The trace, as a record of what has been seen, lived, but also revived (memories); and the trace as a symbol of eternal transformation, natural cycles, duration, and renewal, constitutes a central preoccupation and continuous incentive throughout Ana Viđen’s artistic oeuvre.
Over more than six decades of artistic practice, Viđen has explored the effects of natural processes on matter itself, recognizing in them an opportunity for artistic expression. This expression preserves the vitality of these natural flows—now “captured” and transformed into works of art. Undeniably influenced by her native Adriatic region, with its distinctive beauty and coastal environment—its waters, rocks, winds, and the often unpredictable whims of the weather—Viđen creates organic and biomorphic forms that, much like herself, “remember” all the cycles, changes, and events that have shaped them.
Ana Viđen’s artistic expression, predominantly non-figurative, belongs to a current within contemporary art that can be classified as abstract form. Similar to Barbara Hepworth, Viđen finds inspiration in the marine environment, particularly in its rocky landscapes with their rich and distinctive shapes. Her sculptures consistently exhibit a vivid inner life and dynamic flows, manifesting equally in the sculptural mass and on its surface.Whether in clay, stone, or metal, her works are characterized by the shimmering of their surfaces, the organic flows of material, and the pulsations of mass that lie within.
The grooves that ripple across the surface—gleaming and luminous in contrast to the surrounding mass, as well as within the mass, shallow incisions that appear to have been formed by natural processes, produce an impression of the elemental forces of nature at work. Her sculptures also exhibit textures that evoke the dryness and cracking from the summer heat of the Mediterranean sun, alongside the softness and fluidity of swelling water currents, sublimated into a compelling artistic statement.
The sculptures conceived for public spaces—both those realized and those unrealized in permanent materials—demonstrate Viđen’s keen sense of how monumental sculpture interacts with the open space, always engaging in dialogue with its surroundings.
I have never looked up, but have always looked… for a stone. And in that one small stone, I looked for everything… It is an entire universe—the tiny stone I find on the shore or anywhere… it draws me in. Because I simply feel that it is what I need.
ANA VIĐEN
(Dubrovnik, 1931)
Ana Viđen graduated and completed her postgraduate studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Belgrade (1954–1961). She spent a year specializing in Athens, Greece, as a recipient of a scholarship from the Greek government (1961–1962). A member of the Association of Fine Artists of Serbia (ULUS) since 1961, she participated in over ten solo exhibitions and numerous group exhibitions both nationally and internationally.
Her works are part of prominent museum and gallery collections, including the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Museum of Yugoslavia in Belgrade, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Skopje (North Macedonia), and the National Museum of Montenegro in Cetinje, among others. Viđen created a significant number of monumental sculptures for public spaces across Serbia (Belgrade, Aranđelovac, Vrnjačka Banja, Kikinda), Montenegro (Danilovgrad), and North Macedonia (Prilep).
She has received multiple awards, including the Special Award at the Biennale of Yugoslav Sculpture in Vrnjačka Banja in 1973, the ULUS Award at the ULUS Spring Exhibition in Belgrade in 1974, the “Winter Salon” Award in Herceg Novi in 1983, the First Prize for the Monument to Petar I Petrović in Danilovgrad in 1983, the First Prize for Open-Air Sculpture “Space” in Belgrade in 1984, and First Prizes at the International Biennale of Miniature Art in Gornji Milanovac in 1990 and 1992, among others.
In addition to sculpture, Viđen works in painting and ceramics. She lives and works in Belgrade.