BARBARIEN

First published: Summer 2025

Predrag Milićević‘s snarling, barking creatures reflect the artist’s inner world, his scorn for society, and the pain of alienation

When Serbian Predrag Milićević made his first artworks, on rolls of wallpaper, in his flat in Jagodina in the late eighties, he spontaneously decided to sign them with the pseudonym “Barbarien”. In Antiquity, the term “barbarian” did not necessarily have negative connotations; it simply meant a “foreigner” or “alien”. For Milićević, the moniker reflected his lack of understanding of the world and society. Milićević was resistant to everything from the outside world and consciously chose to isolate himself. Existential anxiety and a desperate need to find an identity, self-worth and some kind of freedom led him to look for a meaningful way to express himself. He was in his late twenties when he began painting.

Night-time, 2005, 28.5 x 21 in. / 73 x 53 cm.

Born in Jagodina, Serbia, in 1963, Milićević was raised just by his mother, Milinka, who would tell him that the fact that he had red hair meant he was special. Like his father and older brother, he suffered with mental health problems. A fragile boy, he was a deep thinker, inclined to philosophical contemplation. He was also extremely creative. As a teenager, he toured with rock bands, taking photographs of them. He was a member of Yugoslav Photography Association and in 1984 received an award at the World Biennial of Diapositives in Ontario, Canada. That same year, having written poetry and prose since the age of 14, he published a collection of short stories entitled Once upon a Time there were Serbs, a theme that would later reappear in his paintings.

Crucifixion, 1992, oil on canvas, 39.5 x 29.5 in. / 100 x 75 cm

In his art, as “Barbarien”, he transformed daily events in the outside world into parodies, highlighting the absurdity that he witnessed. By the early 1990s, he had formed his own distinctive style which utilised a great expressiveness of form, an intensity of colour and a meta-language of motifs, exemplified in pieces such as his 1993 Nude of an Ordinary Neighbour in an Unusual Position, After Which She Fainted.