When we talk about naive art in the region of Subotica, an unavoidable part of it is tied to the paintings of women from the villages of Tavankut, Đurđin, Mala Bosna and Bikovo, namely the villages inhabited by Bunjevac people. These were self-taught painters and their creation was of a specific style and given subject matter, which appeared in the public in 1961, so at the time of the expansion of naive art in Yugoslavia. Among the first women starting to paint in this manner, there are Cilika Dulić Kasiba and Marga Stipić from Tavankut, and their abilities were recognize and their work was support by the organisers of the Art Colony in Tavankut, operating since 1961. These naive painters exhibited for the first time together with the artists of this colony in Tavankut in 1962. In the following years, the number of painters who worked in this manner has grown and they have been gathered by the cultural-artistic association Matija Gubec in Tavankut. Thus the second half of the sixties was the most significant and most intense period in the development of Bunjevac naive art that would last for ten more years, until 1972 (Zelić 200). It was time when those works of Cilika Dulić, Marga Stipić, Ana and Teza Milodanović, Matija Dulić and Nina Poljaković were made, which would be evaluated positively by critics and as such, these were purchased for public and private collections after the exhibitions. Today, the works of these painters are in the Municipal Museum of Subotica, the Dr Vinko Perčić Native Gallery in Subotica, in the parish church in Đurđin and in the collection of HKPD Matija Gubec in Tavankut.
Ljubica Vuković Dulić
Bibliography:
1. Zelić Naco (2000): Protiv zaborava – Hrvatsko kulturno prosvjetno društvo „Matija Gubec“ Tavankut 1946. – 1996. Hrvatska matica iseljenika i Udruga vojvođanskih i podunavskih Hrvata, Zagreb.