The photograph “The
Painter’s Studio: A Real Allegory”, executed as
print and mounted on the wall of the Kalemegdan fortress, is
juxtaposed with the tennis court and the play going on there,
whereby the original concept of the painting by Gustave Courbet
is expanded and acquires a new meaning.
(…) “Very few paintings have such importance
in the history of modern art as Courbet’s “The
Painter’s Studio: an Allegory”. The scene of an
independent artist in the very centre of society reflects ideals
of individual freedom, which most people admire in art, as
well as Courbet himself, who bravely decided to show that ideal.
However, it is worth remembering that Courbet created this
mythical role of an artist after a series of paintings in which
he emphasized the mortality of people and categorised their
peculiarities in the form of various social circumstances.
Despite grandiosity and transcendentalism of the painting’s
philosophical intentions, “The Painter’s Studio:
A Real Allegory” represents a compensatory myth in the
face of limits of the modern man.” (…)
James H Rubin
Courbet, Phaidon 1997
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