“In sculpture, storytelling should be avoided. We have words for that. I believe that a story should not be embedded in stone, wood, or bronze; rather, the freely shaped form of a piece of stone, wood, or bronze should be allowed to speak in its own language, telling its own story…”
Quote: Ana Bešlić for TV Novosti, 1980. years.
(source: Yugopapir.com )
Photo: Ana Bešlić in the 1960s
Ana Bešlić was born on March 16, 1912, at the farmstead “Šara Pustara” near Bajmok in northern Bačka, into a respected Bunjevac family. She completed primary school in Bajmok and continued her education in Zagreb, Graz, and Vienna.
At the age of 18, she first came into contact with clay, which her father brought from the Danube River. The first sculpture she created was a portrait of her father. She moved to Belgrade in 1937 and began studying sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in 1939, but was forced to interrupt her studies due to the war. During the war, her first work—the portrait of her father—was also lost.
After the war, she graduated in 1947 from the Department of Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Belgrade. She completed her postgraduate studies two years later under Professor Toma Rosandić, and soon became an associate in his studio.
Her first solo exhibition was held in 1954, when she exhibited together with Đorđe Bošan in Subotica. She participated in numerous art colonies and symposia, and also exhibited at significant Yugoslav art exhibitions abroad.
She established her position as a modernist sculptor in what was then an almost exclusively male artistic profession within the Yugoslav art scene, following her path spontaneously and elegantly. During her career, she created both monumental and sculptural works, whose forms differed from large monumental monuments.
Together with Jovan Soldatović, Ratimir Stojadinović, Aleksandar Zarin, Miša Popović, Jovan Kratohvil, Miloš Sarić, and Olga Jančić, she belonged to the circle of young sculptors in the group Prostor 8 (1957–1958), which sought to demonstrate the multiple meanings of sculpture within architectural complexes and urban parks.
After a study stay in Germany in 1967, she began working with a new material—polyester. Four periods have been identified in her work and artistic development: the period of education (until 1954), the associative form (1954–1962), the transitional period (1962–1966), and the sphere period (from 1966), with cycles such as Colored Ball, Portrait, Disc, and Pillows.
Photo: Sculpture 2a, 1973, painted fiberglass, City Museum of Subotica.
She created a significant number of monuments and sculptures in public spaces and interiors in many places across the former Yugoslavia, as well as abroad.
She received numerous awards and recognitions, including the 14th October Salon Award (Belgrade, 1973), the October Award of the City of Belgrade (1979), and the Dr. Ferenc Bodrogvari Award (Subotica, 1983), among others.
The sculptures of Ana Bešlić are held in collections both in the country and internationally. A bequest of twenty of her sculptures has been housed in the City Museum of Subotica since 1983.
Photo: “Sculpture “Birds”, as part of the fountain from 1913.
In addition to the sculpture “Birds” at the center of the 1913 fountain, Ana Bešlić gifted Palić two more beautiful sculptures that still enrich the space around Lake Palić today.
These are the sculptures “Wings” from 1957, which was moved in 1981 from the site of the Memorial Fountain to the Cape of Poetic Hope, and “Thalia” – the first sculpture installed in public space, which has adorned the Summer Stage in Palić since 1951.
Photo: sculpture “Wings”, Cape of Poetic Hope
Photo: sculpture “Thalia”, Summer Stage
Ana Bešlić passed away on January 26, 2008 in Belgrade. Her works will remind us of this unique and talented sculptor from our region for a long time to come.