Olja Ivanjicki
Olja (Olga) Ivanjicki (Cyrillic: Оља Ивањицки, pronounced [ɔ̝̂ʎa iv̞aɲǐt͡skiː]; 1931-2009) was a well-known Serbian contemporary artist, in fields such as sculpture, poetry, costume design, architecture and writing, but was best known for her painting. She had no fewer than 87 individual exhibitions at home and abroad.[1]
Early years
She was born in 1931 in Pančevo, near Belgrade to Vasily Vasilenko Ivanjicki and Veronika Mihailovna Piotrovska, who had been expelled from Russia after the October Revolution.
Mediala
Active since the 1950s, she came to prominence in Serbia with Mediala, a group of painters, writers, and architects, founded in 1959, which had a significant impact on Belgrade's public and cultural life in the late 1950s/early 1960s. Ivanjicki was the only female painter in the Mediala group. She won a Ford Foundation scholarship in 1962, and migrated to the United States, where she was introduced to pop art.[2] She soon returned to Serbia, where she was credited with introducing pop art to which she had been introduced in the U.S.
She was a member of ULUS, a Belgrade artists' association, and a one-time Deputy Governor of the American Biographical Institute and a Deputy Director General of the International Biographical Center based in Cambridge, England.[3]
Death
Olja Ivanjicki died on 24 June 2009 in Belgrade, aged 78, from undisclosed causes.