Biography

Born in Vranje, Serbia in 1921, Vojin Stojić is considered one of the more interesting and distinctive sculptors who experimented with the new freedoms of artistic style granted after the Yugoslavia's disenchantment with the style of socialist realism. He began his artistic academic career at the Academy of Fine Arts in Belgrade, from which he graduated in 1953. After graduating, he immediately began to show his work at exhibitions across Serbia from Belgrade to Novi Sad where he aggressively attempted to build a name and reputation for himself. Stojić's work focused on various styles of abstraction and altered realism, where he worked towards creating forms and shapes that were based in narratives, but also free of any informational constraints from an external reality. Stojić was granted in 1962 an assistant-professorship in wood & metal sculpture at Belgrade Academy of Fine Arts, at which point he took an extended study trip to England to work under several artists there. In the late 1960s, he was offered a commission to create a National Liberation War memorial complex at the summit of Kosmaj mountain, just south of Belgrade. There he designed his most well known work, a 40m tall set of five fin monoliths which created a massive star shape. In the early 80s, he finally ascended to a full professorship at the Academy of Fine Arts, however, he retired several years later in 1986. While considered an extremely significant and influential sculptor of his time, he was more restrained in his creative output compared to many of his contemporaries, only creating a modest number of works. Stojić passed away in Belgrade in 2001. A few years after his passing in 2007, art writer and historian Jovan Despotović made the following quote in relation to Stojić's career: