Starting from November 22, 2024, as part of the Permanent Exhibition at the MNMA Gallery in Jagodina, a documentary exhibition titled Portrait of a Self-Taught Artist: Notes by Oto Bihalji-Merin will be on view. Organized by the Museum of Naïve and Marginal Art, the exhibition will run from November 22, 2024, to February 17, 2025, in commemoration of the 120th anniversary of the birth of writer and publicist Oto Bihalji-Merin.

The documentary exhibition Portrait of a Self-Taught Artist: Notes by Oto Bihalji-Merin is a kind of homage to Oto Bihalji-Merin—one of the most prominent figures in Serbian science and culture of the 20th century, and the person most responsible for the affirmation and development of naïve and marginal art. It also honors significant visual artists from the region who left a mark in the field of unconventional art—authentic painters and sculptors who were once the focus of Bihalji’s intellectual pursuits.

The life and work of self-taught artists, as seen through the lens of Oto Bihalji-Merin, will be illustrated through a selection of printed publications authored by Bihalji-Merin, along with original documentary materials (photographs, letters, manuscripts) that serve as historical testimony.

A significant part of the exhibition includes video recordings—segments from domestic documentary programs in which Oto Bihalji-Merin and naïve artists are protagonists of a time when representative works of art were being created, many of which are now part of the Museum's collection.

The exhibition is realized using documentary materials from the legacy collection donated by Oto Bihalji-Merin, housed at the MNMA in Jagodina (Gallery branch) and in Belgrade (OBM Salon), as well as archival footage from RTS.

The public will be able to visit the exhibition Portrait of a Self-Taught Artist: Notes by Oto Bihalji-Merin until February 17, 2025.