{"id":1317,"date":"2020-02-28T13:00:52","date_gmt":"2020-02-28T13:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.pafaarchives.org\/blog\/?p=1317"},"modified":"2021-05-06T14:10:40","modified_gmt":"2021-05-06T14:10:40","slug":"john-rhodens-circle-ana-beslic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.pafaarchives.org\/blog\/collection\/john-rhodens-circle-ana-beslic\/","title":{"rendered":"John Rhoden’s circle: Ana Be\u0161li\u0107"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Contributed by Kelin Baldridge,<\/em> Project Archivist for the John Rhoden papers<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One thing that has become evident in processing the John Rhoden papers is that Rhoden met a lot of people. Everywhere he traveled, both in America and around the world, John made connections and friendships with many other notable artists. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
John Rhoden and Ana Be\u0161li\u0107 in Be\u0161li\u0107’s studio on December 6, 1958. <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In order to highlight the breadth of his circle, we thought\nit might be interesting to do a series of introductions to the many people John\nencountered during his career, as evidenced by the John Rhoden papers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

First up is Serbian sculptor Ana Be\u0161li\u0107. John met Be\u0161li\u0107\nduring his trip to the Soviet Union as an art specialist working with the United\nStates Department of State between 1958 and 1959. In Serbia, John visited\nartists\u2019 studios, likely at the University of Fine Arts in Belgrade, on\nDecember 6, 1958. During this visit, he met notable Yugoslav artists including\nBe\u0161li\u0107, Sreten Stojanovi\u0107, Mi\u0107a Popovi\u0107, Miodrag B. Proti\u0107, Olga Jevri\u0107 and Olga\nJan\u010di\u0107. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Be\u0161li\u0107 in her studio in Belgrade surrounded by her sculpture.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Be\u0161li\u0107 was born in Bajmok,\nSerbia in 1912, at which time the town consisted primarily of Hungarians,\nBunjevci, and Germans, with a much smaller population of Serbs. Be\u0161li\u0107 was of\nBunjevci heritage. She was the daughter of Lazo Be\u0161li\u0107, a landowner in Zagreb,\nGraz, and Vienna. Ana Be\u0161li\u0107 attended school in all three of those locations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Be\u0161li\u0107\u2019s career as an artist did not begin until after she was married. In 1939, she was admitted to the Academy of Fine Arts in Belgrade, though her studies were paused during World War II. She went on to become integral member of a group of artists who, in the 1950\u2019s, served as a pioneering force in contemporary Yugoslav art. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several sources tie this movement of the 1950\u2019s to a few pivotal moments in Yugoslav culture including Miroslav Krleza\u2019s speech at the Writers\u2019 Congress of Ljubljana in 1952 and Henry Moore\u2019s 1955 exhibition in Belgrade. Krleza argued that Yugoslav Socialist art should be free from constraint and come in an array of styles. This speech made avant-garde, abstract, and modernist art (as opposed to realism and the re-working of traditional Western styles) a matter of patriotism. Moore\u2019s exhibition provided the artistic inspiration for many notable Serbian artists of the time. This movement culminated in the establishment of the Contemporary Art Museum in Belgrade in 1958.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Be\u0161li\u0107 with fellow artist and John’s travel companion, William A. Smith. <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

As noted above, Be\u0161li\u0107 was an integral character in this movement and the cultural moments above seem to have had a clear impact on her art. Moore\u2019s influence in particular is evident in Be\u0161li\u0107\u2019s penchant for monumental sculpture and her series of \u201cassociative forms,\u201d completed in 1959, which are directly reminiscent of Moore\u2019s numerous connected forms. In addition to outside influences, Be\u0161li\u0107 found the whiteness of her sculptures to be deeply important and also referred to her abstract figures as deep studies of the female form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Be\u0161li\u0107\u2019s associative forms were exhibited at the Rodin Museum in Paris in 1961, the Yugoslav Contemporary Sculpture Exhibition in Paris and Rome in 1961 and 1962, and at a solo exhibition in Belgrade in 1963. She additionally exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 1962. She won the October Prize of Belgrade (likely related to the October Salon, Belgrade\u2019s largest contemporary art exhibition) in 1979, the Pro Urbe Prize in 1997, and the Ferenc and Forum Prize of Bodrogvari. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much of her work now resides in various locations in Subotica, Serbia, including the City Museum of Subotica, Palic Park, and the Subotica Theater. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Be\u0161li\u0107 observing a photograph of John Rhoden’s sculpture, Laika (Russian Space Dog). <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Check back in for more profiles on the many interesting people in John Rhoden’s circle!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sources:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  • \u00d6r\u00f6ksz\u00e1rnyal\u00f3: Ana Be\u0161li\u0107 szabadkai Pro Urbe d\u00edjas szobr\u00e1szm\u0171v\u00e9sz hal\u00e1lh\u00edr\u00e9re : https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20110714021537\/http:\/\/archiv.magyarszo.com\/arhiva\/2008\/01\/31\/main.php?l=b11.htm <\/li>
  • Designers & Creators Directory: Ana Beslic: https:\/\/www.spomenikdatabase.org\/ana-beslic <\/li>
  • Yugoslav Art and Culture: From the Art of a Nation to the Art of a Territory: http:\/\/www.yuhistorija.com\/culture_religion_txt01.html <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    This project,\u00a0Rediscovering John W. Rhoden: Processing, Cataloging, Rehousing, and Digitizing the John W. Rhoden papers<\/em>, is funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities, a federal agency. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    ABOUT THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Created in 1965 as an independent federal agency, the National \nEndowment for the Humanities supports research and learning in history, \nliterature, philosophy, and other areas of the humanities by funding \nselected, peer-reviewed proposals from around the nation. Additional \ninformation about the National Endowment for the Humanities and its \ngrant programs is available at: www.neh.gov.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Contributed by Kelin Baldridge, Project Archivist for the John Rhoden papers One thing that has become evident in processing the John Rhoden papers is that Rhoden met a lot of people. Everywhere he traveled, both in America and around the world, John made connections and friendships with many other notable artists. In order to highlight […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,40,5],"tags":[31,30,29],"class_list":["post-1317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-collection","category-digital-archives","category-grant","tag-johnrhoden","tag-neh","tag-rhoden"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.pafaarchives.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.pafaarchives.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.pafaarchives.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.pafaarchives.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.pafaarchives.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1317"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blog.pafaarchives.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1688,"href":"https:\/\/blog.pafaarchives.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1317\/revisions\/1688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.pafaarchives.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.pafaarchives.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.pafaarchives.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}