ITHACA

2023-08-02 20:00

Maritime Museum

Wednesday, August 2
Maritime Museum, 8 p.m.
ITHACA
 
An exhibition of
ANTUN SBUTEGA, author
 
The exhibition, the first solo exhibition of the artist’s work, will feature twenty oil-on-canvas paintings created by Antun Sbutega over the past thirty-five years, all of which are thematically related to the Bay of Kotor, which for the author represents the port of life – Ithaca. The paintings depict the landscapes of Boka - the sea, hills, sky, seagulls, pigeons, churches, palaces, squares, palm trees, its sailing ships, steamboats, carnival scenes, and bathers, as well as its spiritual dimension, Our Lady, angels, and saints. The style is figurative painting, which, through the depiction of the physical dimension, seeks to enter the metaphysical space. In his works, the author strives to transcend the presented reality, to connect with the archetypal space of the collective unconscious, the oneiric dimension, and establish a synthesis of the rational and irrational, as well as a time synthesis, connecting various layers of time, in an effort to break through the membrane that separates chronological time from eternity, with a dose of poetic nostalgia.
Antun Sbutega, autoportret.jpg

Antun Sbutega was born in Kotor, where he completed Grammar School. He graduated from the Faculty of Economics in Belgrade, where he also received his master’s and doctoral degrees. He taught at the Faculty of Maritime Studies in Kotor until 1991, when he moved to Rome with his family. Antun Sbutega worked in the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples at the Vatican. He was appointed the first Ambassador of Montenegro to the Holy See and the Sovereign Order of the Knights of Malta on January 1, 2007, and he held that position until April 1, 2013. Antun Sbutega was the Ambassador of Montenegro to the Republic of Italy, Malta, and San Marino until his retirement at the end of 2016, as well as the Admiral of the Boka Navy Kotor. He is the president of the Council of the Don Branko Sbutega Foundation, the holder of several notable awards, and a member of the Knights. Antun Sbutega has collaborated with several universities in Italy and participated in numerous scientific meetings. He is the author of fifteen monographs and over a hundred scientific and professional papers in the fields of economics, maritime affairs, history, diplomacy, and art in Montenegro, Italy, Croatia, and the Vatican. Since his childhood, Antun Sbutega has been involved in art, especially painting. Until now, he has participated in collective exhibitions.