Blue Store Window

Art in Paris during the 1920s and 1930s was imbued with an international spirit: Picasso, Soutine, Modigliani, Kisling, Foujita and many others came from different parts of the world creating the art of the “Paris School.” They were also joined by young artists and sculptors from the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Petar Lubarda among others, who was already spending his fourth year in the “capital of art.” That was a period of experimenting, initial eclectic quests for his artistic expression. Lubarda knew he had to start from the beginning, and the beginning involved objects and nature. He learned by observing, and he comprehended that which he had seen in a unique way. He painted still-lifes, figures, cityscapes, and at the time he undertook to paint Parisian scenes (Blue Store Window, From Paris, Blue Salon – Café) his painting began to be increasingly refined. In the Blue Store Window from the Beljanski Collection, the tone became more uniform, the artist no longer applied paint over paint but was clearly outlining painted areas. Thus Lubarda achieved that specific emotional tension in his expression that was to be expressed more fully a few years later when, having returned to his homeland, he vigorously started painting Montenegrin landscapes. In fact, his painting had been imbued with deepest emotions from the very beginning, expressed in intense colour in the Blue Store Window and other pieces from this period. Later on, Lubarda transformed this forceful expression into an almost colourless tonal painting, through which he was able to express more completely his omnipresent ties with the specific character of his homeland.