“Both painting and my life are the same thing” – Ljubica Cuca Sokić would say. She was one of the greatest Serbian artists born in Bitolj in 1914. She finished high school in Belgrade, and then she studied painting in the class of Beta Vukanović, Ljuba Ivanović and Ivan Radović, following which she further worked on her painting skills in Paris. She was one of the founders of the group “Desetorica” and the professor of the Academy of Fine Arts in Belgrade, from 1948 to 1972. She died in 2009, at the age of 95.

Besides her unique intimate painting style, Ljubica Cuca Sokić will be remembered for her last will and testament according to which she left all her works of art to the museums in Serbia, and with precise instructions “where to send which one”. Our museum was among the privileged ones as it got the painting “A Table with Bottles” from 1968 as a present following her demise. This work of art belongs to her abstract “surrealistic” phase, when the artist dedicated herself to simplifying forms and making elements and motifs geometrical, while establishing her unique expression.

Besides the wish for her paintings to be displayed both in Belgrade and other museums in Serbia, painters last will was also to requite in the best possible way the organisers of The First Biennial of Yugoslav Miniature Art for winning Grand-prix for her both works of art titled “Bez naslova” in our town in 1989.