Dimitrije Bašičević

Dimitrije Bašičević, later to assume the pseudonym Mangelos in his artistic practice, was born into a farming family in Šid, Serbia on 21 April 1921.

In 1971, Bašičević became the chairman of the Center for Film Photography and Television, part of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb.

He organized numerous exhibitions both within and outside Croatia which contributed to the growth of abstract art in eastern Europe.

[2] As early as primary school Mangelos authored short prose pieces and poems, and began producing his first artistic works in 1941.

In his 1978 manifesto, 'Shid Theory' he develops the 'psycho-biological' hypothesis that as the human organism, and therefore also the personality, renews itself every seven years, his life can be subdivided into the existence of 9½ Mangelos'.

In addition to spiritual tendencies, Mangelos' work is characterized by irony, intermediality, expressionistic nihilism and his unique experiment of „No-Art“.