Gallery Babka and Gallery of Naive Art in Kovacica

Jan Glozik, detail from 200 Anniversary of Slovak Artists in Kovacica, 2002

Gallery of Naive Art, Kovacica

Our visit to Kovacica (the blacksmith's town) began at the well-known Gallery of Naive Art in Vojvodina.  It opened in 1955.

In 1802, artists from Slovakia settled in Kovacica (Koh-va-chitzah).  Today, the Gallery of Naive Art displays an enormous number of paintings by various artists who were born in Serbia from these families. Jan Glozik's painting describes the arrival of these immigrants through a joyous collection of 200 lively figures and colorful clothes from that period.

Jan Glozik, Arrival of Slovak Artists, 2002
(to celebrate the 200th anniversary)

Zuzana Chalupova, Portrait and Paintings

Zuzana Chalupova (1925-2001) may be the Grandma Moses [Anna Mary Robertson Moses) and Mary Cassatt of Serbia rolled into one.  Like Grandma Moses, she was a naive artist whose fame came late in life.  For Chalupova, she was about 43 years old.  Like Mary Cassatt, she loved to paint children, but had none of her own.  

A memorial for Zuzana Chapulova in the Gallery of Naive Art

Zuzana Chapulova, Playing in the Snow, 1977

Martin Jonas (1924-1996)

Martin Jonas, Behind the Pumpkins, n.d.

Martin Jonas  helped found The Kovacica October exhibition in 1952 with fellow artists Jan Sokol, and Martin Paluska. Jonas is among my favorites.

Jan Sokol painting

Martin Paluska, Farm Scene, n.d.

Gallery Babka is situated across from the Gallery of Naive Art in the same courtyard.

Pavel Babka leads a tour in his gallery, Kovacica

Michael Idvorski Pupin - Birthplace and Museum in Idvor, about thirty minutes from our home in Serbia

Mihajlo [Michael] Idorski Pupin, in 1890

Michael/Mihaljo Pupin was born in the tiny village of Idvor in the Vojvodina province of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (now Serbia) in 1858.  He started his education in Idvor in a Serbian Orthodox school, then entered a German elementary school in Perlez, and went on to high school in Pancevo.  His exceptional performance drew the attention of his teachers who encouraged him to study in Prague, beginning in 1872.  After the death of his father in 1874, he left school and emigrated to the United States. He was 16 years old.

Shortly after arriving in New York, he found work in a biscuit factory. He studied English, Greek and Latin.  In 1879, he entered Columbia University, graduating with high honors in 1883.  From 1883 to 1885, he continued his education at the University of Cambridge, and then completed his Ph.D. at the University of Berlin.  He returned to Columbia University in 1889 and joined the Electric Engineering Department.  

In 1914, he founded the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Art.  He became a physicist, chemical physicist, inventor and founding member of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), in 1915 - which became NASA. Pupin's contributions to physics, engineering, communications, medicine, education and culture are legendary - he was a remarkable man. 

Pupin died in 1935, before the community center he donated to Idvor was completely built. 

Birthplace in Idvor, Vojvodina

Birthplace

Birthplace

Birthplace

Birthplace

Birthplace

Pupin Community Center and Auditorium, Idvor

At the park next to the Pupin Community Center, all arrows point to destinations
 measured in kilometers from Idvor

Pupin Community Center - interior

Pupin Museum, Idvor

(An eclectic collection of all sorts of items used in Serbian life, 

from traditional farming to modern inventions - such as the radio.)

Pupin Hall, Columbia University, completed in 1927

Michael Pupin and his wife Sarah, Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx, New York

(On a personal note: Perlez is the town to next Knicanin in Serbia.  Pancevo - you will see soon - is where our cousins on the Nesic side live.  Woodlawn Cemetery is located near the apartment building where my aunt, uncle and cousins lived in the Bronx.)

Knićanin - A Quick Tour

Welcome to the 'hood

Staven Knicanin

Typical Austro-Hungarian influence on Vojvodina style

Village houses with farm equipment parked outside on the lawn

In front of the hardware store

More Pissarro than Monet

More Daubigny than Corot

Auto repair

Public water source

Dish for television reception

The crumbling house next door

Prijeno - Bon Appetit

Tractor - this is farm country

Ladies gossip in front of the grocery store

One of more recent additions to a house

Typical Serbia pattern on a fence

Bicycles are the main source of transportation

Rose of Sharon  (Hibiscus syriacus) in Serbia

Leaving Knicanin

Kod Nas, Chez Nous, Casa Nesic, Our House in Knićanin, Vojvodina, Serbia

Our house is located in a little rural village called Knićanin (Kah-nitch-a-neen), on the banks of the Tisa River, in the Banat region of the Vojvodina province (formerly part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire).

My parents-in-law, Olga and Kosta Nesic, had the house built in 1977-78.  It is among the more modern designs in the neighborhood. 

The front steps to the front door, approached through boxwood hedges - delicious aroma!

Mingled with roses.

A view of the front yard, looking up at the terrace in front of the master bedroom windows.

The terrace behind the house, next to the living room, overlooking the backyard garden.

Our living room.

Central hall.

Our kitchen.

Our master chef.

Our super [rented] car: Chevy Spark.  (BG for Belgrade.)

Dovidenja - see you again,

Beth New York