Milan Konjović

The recorded working language is Serbian. The field of work recorded is painting. Work by Milan Konjović is recorded in the collections of Hungarian National Gallery, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, Musée d'art moderne de Paris and National Gallery of Kosovo.

• Name — Milan Konjović Милан Коњовић • Born — 28 January 1898 • Birthplace — Sombor, Austrian Empire • Died — 20 October 1993 • Place of death — Sombor, Yugoslavia • Field — Painting • Training — Academy of Fine Arts, Prague • Movement — Expressionism • Website — "Milan Konjovic " Gallery • Illustration — Signature

Milan Konjović finished elementary and secondary school in Sombor between 1904 and 1916. In 1914 he had his first exhibition featuring some fifty works painted in nature. In 1919 he was admitted to the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, in the class of Vlaho Bukovac. Having left the academy after the second semester, he continued his education on his own, in Prague where an avant-garde Czech painter Jan Zrzavý introduced him to the art of Leonardo da Vinci. He later brought his studies to Vienna and traveled to German museums in Munich, Berlin, and Dresden. He arrived in Paris in May 1924 and stayed there until 1932. Afterward, he returned to his native Sombor. His most significant and successful one-man exhibitions include 1931's "Galerie Bing et Cie", 1932 "Galerie van Leer", and 1937 "Galerie Mouradian-Vallotton." He participated in several Paris Salon exhibitions, marked the beginning of his artistic "blue phase", which lasted from 1929 to 1933. In the later years, he devoted himself to painting his hometown Sombor, its landscape, people and milieu. In summertime he painted in the cities of Dalmatia, including Mlini, Cavtat, and Dubrovnik. Konjović's "red phase" lasted from 1934 till 1940. In 1941 Konjović was in Osnabrück in a concentration camp as a prisoner of war. After his release, Konjović began painting pastels most notably in the years 1943, 1944, and 1949. He then began producing oil works painted in so-called 'subdued colors' from 1945 to 1952, marking the "gray phase" of his work. 1953 is considered to be the turning point in Konjović's painting style. He works began to be defined by more pure intensive colors and glow, leading to the period dubbed the "coloristic phase." New artistic orientation culminated and was to characterize the works of the "associative phase" (1960–1984). At that time Milan Konjovic engaged himself in the work of the artists' colonies of Vojvodina. In 1985 began the "Byzantine phase" with works treating various themes from Byzantine history. By the end of 1990 Konjović had produced about thirty new works, completing the impressive opus of about 6000 oil paintings, pastels, watercolors, temperas, drawings, tapestries, stage sets, costume sketches, stained glass windows, mosaics, and graphics. In his life, Konjović had 297 one-man and 700 group exhibitions in the country and abroad, in such notable locations as Prague, New York, London, Amsterdam, São Paulo, Rome, Modena, Athens, Paris, and Moscow.

• Illustration — My studio by Konjović on a 1973 Yugoslavian stamp. The works of Milan Konjovic are usually divided into several phases: • Early Phase (1913–1928) • Blue Phase (1929–1933) • Red Phase (1934–1940) • Gray Phase (1945–1952) • Coloristic Phase (1953–1960) • Associative Phase (1960–1985) • Byzantine Phase (1985–1990)

Milan Konjovic is described as the greatest Serbian colourist. Dr Drasko Redjep calls him the painter of the wheat fields, vast plains, Sombor's urban views, and Mediterranean holiday scenery, whose works constitute an important reference point. He is considered to be one of the most significant exponents of Expressionism of colour in Serbian art between two wars. Konjovic's mature style of painting is characterised by thick layers of paint. He resorted to pastels in the years after World War II, when there was a shortage of oil paints. Later on, he returned to oils, layering them on the surface in thicker layers than ever; this presents quite a challenge when cleaning some of the paintings. The Byzantine phase of his last years is characterised by thinner layers of paint, with patches of unpainted surface.

Milan Konjović was a second son of David Konjović, lawyer and royal public notary, and Vera (born Vukičević). The Konjović family came to Sombor from Patriarchate of Peć region at the time of the Great Serb Migration in the 1690s. Many members of the family were among cultural and intellectual elite of Sombor for centuries, including the prominent composer Petar Konjović. Milan Konjović's mother Vera was the daughter of the educator and writer Nikola Vukićević, the long-time director of the Serbian pedagogical school (Preparandija) in Sombor. Milan Konjović was married to Ema Maštovska, whom he met in Prague. Their daughter Vera was born in Paris. He is related to Brigitte Konjovic, Miss France 1978.

Milan Konjović is recorded with the occupation painter. Recorded as a citizen of Yugoslavia.