Still-life

The painting Still-life with eggs, painted a year after Tabaković’s Still-life with Beans (1940), carries the same message – it symbolizes the social status of the artist in pre-war Belgrade. In addition, this depiction of a modest lunch in the studio once more reveals Perić’s inclination to paint ordinary things from everyday life, which was in accord with his recluse but dignified nature, and his realistic expression. The firm organization of the painting, enlivened by the contrast between the warm brown and yellow tones and the fresh, cool blue tone, is characterized by the simple Cézannean form of the objects in it: a frying pan with two eggs, “sunny side up”, half a bread and a bottle of beer. These objects arranged on the table have somewhat darker colours but were painted in clear colours and broader brushstrokes which lend the surface of the painting a restless shimmering quality, under the influence of the “Paris school.” This cultural idiom implied, above all, the cultivation of the plastic and pictorial practice in the painter’s style, which was clearly not devoid of numerous relations with the material world. And yet, it did not place content in the foreground, but the formal characteristics and qualities of the painting. Among the most expressive representatives of Serbian colouristic realism, this piece was chosen in 1971 for the exhibition entitled The Painting of the Fourth Decade in the Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade. One of the most striking paintings with this motif from Beljanski’s collection, Perić’s Still-life is the most frequently rendered subject matter in the children’s visual workshop in the Memorial Collection – no child has ever left the museum without this interesting work of art from 1939 etched deeply into his or her memory.