Nikica Raičević was born in Podgorica 1946. He graduated at the Teacher's College (art direction) in Nikšić in 1972, and graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts (Painting Department) in Belgrade in 1977, in the class of the Professor Mladen Srbinović, where he also got his MA in 1979. He was a scholar of the French government in the period from 1980 to 1981, specializing in the Beaux-Arts in Paris in the class of the Professor Piero Matthee. He is a member of ULUCG since 1977. He lives and works in Podgorica.
The game of light and stone left an impression and influenced me from the early childhood, that the form and mass of the rock me my major challenge. Over time, I was looking for and discovering its powers. My arts were a bit of that gray stone, with the Mediterranean light that comes from pure refraction of the sun and sea, specific energy, specific power
How did you spend the youth days in Gornja Gorica and from where is idea and the interest for painting?
The fact is that the growing up along the river and the hill Gorica was important. Like little boys, we were going to the hill to look and to climb as much as higher possible, to give us a broader and more familiar views and to get to know the environment better. Certainly, at that time I was fascinated by the power of rock and wanted to climb the rock, to see even more so the traces remaind until this day. Perhaps this was the reason why it was decided that in my paintings there will be just low hills, how people from Goričani would have said, no mountains and ranges, but the stone that you can cover with both hands, you can even take it home in the yard and play with it, or to fumble it, not as endlessly as Sisyphus, but simply to be your friend. On the stone you can sit, rest, put the freshly picked fruit from the garden, to read any time of day, because its shadow certainly shows the right time of the day. That game of light and stone from the early childhood, left an impression so that the form and rock’s mass become my major challenge. Over time, I was looking and discovering its power. And no wonder, Montenegro is leaning on the Mediterranean Sea and the warm southern winds, and the cold north winds that bring snow and ice, I have been there somewhere in between. My painting was about that grayness of the stone, with the Mediterranean light that comes from pure refraction of the sun and the sea, and has a specific energy, and a specific power. I am not ashamed of my paintings, just put the point as a powerful light that reflects dew drop which seized upon this rock, and simply, as a kind of crystal attracts and causes so that the human finds in the beauty of the color spectrum a special and exceptional visual and special power.
That so called "stone landscape" runs through your whole creation, from the beginning and follows you today. What attracts and pulls you to discover new horizons, new insights and give a new symbolic to the stone?
It is the power and strength of the stone boulder did not arouse fear helplessness in me. It dragged me to realize which not only its earth power was, but also why such a massive rock attracts me to understand the power of nature, because it has a cosmic power. At one point under a certain light, it acts as an independent planet, asteroid, which gently landed down to the earth. My desire is to touch the rock boulder and then paint it. It seems to me that I get the energy and power by touching the stones, and then I easily pass the feeling on to the canvas and paint them, which gave me an extra energy, especially composing this form. That boulder, that stone in that image frame brought in some way a thinking point if it was just about empty mapping, or it is composed in a mysterious composition which is, perhaps, at first side simple, but if the position of the the mass is taken into account , you will see that there are many secrets, mysteries that I perhaps subconsciously set myself to read them in the coming years of creativity. It seems to me, when I look now at the older pictures, I begin to understand the real challenge, what was that thing that made me draw it and after thirty-one years I still constantly try to exhaust that theme- that is the energy of the stone of our Montenegrin. We should not forget that we were born from the stone, from the stone we have built our homes, we live on it, and when you finish the life cycle, we rests beneath it, in the endless sleep until it turns into dust and the cosmic force take it away with our with our remnants somewhere in the infinite, in the universe.
What the cypress symbolizes in your paintings?
In my paintings beside the rocks and the water in the karst which have got there after the storm and the white clouds in the background, a cypress can be found. This trinity of stone, water and cloud, at first white pure and innocent, brings tremendous energy, brings water, and the water i.e. the rain gives life. That is not a lifeless wilderness. Than as a vertical line, as a landmark I always try to put the cypress. That ids an extraordinary plant for me, a tree that is on its own way elegant and simply fascinates with its appearance anyone who is proud, anyone who has in himself the dignity of the vertical. The cypress does not exist only in the mythical tales as a symbol. This tree is a kind of combination of heaven and earth.
What the stone pyramids of the canyon symbolize in your paintings?
For me it was interesting one thing about some cliffs of the canyon. We should not forget that two rivers that flow through Podgorica, Morača and Cijevna, whit its water power have broken through the bitterest stones and hardest rocks and mountains and the power of that water, which later flows into the Lake Skadar and here becomes calm and quiet, provides life. It seems to me that the cliffs when I watch them while I paint, are not all gray, sad, broken up to infinity, but they just a kind of plateau or a side on which the sunlight reflects and with these fantastic transition or the shades of the colors, draws tremendous energy and respecting the power of light, nature and stones if a human knows how to enjoy in the nature.
This power is reflected in the colors of your painting, which are dark and represent a special force and intractability but not a dark background image. Is that a realistic experience of colors in your paintings?
Of course.When you do an outline of the rocks and mountains, which are composed of several layers, it means that they represent few living layers. It is known that the limestone is product of former life, billions of years of sea deposited shells and some ancient living organisms through walls and earthly tectonic forces like the wind, the water and the frost made the man from the darkness of that time finally see the beauty of the stone. As I watch my canyons, streets are full of traffic and huge glass skyscrapers reflecting the hills and mountains, I have the impression that it is still accumulated in the human essence, which passes through the canyon Morača or some other rivers, have a need to do the same here in the valley but from the other material. I always notice the reflection in the glass facades that reflect the hills and mountains and the beautiful landscape. In addition, it is simply amazing how much we loose in one moment, because we have the feeling that we are far away from the mountains, the deserts, the stone canyons and then only a view can turn you back. The nature is a new challenge; a new endeavor to continue to work even f that is a contrast. That was created by the nature and this was created by the man. Man and nature will always have continuity and change in the joint creation of new shapes and new forms.
The trinity, as you said, the rocks, the water and the clouds, you also paint some fruits of nature such as the pomegranates. Why the pomegranate on the stone?
Cloud brings rain, rain fills the cavity in the rock and they are so-called saxifrage. Saxifrage is a small volume of water that provides life, where there us, there is life. The water from the saxifrage provides life to birds, eagles and some plants that draw part of the water and it seems to me that the pomegranates contrasts to that tedium with its vermilion red, from beautiful flowers and wonderful fruit and berries. There is no artist or painter who may be indifferent when they see the the red pomegranate fruit in the middle of the desert. The pomegranate took special place and symbolism in the human life and the religion. It is characteristic of Mediterranean’s flora and I believe, a real symbol of our stone and of Montenegro. Full of energy, challenges and helps us to create, to work, to live and, above all, to believe that life is possible even where there is no hope just if there is a white cloud like angel. He protects us and brings the power of fait, that is a cloud which give us life. If I have two more lives, the cloud will never deny my wish to paint even more. It seems to me that I have not made enough landscape paintings as challenging as the Montenegrin.
At all stages of creation you stayed faithful to the Montenegrin landscape. Have you ever had a doubt to replaced it with some other landscape?
When I went on the special studies in Paris at "Bozar" I have taken the reproductions of my paintings. The professor said that for him the most interesting are the things that students bring from their country, landscape, mystical, creativity and work which is real, not something that came from the provinces with sign supermodern or something that was a copy paste. I was always bringing the original without considering whether that will appeal to someone or not, because I am continuously working on the Montenegrin landscape. In France, I tried making a few small landscapes of the French Alps. When I saw that it was not the same light, it is not the same relief, and it isn’t that makes my Montenegro charming, challenging and unique, I rejected everything and returned to the place that I know best, which causes me the most, and gives me an inexhaustible subject, that I might spend a whole life practically discovering and painting the beauty and mystery of stone that are frequented by the Illyrians, Romans and Slavs. Here is Duklja, an old Roman city, art and architecture inspired by the beauty and power of nature and water. Today I try to discover the challenges of the people, who create and believe that I have come to the right motives. Thus, under this light all is clear. Here is the shadow deep drawn in the ground and there are no dilemmas.
Is this that same light that inspired our famous painter Peter Lubarda and led him with same footsteps?
Exactly. Peter Lubarda would have never become a great painter if he did not discover the power and the beauty of the Montenegrin landscape. Among young people graduating from art school I have noticed that it is not a great challenge to paint Montenegro. Peter Lubarda, Vuko Radović, a big painter who painted the canyon Morača, Nikola Vujosević, who also painted the canyon Morače and other painters tied to paint the landscape of Montenegro. I have seen resistance from my colleagues who went and had art experiences in the Western countries and simply got lost there. I had never lost my trails, even if this is distant for someone, I rather to say distant landscape, but here I remarkably find myself. Simply, this is my home, my workshop, and I paint and I have never had a inquietude sleep.
The peace that reflects in your images it is so obvious that exude a quiet and subtle relationship between you and the things you are creating. What is the thing that calms in your paintings?
This is a meditating landscape. In this landscape, I find something that looks almost impossible. I find something subconsciously what happens to me. But how? When you paint a picture, you think that it is sufficiently explained by a glance, and that is all. Count the rocks, count the water and actually when you analyze better you will see how many little secrets there is, how many human virtues and characteristics. It is like a mystery when you pick up a stone and see that there is a new life flourishing under it , new space, which is a fantastic challenge for me.
Is it the beauty dimension that makes this moment timeless?
In my paintings, some say, in the canyons the water forest can be heard. The water does not have noise. You are surprised by the view of the painting where the silence disappears. As the canyon had hide you from the urban noise, from everything. You simply let yourself to the silence, a fantastic range of colors that brings you into a state of meditation and here you are protected. If the canyon does not cause fear, will probably provoke awe. Between the cliffs you enter into the canyon as you enter in the temple. When you exit from the canyon you will see crystal clear water and it is a sign that your soul, when you come here, completely purifies, you are clean and you have a chance to find salvation for any mental ailment and you're a human being who is one step, for one stone block bigger, stronger and stronger.
What make you use the techniques in your drawing, painting, canvas, paper and general material on which you work and paint techniques that you convey your emotions?
Oil painting gives me power to foam material, which in good hands of a skilled artist or connoisseur of crafts painting, provides the ability to create layers on the painting. In my work, no color was put clean. Below every color are other colors. Because, I think, the color palette practically discovers the power of nature and colors such as canola to allow the several layers to get the right tone that we require. It is like a stone. Maybe it is gray and lifeless until you break it and you see its heart, clean, even in some cases white as shine. And actually evolves and on its past one life and know the signs of that life. As with other techniques such as watercolor to put it on a stone, it will mean true desert for the stone. In the desert the water drop could mean an extension of the life, hope for an extension of another 24 hours. And just because I like the watercolor technique that requires a lot of water, shade and flood, just want to express the landscape, the stone, the fluid. I want on these watercolors to catch the air that flows, which binds us to this rocky landscape and the depth of the picture. Somehow I managed to fill it up with oil paints what I could not do. And then, the peace that was brought to the point that for me is the level that you do not need anything more to add or subtract, the work is completed, should be dated and signed, then the picture is complete for me.
What the painter Nikica Raičević in the wake of the time wants to leave for the young generations?
The most important thing is, like my predecessors Petar Lubarda, Vuko Radović, Mijo Vujošević left their mark for all time in their pictures, to somehow extend the length of the beauties of Montenegro. The present civilization seems the landscape horribly changed. In the beautiful landscape of Piva canyon you will come across the dam, concrete mass which destroyed and stopped a stream, destroyed beauty. You will see the poles of power lines, bridges that straddle the canyons, new roads. Original clean landscape is rare. We will not have undisturbed nature. It seems that Europe has realize that we still try to defend their advice what we left from the nature to preserve it as it is, in its natural form.
(Read the completre interview of the printed issue of Renome number 6.)
Interviewed by Radmila Krgović
