Ultramarine

by Mileta Prodanović, Christina Pribichevich Zoric (Translator)

The title of the novel Ultramarine is a highly symbolic and a well chosen one too: it refers to a specific type of blue color, and also it vibrates with associations of the sea, and indirectly to death, since death can be perceived as crossing to the other shore. It is also the favorite color of the narrator’s late father who was a painter. It tells the story of a father-son relationship, of maturation and coming to terms with oneself. It is often said that a picture paints a thousand words, but in the case of Prodanovic’s novel, it is really a tie, or it is more like pictures and words joined together are a worthy, and rewarding, reading experience.

Ultramarine is a novel that can be read as an illustrated autobiographical essay, or as a novel travelogue – this genre fluctuation being one of the greatest qualities of the book which is at the same time bitter and nostalgic, critical and escapist... The reading of Ultramarine requires a specific visual imagination; it is a journey not into the realm of dreams but into the past, into reality and politics.

Mileta Prodanović centers his text on the character of the father, a never-ending and secretive obsession of Serbian culture; it offers an analysis of masculinity and identity, of maturation and political expressiveness. Ultamarine is an ironic and sentimental guide through our time in which its author shows how poetics and politics can be effectively combined.

205 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Mileta Prodanović was born in Belgrade in 1959. He graduated at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrade in 1983. Since 1990 he worked as an assistant, assistant professor and then professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrade.

He also regularly publishes prose and essayistic texts in the field of visual arts and journalism.

Reviews

[Jai Lau · Rating 2 out of 5]

What is this supposed to be, exactly? Definitely hard to read it as a story as so little of it has an apparent plot and far too niche in its exploration of art to be accessible for non-scholars. When reading, it is difficult to take in what is on the page and it is quite easy to read the same paragraph over and over without realising it. Far too much focus is put on describing the works of art instead of their importance to the overall book. It is a shame because when the writer actually delves into the father-character and the links between politics, war and art, he might have been onto something.

[Зоран Филиповић · Rating 5 out of 5]

Изузетно лепо и дубоко емотивно написана књига, не само о уметности него и о односу оца и сина.

[Justin Labelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first novel I’ve read written by a Serbian author.
It is a meandering journey of contemplation, nostalgia and loss. Its author has created a novel that sincerely looks at art and those who make it.
In this process, the authors creates a delicate memoir of his interactions with his father and probes into the values and significance of art in an ever changing world.