Pine Trees

Mališa Glišić managed to fulfill his almost monastic desire to attain the pointillist (divisionist) painting technique of his idol, the Italian painter Giovanni Segantini, in his artistic cycle of big format paintings during his studies in Rome. Along with his paintings entitled The Road to Monte Circeo, Monte Teodorico and Via Appia, the painting entitled Pine Trees belongs to the very apex of the painter’s achievements. Painted in early spring when Glišić was finishing his academic studies, the Pine Trees is a true reflection of the painter’s preoccupation: to attain optical harmony and the colouristic concord of complementary colours through relief facture reminiscent of the structure of a swallow’s nest. This piece, along with others from his Roman period was in a sense a harbinger of future artistic practice which would bring forth the advent of art informel and the painting of layered structures in the 1950s. During his lifetime, this painting was exhibited on two occasions:. It could be seen among three exhibits with the same title, at the Forth Yugoslav Art Exhibition, reviewed by Nadežda Petrović in the Štampa: “Mališa Glišić has talent, his landscapes, although pastosely painted, do possess expression in form and tones. The landscapes are well chosen motif-wise and well framed; the contrasts of the cadmium and cobalt tones with ultramarine are frequently successfully expressed and harmonized, especially the one representing several groups of cadmium and vermilion houses in the sun, which have violet hills and skies in the background.” It appeared for the second time at a retrospective exhibition held from 17–27 May 1914 in The Second Belgrade High School, but there is very scant information on the event.