of the participants in the festive atmosphere. Scenes from the pubs were a popular motive in his days. However, while some painters used this setting to express certain morality issues, it is believed that Aleksić had no such intentions. Among his most notable works is a series of self-portraits produced between 1895 and 1922 It is the largest such series in Serbian painting and can be used to track his artistic, mental as well as physical development. Aleksić often depicted himself sitting at a table in a pub, but in the years prior to his death the paintings become more macabre and ominous; he is often accompanied by the figure of Death, sitting at his table, playing the violin or looking at his plate. The largest collection of Aleksić's paintings can be seen in the Matica Srpska Gallery in Novi Sad, while the National Museum of Serbia and the National Museum in Zrenjanin also exhibit extensive collections. Criticism Aleksić was often criticized as an epigone, a marginal artist, and an anachronic painter. His fresco "Crucifixion", painted on the facade of the Saborna Church in Sremski Karlovci, was described by the archpriest Jovan Jeremić as "a copy made after the tradition of the Western Church"; however, many of his contemporaries praised the fresco for its vibrancy and expressiveness. Vasa Pomorišac, Aleksić's student and colleague, gave some very bitter criticism of his teacher's work: "Living in a small village, with all the petty values of such community, his spirit could not reach the soaring heights prophesied to him by his professor, Gysis. He remained far away from that great movement of purification, dying slowly in the backwater dullness, having a painful shade in his soul because he never achieved self-actualization." Gallery References 1876 births 1923 deaths People from Arad, Romania Serbs of Romania 20th-century Romanian male artists 20th-century Serbian painters 20th-century Serbian male artists Serbian male painters Austro-Hungarian painters