providing a cumulative insight in the domestic designers’ production. Like the catalogue, the exhibition presents more than 300 authors, i.e. over 620 alphabets, numbers, logos, pictograms and visual systems created in the mentioned period.

The idea to gather works of our graphic designers and make reference presentation of them was based on the reputation of the journal KVADRAT which was edited and published by Radomir Vuković from 1992 to 2006 and on its comprehensive editorial documentation. Capital edition Znakovito with 2500 signs of graphic communication was published in three volumes in 2002, when the edition was awarded with “Pavle Vasić” prize for publishing achievement of the year. The event was most encouraging and Vuković continued to further collect similar works. His collection now houses about 6000 items. It is interesting to note that a set of KVADRAT journal is kept at the Congress Library in Washington D.C.

The complete material collected in the past period was donated to the Museum of Applied Art in Belgrade. The significance of this donation was the reason for the Museum of Applied Art to organize the exhibition called Fifty Years of Graphic Communications in Serbia 1960/2010. Radomir Vukovic was commissioned to select the works and write the text in the catalogue. In the meantime “Službeni glasnik” Publishers joined the project and published the book “Znakovito 3” which included the remaining graphs (alphabets, numbers, logos, pictograms, visual systems). In front of us is a choice of representative signs and systems of graphic communication developed in the past fifty years in Serbia, which were collected and edited with greatest passion and diligence by Vukovic who assessed individual contributions of native graphic designers within the context of a broader national historical discourse.

The 1982 exhibition Graphic Identity 1961-1981 of Miloš Ćirić held within the frame of the Salon of the Museum of Applied Art, together with the book of Ćirić Graphic Communications 1954-1984, can be considered as “foretokens” of this exhibition of Radomir Vuković. After three decades this exhibition summed up achievements of most important Serbian authors of signs and visual systems from 1960 until the present days as the curator to this exhibition Slobodan Jovanović pointed out in the catalogue.

The author, Vuković, wrote in the catalogue: “Art as spiritual superstructure of life surrounding us is the only space available in which creative people can search for a retreat. Design as operational category recognizes and provides solutions for new situations. In the process, designers bring the pictures of life around them to the level of signs and symbols which could be understood by others as well. That is what they are hoping for. Because graphic communications have become unique international testing ground due to their universal visual propulsiveness where coded communication represents both a moment of the present and a phrase of the future.”

….”In the times when electronic communication standards are changing at giddy pace, the importance of images and signs along the road is increasing. Their suggestibility and resistance to people, time and media-caused turbulences make them relevant indicators of our learning, hopes, beliefs…From the Altamira cave to SKY LAB, people cover with drawings spaces they occupy. Everybody understands these scrawls, and by introducing them into the life of people they become elements of their entire communication….”

It is important to know that the entire project of the books Znakovito and Znakovito 3 is a work-in-progress to be continued after the exhibition will have been opened. Acquiring new data will last until new, even more comprehensible systematization are achieved. For that reason a site www.znakovito.rs was posted representing development of the project ZNAKOVITO from its beginnings until current developments. Contributions, questions and suggestions may be forwarded to the following e-mail address: kvadart@sezampro.rs

The abundant graphic material documenting creations in applied art, marketing and the design is accessible at www.kvadart.rs