Saul Bellow, in his Nobel lecture on science and art in 1976 once said, “Only art penetrates what pride, passion, intelligence and habit erect on all sides – the seeming realities of this world. There is another reality, the genuine one, which we lose sight of. This other reality is always sending us hints, which without art, we can’t receive. Proust calls these hints our “true impressions.” The true impressions, our persistent intuitions, will, without art, be hidden from us and we will be left with nothing but a ‘terminology for practical ends’ which we falsely call life.” Art is usually perceived as a means of detachment from reality, a key to unlocking some hidden means in the world that surrounds us. This is often not utterly true for art genres like Hyperrealism, wherever the road between reality and art is much erased in paintings and sculptures these artists create. Many branches of realism are targeted on manufacturing design that resembles a real-life image, a number of them even going more and beyond.
Hyperrealism is also known as Photorealism, would not have been as big as a movement without some notable photorealist that helped it move forward with its individual touch and Nikola Čuljic is specialized in realism and hyperrealism. During the pandemic, when everyone was a little overwhelmed, he didn’t get carried away and dedicated himself more to drawing and tried to come up with new content every single day.
His message to the fellow artists is, “if something fails from the first attempt, you will succeed from the tenth”. With just one sentence he has put forward such a strong message.
This Serbian artist developed his career as an artist 7 years ago, where he has reached the level of world artists from simple drawings with a graphite pencil. He says, “Inspiration is everywhere but not every day. Sometimes you will find it in music, in nature, sometimes you will be inspired by another artist. It’s relative”.
He wants to prove that a pencil can create what at first glance seems to be a photograph or a living object through his aesthetically pleasing artistry. A person can hardly differentiate between his drawings and the inspired pictures; it is completely astonishing to see how someone can be so accurate. According to him, the most important thing is to find your direction. Find something you are the best at and go that way.