Life and Artistic Beginnings of Pauline Sudarski in Becej and Belgrade

Paulina Sudarski was born on July 12, 1914⁴ to father Relja Sudarski⁵ and mother Jovanka, née Kovačev⁶. Similar to her parents, Paulina's birthplace is listed as Vranjevo, which was then part of the Danube Banovina, but as a separate administrative municipality compared to the neighboring Novi Bečej.⁷

Paulina lost her father early, who had participated in World War I but did not return.⁸ Soon after, her mother married Vladimir Vrbaški, a shirt manufacturer based in Belgrade, who accepted his wife's daughter as his own.⁹ In her hometown, Paulina completed elementary school and one year of high school before relocating to Belgrade with her mother Jovanka and stepfather Vladimir. Remembering her schoolmate, Novi Bečej resident Bogdanka Čiplić wrote: "I see a chubby little girl, with curly golden hair and big almond-shaped eyes. That's how Paulina looked in elementary school when our friendship began... It was sad when, after a few years of our friendship, Paulina left with her parents to Belgrade. But it turned out that the sadness was unfounded. Her letters arrived, and she regularly spent school holidays in Bečej. Belgrade, which Paulina had to love as it shaped her into a noble person, an artist, and a fighter, did not diminish her love for Bečej in any way. Until the end of her life, she felt Bečej as her dear homeland to which one is primarily obliged."¹⁰ From that period, several of her drawings have been preserved, probably from the fourth grade, as indicated by signatures written in a distinctive child's handwriting (Girl with a Vase, Girl's Head, Still Life, Candle, Fruit, Sunflower). Whether done with a regular pencil or a colored pencil, these drawings, characterized by naivety, also demonstrate precision, well-mastered forms, shading, surpassing the expectations for a ten-year-old.

4. The information about Paulina and her parents' origins was kindly provided by Andre Karolj, who had access to the birth and death registers of Novi Bečej.

5. Relja Sudarski was a Vranjevo merchant, born on March 20, 1896, to father Radovan and mother Leposava, née Kovačev.

6. Jovanka Kovačev was born in Vranjevo on April 5, 1892, to father Atanasije and mother Julijana, née Perin. She passed away in 1977.

7. In the late 1920s, there was an initiative to merge settlements and municipalities in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia where possible and economically justified. However, it was only in 1946 that Vranjevo and Novi Bečej were merged under the name Vološinovo, later becoming Novi Bečej, which remains today. Therefore, in post-war biographical records, Novi Bečej is listed as Paulina Sudarski's birthplace.

8. The date of Relja Sudarski's death is recorded as January 8, 1917, based on a final decision of the Royal Sremski Court in Novi Bečej. This information was provided by Andre Karolj.

9. Vladimir Vrbaški (1900-1987), after the nationalization of his factory at the end of World War II, left Belgrade and returned to Novi Bečej with his wife Jovanka. He managed the hotel "Jadran" until retirement. After Jovanka's death, Vrbaški married Danica Dujić, whose descendants from Novi Bečej currently preserve several works of Paulina Sudarski and significant documentary material (albums with photographs, indexes, books, notebooks, boxes with colors, etc.). Jovanka Vrbaški maintained contact with the relatives of her first husband Relja, especially with his native brother Tomo (1884-1952), whose son Velimir was a colonel in the Yugoslav People's Army (died in 1982). Tomo's daughter Tatjana, who now lives in Belgrade, keeps two paintings of her aunt Paulina.

10. Bogdanka Čiplić, Brotherhood, School Journal of Novi Bečej, Year I, May-June 1956, No.3, p.2.