Vojislav Jakic (Serbia, 1932-2003), 1988, pen and ink on paper, signed and dated lower right recto, under glass in a wood frame. Size: 19" x 24" (sight), 26" x 31" (frame).

This work by Serbian artist, Vojislav Jakic (1932-2003) is an excellent representation of the artist’s dark, raw drawings, some of which are held in the important Collection de l’art brut in Lausanne, Switzerland. Jakic was born in Macedonia, but spent most of his life in the small Serbian town of Despotovac. Childhood was difficult; his sister and younger brother both passed away from illnesses and his father, as an Orthodox Serbian Priest from Montenegro, was frowned upon by the communist authorities. Jakic drew from an early age, making portraits for his neighbors of their deceased loved ones, and went to Belgrade to study art in 1952. After a failed marriage in the mid-sixties, he returned to live with his mother, and his period of greatest artistic production came after 1969. Jakic’s drawings, frequently filled in to their borders, are landscapes of anxiety, the artist’s contemplations of death and suffering.