Painter Olja Ivanjicki passed away at the age of 78 in Belgrade.
She was born in Pančevo in 1931, and spent her youth in Kragujevac and Belgrade, where she studied sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts.
After completing her postgraduate studies, in 1962 she received a scholarship from the Ford Foundation to continue her studies in the USA.
With several important artists - Leonid Šejko, Milić od Mačva, Milovan Vidak, Svetozar Samurović, Kosto Bradić, Siniša Vuković and others, she founded the Mediala artistic group in 1953, which was joined by numerous artists in the following years. Mediala combined traditional values with contemporary trends, following the art of the Renaissance and classicism.
Olja Ivanjicki had 87 solo exhibitions in the country and abroad, in the "Metropolitan" museum in New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art and the National Museum in Belgrade, "Philip Beman" in Philadelphia, the "Knights of Malta" museum in New York...
He is the winner of many awards and recognitions. She was chosen as the best painter of the 20th century in Yugoslavia based on a vote conducted among the Yugoslav public.
He is the winner of the "Sedmojulska" and "Vukove" awards for life's work, the highest honors in the country.
