GEORGE JOSIMOVICH

GEORGE JOSIMOVICH

GEORGE JOSIMOVICH was born in Mitrovica, Srem, Jugoslavia, on May 2, 1894. He studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and his outstanding teachers were George Bellows and Randall Davey. He has painted in Jugoslavia and France, and has exhibited at the Carnegie International, the Chicago No-Jury Society of Artists, Marshall Fields, Knoedler's Chicago Gallery, the Chicago Woman's Aid, the Toledo Art Museum and Galerie D'Art Contemparain in Paris. One-artist exhibitions of his work have been held at Galerie D' Art Contemparain of Paris, Knoedler's Chicago• gallery and the Chicago Woman's Aid. He was awarded a silver medal by the Chicago Society of Artists in 1929. His work has been written about by C. J. Bulliet, J. Z. Jacobson, Tom Vickerman and C. V. Knox, in The Arts, the Chicago Evening Post and The Chicagoan.

I paint, first of all, because I have to paint. It is a necessity with me-a most enjoyable necessity. I regard it as a most important activity of my life. I am very much interested in the use of what I would call the basic material in painting-that is, paint itself. And in my work I endeavor to force paint to express the utmost in color, emotion, form and character. Life is in a constant state of flux-never-ceasing motion. Everything breathes, moves, vibrates. And it is my ardent belief that the same should be true in a work of art. It should be alive, dynamically alive. Every part of it should live and every part of it should contribute life to the creation as a whole. A pulsating emotional fire should fuse all parts of a composition into a unified, vibrating whole. It seems obvious to me that anyone who is sensitive and creative enough to deserve to be called an artist will consciously or unconsciously react to life about him. He will react to life in general and with a singular force will he react to those phases of life with which his particular nature and personality have a special kinship. And all this cannot help but leave an impress upon his work which is and must be, if it is sincere, an objective manifestation of his inner self. George Josimovich