Naive painting of Serbian Slovaks

Kovačica, a small town known for the large number of artists who live, work and create there is tucked in the warm embrace of Vojvodina plains, in the wonderful countryside atmosphere.

The natural beauty of the landscape, traditions, and daily life, inspired many naïve painters to create valuable and important works of art.

The painters of naive art say that they never lacked inspiration. Motifs for painting are constantly found in lush nature, diverse rural traditions, the folk around them and everyday activities of the rural people. Transferring these motifs to canvas, stools and pumpkins gave them life, color and meaning.

Jan Bacura, one of the oldest naive painters in Serbia, inherited the talent from his mother, and he has been extensively engaged in painting for more than half a century. He remembers his first exhibition that was held when he was only thirteen years old, and admits that his inspiration has remained the same as it was at the beginning of his career: his homeland, Banat and Vojvodina. Today Bacura has over 2,500 paintings behind him, and his legacy increases daily.

Like Jan Bacura, a young female painter Vieroslava Svetlikova inherited the talent from her mother. When she finishes with the chores she has as a wife and a mother of three children, she begins to paint. Favorite motif that is on almost every Vieroslava’s painting are bees, but she also loves painting flowers. Art and painting are the best way to rest and relax at the end of the day, she says, and through them, she is expressing her thoughts, feelings and desires.

Works of art of some of the most famous painters of naive art, such as Vladimir Bobos, who was the first in Kovacica to start painting, as well as Martin Jonas, Jan Sokol, and Zuzana Chalupová are exhibited in the gallery “Babka” in Kovacica. We recommend you to visit this peaceful village in Vojvodina and enjoy the rich creativity that naive painters have left behind.