Svetomir Arsić Basara was born on the 15th of May 1928, in a village called Sevce, Kosovo and Metohija. He applied for the School of Applied Arts in Niš, and later the Academy of Applied Arts in Belgrade. Basara taught sculpting and the methodology of art education at the Higher Pedagogical School in Priština. In 1973, he started teaching in the Department of Sculpture at the Academy of Arts in Priština, which continued to be his vocation until his retirement. He initiated the foundation of the Club of Fine Artists of Kosovo and Metohija. Since 1994, he has been a regular member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. Basara lives and works in Belgrade nowadays.
In 1950, Basara created his first artwork, namely a clay sculpture called The Head of a Girl. During the ’60s and the ’70s, he was a representative of high-modernist formalism, only to change his artistic expression in the ’80s. Basara is now known for his monumental wood sculptures inspired by national history and Russia.
