The exhibition titled "Service of the Eye" by Friar Petar Perica Vidić is the fifteenth exhibition set up at the Museum of Modern Art of the University of Mostar and opens on May 16th at 7 p.m. This exhibition has a particularly emphasized educational character. The exhibition will feature ninety-three works from his rich oeuvre as well as reproductions of stained glass windows he made for the Church of St. Anthony in Bistrik. Alongside some representative examples for which Vidić is already known to the public, the exhibition will also include the latest works that have not been exhibited before.

Curator Dinko Baković writes in the preface to the exhibition catalog: "But what leaves no one indifferent is Vidić's use of juicy and vivid colors. The complex relationship of warm and cool colors grounded in nature, yet not literal and referential, creates an atmosphere of realism, but at the same time, of the fantastic, sometimes threatening ambiance. Thus, in paintings like 'Sun's Farewell' from 2014 and 'Encounter of Sun and Sea' from 2015, we see the entire rhapsody of the sunset palette, sometimes enhanced by colors that are not referential, to a more subdued color palette of paintings from the wartime period, such as 'Blue Mountain' from 1993 and 'Blue Area' from 1994, which also create a tense atmosphere. We could notice how the artist's spiritual compass rests on the relation of priest-painter, while his visual compass rests on the relation of north-south. In landscapes, the relation of the north could be found in the snowy landscapes of Bosnian mountains, and the relation of the south in warm and colorful paintings of the Mediterranean and Dubrovnik. Such a dichotomy permeates Vidić both as a priest and as a painter because considering the strict rules for priestly life, we might think that they are visible in painting in mathematical compositions that systematically and steadily create order, rhythm, and harmony."

Biography

Friar Petar Perica Vidić was born on August 7, 1938, in Sarajevo. He completed primary school in Sarajevo and classical gymnasium at the Franciscan Gymnasium in Visoko. He completed his studies in philosophy and theology at the Franciscan Theology in Sarajevo. In 1962, he worked in the studio of the academic painter Gabrijel Jurkić. After that, in 1965 and 1966, he worked in the studio of the academic painter Prof. Stane Kregar in Ljubljana. In the summer of 1966, he went to Vienna and attended the Academy of Fine Arts. He was a student of the graphic department, in the class of Prof. Max Melcher. From 1970, he taught fine arts, and later art history at the Franciscan Classical Gymnasium in Visoko. He held many positions in his Community. Since 2000, he has been the president of the Croatian Heritage Foundation branch in Sarajevo. He is a member of many cultural and artistic societies. Since 1995, he has been a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and in 2005, he was elected as a full member. He has exhibited several times at group exhibitions and has had more than 100 solo exhibitions in the country and abroad.

The exhibition "Service of the Eye" by Friar Petar Perica Vidić is open from May 16th to June 23rd, 2024, every working day from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

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