The works presented at the X Vitamin gallery represent a new phase in the poetics and
creativity of Nikola Dimitrović. In this cycle, the artist explores the idea that the truth is
found not in objectification but in letting go. The drawings that Dimitrović made wearing a
blindfold on his eyes bring a fresh introspective view of nudity, reminding us of the power
and forcefulness of a nude. From the darkness of a creative block, which is not rare and may
be dangerous, figures have emerged – bare and broken, but at the same time legible, raw and
sincere.
This cycle is not an improvisation but an experiment – a form of communication. Nikola
presents to us what he knows, freed from the control of eyesight, while we recognise in his
works what is familiar to us. So many gazes will be focusing on drawings made without
looking. Is that exactly why they appear before us in their purest form? Does that make them
more truthful?
After a well-received exhibit at the 2024 October Salon and the exhibitions “Favored”
(Omiljeni), Thank you… Next!, BOYS TOYS, “Threads of Memory” (Niti sećanja), “World
Collide” (Sudar svetova), “A Son is Born” (Rodio se sin), the work of Nikola Dimitrović is
already recognisable to the public as much as his proficiency in changing his media of
expression, subjects and motives. The exhibition-going public has grown accustomed to
Dimitrović’s consistent and inexhaustible explorations of the way we see and are seen. In his
practice so far he worked by gazing at others, observing the world through cultural and social
frameworks – whether people defined by stereotypes brought on by tradition and the culture
they inhabit, or faces caught in the digital anonymity of the online ecosystem. His work
oscillated between voyeurism and exploring intimacy, between social distance and attempts
to connect.
Now, however, he is changing his approach. Instead of observing the world around him, he is
turning to his subconscious. Drawing with a blindfold on his eyes, he surrenders to the line
and touch, instead of visual control. Whereas his earlier works emerged from active
observation, this cycle comes from the inside – without the mediation of looking, without the
external world as a filter. In that process, the body is not presented through the lens of social
norms or cultural codes, but as something familiar, instinctive…
This series of works is the best testament that for Nikola, during a process in which looking is
blocked, a drawing comes out as the clearest form of expression. The unconscious
movement of his hand reveals what is most deeply ingrained in him as an artist – the line,
form, actus – and what is most consistently retained in his memory – from everything that is
visible, most clearly retained in his memories are nude figures of men and a portrait of his
partner having coffee.
Nudity predominates in his works presented at the exhibition “The Boy with a Red Cup”
(Dečak sa crvenom šoljom). Throughout the history of art, nudity had different functions and
meanings – from a symbol of fertility in prehistoric times, such as the Venus of Willendorf,
to the idealised presentations of gods, heroes, and athletes of ancient Greece (the Doryphoros
by Polykleitos). Roman art continued that tradition, but used nudity for presenting imperial
power as well. In the Middle Ages, the nude body was mostly associated with religious
subjects, often as a symbol of sin, whereas in the Renaissance, nudity returned as an ideal of
beauty and perfection. The Baroque and Rococo brought a more sensual and theatrical
approach through the works of Rubens and Boucher, while, later, Realism and Impressionism
presented nudity in everyday contexts, like Manet’s famous Olympia. In the 20th and 21st
centuries, artists such as Egon Schiele and Lucian Freud used nudity for exploring identity,
sexuality, and social norms, pushing the boundaries of the traditional perception of the body
in art…
Precisely that moment of digital nudity is thematised by Nikola Dimitrović, an artist who
explores how the body is perceived and consumed in today’s visual space. When he closes
his eyes, the first thing that comes to him is not the idealised nudes from art’s past, but nude
figures of men from apps such as Grindr – images that have become part of today’s collective
visual memory. His work broaches the question of nudity’s future: if for centuries it was a
symbol of power, fertility, passion, and human form, what is it turning into in this era of
unlimited visibility? Will the body finally break free in the digital age, or will it,
paradoxically, grow even more obscure amid the onslaught of images that come and go with
a single move of a finger? Finally, the digital experience of nudity is not only visual – it is
also tactile, governed by touch, by swiping and touching screens. The very word digital
comes from the Latin digitus – finger – underscoring that it is precisely a finger that decides
what will be seen, saved, sent, or deleted. Just like in the world of apps, fingers
unconsciously select and discard images, so Dimitrić’s fingers, deprived of the control of
eyesight, shape drawings instinctively – revealing what truly remains etched in his
subconscious.
Kristina Armuš
