The Story of the Karlavaris Family / Diaries of Migration: Notes on Novi Sad Families

‘The Story of the Karlavaris Family’ panel will be held at ‘Prometej’ Gallery on 22 February, at 6 p.m. The Karlavaris family is one out of the four Novi Sad’s families which will be represented through the exhibition ‘Diaries of Migration: Notes on Novi Sad Families’, which is being realized within the Migrations programme arch.

The Karlavaris family moved to Novi Sad from Kastav in Istria after the First World War. The family consists of two branches – one is represented by Ivan (who moved in 1919), whose son Bogomil was a famous painter and a professor, and his grandson Ivan, a professor of photography and a photographer; the second branch’s representative is Vjekoslav (who moved in 1927), a prominent banker during the interwar period.

Prof. Bogomil Karlavaris, PhD, (1924 – 2010), received his education in Vršac and Novi Sad, where he graduated from the Higher Pedagogical School and the Academy of Fine Arts in Belgrade. He received his doctorate in Germany (1969). He taught at the Academies in Belgrade and Novi Sad. He founded the Association of Art Educators of Vojvodina (Društvo Likovnih Pedagoga Vojvodine), as well as the Centre for Art Education of Children and Youth of Vojvodina (Centar za likovno vaspitanje dece i omladine Vojvodine), which he successfully ran from 1954 to 1980.

Vjekoslav Karlavaris (1887 – 1974) was a banker and the manager of the Savings Bank (Štedionica) in Novi Sad. He received his education in Kastav, his hometown, then finished high school in Pazin and the three-year College of Economics in Vienna (1909). He worked as a bank clerk in Trieste, then moved to Rijeka, where he was the director of Jadranska banka bank. After the war, he was the manager of the Opatija branch of the bank from Trieste. He married Mara Mogin from Novi Sad, with the marriage taking place in the Saint George’s Cathedral. They had three sons (all baptized in St. Nicholas Church). He decided to move to Novi Sad with his family, where he founded the City Savings Bank. He was engaged in the social life of Novi Sad.

Photo: Promo