Ljubomir Perčinlić
Construction of Whiteness
National Gallery of Bosnia and Herzegovina
5–28 March 2026
Opening: 5 March 2026 at 7:00 PM
The National Gallery of Bosnia and Herzegovina presents an exhibition dedicated to the work of Ljubomir Perčinlić, one of the key figures of Bosnian and Herzegovinian abstract art in the second half of the twentieth century.
The exhibition brings together works from different phases of his oeuvre — from early interpretations of the Bosnian landscape to radically reduced, almost monochrome compositions. Through a process of condensing form and reducing motifs to planes and tonal variations of white, grey, and bluish hues, Perčinlić developed a painterly language in which the concrete scene gives way to idea, sign, and pictorial structure.
“Ljubomir Perčinlić’s artistic presence within the visual arts of Bosnia and Herzegovina will remain recorded for its significance and distinctiveness. He was an artist who grounded his style in contemporary currents of abstract art, always exploring personal affinities and preferences first, and only then finding points of closeness with models, authorities, and contemporaries. Viewed within an international framework, his art emerged with a certain delay and was not based on authorial innovation; however, it represented a major step forward in the modernization of not only the Bosnian and Herzegovinian art scene but the wider cultural space as well. Thanks to his courage and consistency, he challenged traditional artistic worldviews and opened possibilities for different modes of perception. He attracted like-minded contemporaries who approached art with openness. Few artists were formally close to him, yet they were united by a shared aspiration to explore the new and create the different in order to advance what already existed. Ljubomir Perčinlić’s artistic contribution should be considered through his creative oeuvre, his social engagement in affirming contemporary cultural tendencies, and his role in shaping the art scene through his pedagogical work.”
(Ivana Udovičić, from the exhibition foreword)
Biography
Ljubomir Perčinlić (Zenica, 1939 – Zagreb, 7 September 1998) graduated in painting in 1966 from the Academy of Fine Arts in Belgrade. After completing his studies, he returned to Zenica, where he worked as an art teacher at a grammar school. From 1975 he taught at the Academy of Fine Arts in Sarajevo. In 1992 he moved to Zagreb, where he remained until the end of his life.
As early as the beginning of the 1960s, he initiated a process of reduction and synthesis in his visual language. Starting from landscape, he gradually reduced representation to geometrized forms and subtle variations of light tones, moving away from descriptiveness toward the abstract structure of the painting.
Between 1960 and 1998, he held 60 solo exhibitions and participated in around 200 major group exhibitions across Europe.