Gift-Collection of Mara Ognjanović
Every donated collection is a window into a life lived. This year, the Gallery of Matica Srpska is delighted to open the doors to the intimate world of the renowned Novi Sad physician Dr Marija Mara Ognjanović. Through this unique collection, which has now become a permanent part of our cultural heritage, we discover her private life, everyday world, and artistic taste.
The opening of the exhibition Gift-Collection of Mara Ognjanović will take place on Saturday, 19 September at 7 p.m. The guests will be addressed by Dr Tijana Palkovljević Bugarski, Director of the Gallery of Matica Srpska, Marina Mandić, a major benefactor of the Gallery, and MSc Nikola Ivanović, curator of the exhibition.
The exhibition presents the legacy of Dr Mara Ognjanović through objects that reflect the different layers of her life – from works of art, portraits, and family photographs, to furniture and objects of applied art, as well as personal belongings associated with her medical profession. The exhibition is conceived as a portrait of a woman told through her home, the people who shaped her life, the city in which she lived, and the profession to which she was devoted.
A special place in the exhibition is given to the works of Đorđe Tabaković, with whom Mara Ognjanović was on friendly terms. His watercolours and drawings depict places in her immediate surroundings – Trifković Square, the streets of Novi Sad, and the Ognjanović family home. The dedications “To dear Mara” reveal the personal nature of these works and bear witness to the close bond between the physician and the artist, as well as to the civic milieu that shaped the Novi Sad of their time.
Visitors will also have the opportunity to see a portrait of Mara Ognjanović painted in 1974 by Jovan Sevdić, a painter and the first post-war conservator of the Gallery of Matica Srpska, as well as objects of applied art, including a bowl designed by René Lalique.
The value and significance of this donated collection for the Gallery of Matica Srpska’s holdings and for the national cultural heritage are further demonstrated by the fact that one of the works from the collection, The Virgin and Child, is on display in the Gallery’s permanent collection. Ivan Tabaković’s Artistice from 1936 is currently included in the exhibition Hidden Spaces of Great Masters: The Studios of Serbian Artists, which is on view at the Museum of Herzegovina in Trebinje and will subsequently be presented at the Museum of Contemporary Art of the Republic of Srpska in Banja Luka from November.
Dr Marija Mara Ognjanović (Kumane, 1912 – Novi Sad, 1990) was a physician, senior consultant, and specialist in phthisiology – the medical field devoted to the prevention and treatment of tuberculosis. She graduated from the Faculty of Medicine in Belgrade in 1936, specialised in Budapest, and furthered her training at the Children’s Hospital in Zurich. She devoted most of her medical career to the health of children and young people.
During the Second World War, together with her husband, Dr Đorđe Ognjanović, she was part of a medical team sent to the Sárvár internment camp. After the liberation, she continued working in Novi Sad healthcare institutions, where through her professional and scientific work she contributed to the prevention and treatment of tuberculosis and to the advancement of healthcare for children and young people. Known to her patients and colleagues as Aunt Mara, she received the October Award of the City of Novi Sad in 1977 for her many years of dedicated work.
The donated collection thus becomes more than a collection of preserved objects. It offers an opportunity to explore the private world of Dr Mara Ognjanović through the material traces of her life – her home on Trifković Square, her relationships with the people around her, and the time in which she lived. Every object has a story of its own, and every story preserves the trace of a life.
The exhibition will be on view until 22 November 2026.