 Painter Olja Ivanjicki (1931–2009), daughter of Vasilij Jakovljevič Vasiljenko Ivanjicki and Veronika Mihajlovna Pjatrovska, was born in Pančevo, grew up in Kragujevac, lived in Belgrade in a place with a view of the Sava River – the site of her imagined future bridge that represented Europe’s Gates of Time in her vision. She was a distinguished citizen of our planet...
She graduated from and completed her graduate studies at the Belgrade Fine Arts Academy Sculpture Department under Professor Sreten Stojanović in 1957. Her voluminous creative opus – more than enough for a single lifetime – consisted of drawings and paintings of things of the past and things of the present, but mostly things of the future, moving ahead of her time in her work because she could not in reality. She could see, commit to memory and record, speak through her drawings, installations, portals, fashion creations, notes, massages, poems... But there were things she held back… She projected the surreal. And, she has made out the cosmic truth about Tesla, Njegoš and Leonardo, and thought of them as people that were close to her...
 While still young, she came to appreciate Andy Warhol and Pop-Art. She was the only one from this region who received a Ford Foundation scholarship, and in 1962 for the first time found herself in the US. Later, she would be there almost every year – mostly in the spring – returning to New York to renew her strength so as to be able to withstand the onslaught of fresh ideas.
As early as 1959, she began to hold company with people that were like her, marvelous artists such as Leonid Šejka, Miro Glavurtić, Milovan Vidak, Svetozar Samurović, Milić of Mačva, Kosta Bradić, Siniša Vuković, Vlada Veličković, Ljuba Popović, Dado Djurić… as well as architects, writers, composers and philosophers rallied into a group called Mediala, which, ever actively engaged in things on the border of opposition, through their creative work and ideology proceeded to set up a philosophy of art based on a synthesis of the traditional and the modern albeit in full consideration for individual creative sensibilities and authentic perceptions of the world. A sort of an underground society, this spiritually-bonded family, like some planetary system, revolved around Olja as its mainstay.
Olja was open and ever appreciative of new tendencies in artistic life; she studied and ‘uncovered’ unknown galaxies, worlds, angels. NASA added her name to those inscribed in the time capsule that the space probe has landed on the planet Mars...
 During her productive artistic life, Olja Ivanjicki had 87 individual exhibitions. Her paintings can be found at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade, at the Belgrade City Museum, at the Rovinj Town Museum, at the Contemporary Art Museum in Skoplje, at the Dobbs Ferry College in New York … In 1978, she took part in the Fulbright Foundation Artist in Residence programme. The Yugoslav public chose her as Painter of the 20th Century; in 1995, IBC Cambridge gave her the title of International Woman of the Year; in 1999, IBC Cambridge listed her among the world’s leading 2,000 intellectuals and in 2001, among the 20th century’s outstanding individuals and world’s greatest living legends.
She was also a one-time Deputy Governor of the American Biographical Institute and a Deputy Director General of the International Biographical Center based in Cambridge, England. She also founded the Niš Art Foundation.
She was the recipient of the highest state recognitions in Serbia.
Tapping into her inner world of signs, she wrote poetry and collected material that had grown over a number of years. She published a book called The Mirror of Love, her correspondence with (Leonid) Šejka in 1995; Brainstorm in 1995; a book of poems and essays titled I Have Seen It Before and After in 1998. Several monographs about her have been issued so far including Olja, Leonardo’s Daughter by Dragoš Kalajić in 1984 as well as the latest monograph penned by British art critic Sue Hubbard with a symbolic title Olja Ivanjicki: Expecting the Impossible, presented just one week before Olja’s demise.
 She used to make futuristic Leonardoesque self-portraits, painted portraits of herself and frequently others, read about the Pleiades, was a stargazer, communicated with people from other parts of the world, with animals and insects that she so vividly painted but which she never brought before the public at large so that they continue living a secret life, as does much of the her veiled opus that she desisted from showing openly.
She was committed to architecture with a great creative force. She used to say that painting architecture was saving painting. Her architectural projects for the future have come to be admired by those able to appreciate the symbolism of her vision. She was waiting for ‘her’ bridge in Belgrade – Europe’s Gates of Time, but believed this bridge would experience the same fate as Leonardo’s projects – its time had not come as yet...
Although she was Russian by origin, it was instinctive selfishness but realistically that we put her down as an everlasting and unique phenomenon. For her part, more than anything she wished for a lasting existence, even after she stopped walking this earth.
Her world was a world different from others. Her mission had been clear to her but was puzzling for the rest of us. As opposed to the other greats that moved to reside into history, Olja has moved to reside in the future – in fact she is already there…
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Olja and Jat
Olja Ivanjicki was among the first artists to respond to Jat’s invitation and participate in its onboard paintings’ auctions – dubbed Gallery above Atlantic. She took part in the second such auction on March 14, 1980.
She also reacted favourably to our invitation and did a thematic painting called The Dream of Flying, included in the Jat company calendar for the year 2002 marking Jat’s 75th anniversary.
Olja was a dear guest in Jat Review. The first extensive text about her was carried in 1985, the next was in the NEW REVIEW – in February 2005 and the last - marking the Mediala art group anniversary – two years ago. | | 
