Whether it is genetic disposition or social influences, it is just a fact that in Montenegro (or: among Montenegrins) art is an almost intuitive way of expression. Even before the 20th century - especially on the coast - painting had its position in Montenegrin society, however, only between the 2 world wars did Montenegrin painting become a rounded, though never autarchic, category.

Namely, in that period, an entire generation of young Montenegrin painters went to study in Belgrade, and from there to European cultural centers - primarily Paris. Among them, the most famous (but by no means the only) and most important for the further development of Montenegrin painting are Petar Lubarda and Milo Milunović. Petar Lubarda (1907 - 1974) In 1925, he began his studies at an art school in Belgrade, and already in 1926 he went to Paris, where he occasionally participated in group exhibitions. He had his first solo exhibition in 1929 in Rome. In 1937, he participated in the international exhibition in Paris and won the Grand Prix, and in 1940, he won the first prize at the international exhibition in The Hague. The years spent in the concentration camp leave their mark on Lubard. Montenegro is his eternal inspiration, but it is never a banal attachment to blood and soil - but a very recognizable atmosphere and motive, which is also interpreted as a tribute to Lubard in one scene of the film "Prašina" by Milch Mančevsog. Lubarda participated in the founding of the first art school in Montenegro, where he was one of the first teachers. In 1951, he opened a historical exhibition in Belgrade, where he broke with social realism. Milo Milunović (1897-1967) was educated in Cetinje, Shkadra, Monza, Florence and Paris. In the First World War, he joined the Montenegrin army, and from 1919 to 1922 he stayed in Paris, where he became acquainted with Cézanne's works. He spent 1923 in Prčnje, where he painted frescoes in the parish church. From 1924 to 1926, he lived in Zagreb, and exhibited in the spring salon, then he went to Paris again, and from there to Belgrade, where, with two colleagues, he founded the Art Academy. This is his impressionistic period, which is also the most fruitful in Milunović's work. After the Second World War, he founded an art school in Cetinje with Peter Lubard. In 1949, he received the title of master in Belgrade and founded a master's workshop, and his paintings acquired an expressionist touch. He often paints Mediterranean landscapes and still lifes with crabs, fishing nets and people and the sea. An idealist, never satisfied with himself, he worked on paintings for a long time and made many sketches for them, but even so, he left behind many paintings, frescoes and posters. Between the two world wars, Montenegro, at least at the level of its cultural elite, was a society with the characteristics of modernism as a direction, and thus modernity. Admittedly - you had to go to its source - in Paris - to get it, but that's why it gave a very original product, or, in today's vocabulary - a brand, in reaction with the domicile.