Black Cradle of Bright Life 1963

Vangel Naumovski created this striking artwork. It's hard to date precisely, but we know that Naumovski, who was Macedonian, worked in an international abstract style during the later decades of the twentieth century. Naumovski lived a life in which his art became a refuge. He felt himself to be living in exile, and he felt estranged from the social and political conditions around him. But rather than addressing this directly, his art created a world of its own. It critiqued social structures, not in a direct political way, but by opting out of established social norms. He was able to secure freedom through this kind of imaginative abstraction. To understand artists like Naumovski, art historians like myself look at a wide variety of sources. This includes biographical information, social and political history, and the institutions of art that supported his practice. The meaning of art is contingent on these contexts.