Painter

(Bačko Petrovo Selo, 1924 – Novi Sad, 2001)

“When, in 1954, one of my fathers and my child Duško Nonin, painter and the restorer, arrived to the Fortress, he said, like a prophet, from the walls: "Fruška Gora, the City, the Danube, my Fortress! If God were creating paradise now, he would make it just here!" And, we still can smell his words in the walls of the Fortress, although the wind has nearly blown it away and flown it along the Danube into the Ocean. Roses have begun to grow from the horses' droppings." – it was written by "the spirit of the palette from art studios at the Fortress" at the occasion of the exhibition of artists from the Petrovaradin Fortress in 1985, held at Karlovci Grammar School.
Dušan Nonin, academy-trained painter and conservator, graduated from Academy of Applied Arts – Decorative Painting Department, in Belgrade, Class of Prof. Vinko Grdan in 1954, the same year he settled at the Fortress and began to work for the Provincial Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage. He was member of UPIDIV since 1955 and of ULUV since 1971. He was also one of the founders of Likovni krug/Art Circle.
During his long-standing and fruitful carrier, he pursued conservation of art works and gave in this field great contributions to preservation of our cultural heritage. He was discovering, restoring and conserving frescoes in our monasteries of Novo Hopovo, Krušedol, Bođani, and he also worked on the conservation of the iconostasis in the churches of Vojvodina, as well as on frescoes in Sirmium. His greatest achievement was the 'transplantation' of the Piva monastery's (Montenegro) fresco art. During the thirteen years' work on this project, he relocated 1300 square meters of frescoes, which remained a unique achievement in the field of conservation. In addition to conservation, he also dealt with with copying, having left behind him a collection of about a hundred copies of the most valuable frescoes and icons from our rich heritage, and his art paintings were always inspired with themes of transience and eternity.
He exhibited at many one-man and group exhibitions in the country and abroad and also took part in numerous art colonies.
For his public and artistic work, has received a number of awards: Order of Labour - Third Degree, Order of National Merit with silver rays, October Award of the City of Novi Sad, Jubilee Medal of Yugoslavia's Federation of Conservators' Associations, etc.
"Quiet in his nature, of a noble soul, ascetically modest, but loved and esteemed everywhere, he personally contributed to our old art as much as it would take a whole institution to do." – quotes the Encyclopedia of Novi Sad.
On 7 December 2001, Dušan Nonin was hurrying, for the thousandth time, to arrive at the Petrovaradnin Fortress to work. It was there that he passed away, surrounded with his paintings, working till the last moment; in his studio, for which Miroslav Antić, his long-lasting neighbour and friend, used to say "Nonin's studio is the only church where I make the sign of the cross".