Miodrag Popović

Miodrag “Mića” Popović (1923-1996) was a Serbian-Yugoslav artist, writer, and director. After the end of the Second World War, Popović enrolled at the Belgrade Academy of Fine Arts. In 1947, he moved to the Croatian coastal town of Zadar and formed the so-called “Zadar Group”, along with Bata Mihajlović, Petar Omčikus, Mileta Andrejević, among others. Members of the group were later barred from returning to university as their art was considered subversive. Popović is best known as a painter for his “informal period” (1958-1968), and then his “art of the scene” period from 1968 onwards. He directed five films between 1964 and 1970, several of which are considered part of the “Black Wave” avant-garde. Two of these, The Man from the Oak Forest (1964) and The Tough Ones (1968), were banned for their “anti-socialist” content.