Stipan Kopolović (Bajmok, 1877 – Bačka Topola, 1924) painter, for his achievements, belongs to the front end group of those artists who have released from academism and the realism of Munich, and he is one of the first representatives of impressionism in this area. His talent was discovered when he worked as a barber’s apprentice in Bajmok. He attended the Hungarian State School for Applied Art in Budapest (1900–1902), and then studied graphics at the Academy in Munich (1902–1903). He was a scholar of Kalocsa Diocese, the town of Subotica and some citizens from Bajmok. He was in Paris, Florence and Rome (1908, 1909). He painted four paintings on the ceiling of the upgraded part of the Roman Catholic Church of St. Peter and Paul in Bajmok (1907–1908). He participated in World War I and the Commune (1919). To avoid the “white terror”, he went to Subotica and was appointed for the chief of the branch office of the national health insurance in Bačka Topola. He was painting intensively and gathered visual artists at Park Zichy. Together with Károly Baranyi, Árpád Balázs G. and Péter Bicskei, he launced a campaign for the establishment of an art colony in Bačka Topola (1922). In Subotica, he was a co-founder of the Association of Artists of Vojvodina (1923). He died as a teacher of the civil school in Bačka Topola. He was buried in East Cemetery in Bačka Topola, but his tomb has not been preserved. His works are in the Municipal Museum of Subotica and the Dr Vinko Perčić Native Gallery in Subotica, and some of them are exhibited on the permanent exhibition of the Museum of Bačka Topola.
(Olga K. Ninkov)
Bibliography:
Duranci, Bela (1996): Donacija dr Vinka Perčića, umjetnine zavičajne zbirke – Донација др Винка Перчића, уметничка дела завичајне збирке – Dr. Vinko Perčić adományának honi műgyűjteménye. Gradski muzej Subotica – Városi Múzeum, Szabadka, 53.
Duranci, Bela (2011): Stipan Kopilović 1877.–1924. Zavod za kulturu vojvođanskih Hrvata, Subotica
Gajdos Tibor (1995): Szabadka képzőművészete. Életjel, Szabadka.
Ninkov K. Olga (2013): Lica vremena – portreti iz umetničke zbirke Gradskog muzeja u Subotici, I / Az idő arcai – a szabadkai Városi Múzeum Művészeti osztályának arcképei, I. Gradski muzej Subotica – Városi Múzeum, Szabadka.