A friend of the dead sculptor Ivan Felker is inconsolable: “He died stupidly because of some poor person”

The artistic public was surprised by the news that, first of all, their friend and colleague with whom they enjoyed spending time, Ivan Felker, died in a traffic accident in Niš. Vladimir Ranđelović, a painter, started the day with him. He says about his friend that he was not a man of this time. He lived in his own world.

– We have been hanging out in my Studio in Tvrđava for years, the news surprised us, we still didn’t realize that he was gone. I come this morning, I see the shutters down – what can I tell you, says Ranđelović with sadness.

According to him, the famous sculptor was killed at the pedestrian crossing in the very center of Niš in Milojka Lešjanina Street. Ranđelović says that he heard that a young man was behind the wheel and that he did not even brake. He mowed it without braking, points out the Niš painter and friend of Ivan Felker.

– Diligent, hard-working, diligent. He was in the Atelier every day. He came at 7 in the morning, summer, winter, he was there until it got dark. He worked a lot. His works include Kalča and Sremac – points out Randjelovic.

“I still don’t understand what happened”

He adds that it is a “pure soul”. He was thrifty, careful, sensitive. He lived a normal life.

– Everything is fresh, I still haven’t realized what actually happened and that the man is gone. You expect him to come by now. Yesterday I come, I see closed shutters, I count he hasn’t come yet. Then Minja tells me: “He was hit by a car.” I don’t know what to tell you, except that the man died stupidly. It doesn’t matter if he is an artist or a sculptor. It ended in a stupid way, because of some troublemaker who does not brake through the center – said Randjelovic.

Sculpted the symbol of Niš

Ivan Felker is the author of the sculpture of Stevan Sremac in Nis and his dog Chapa, and the “Puž” fountain in Chair Park.

Felker is the author of the monument to the Serbian soldier from the First World War on Mokra Gora, the sculpture “Marble and Sounds” in Arandjelovac and the sculpture “Double-Headed Eagle” in Soko Banja.

In the United States, he painted portraits of King Peter, Stevan Mokranjec, Vuk Karadžić, Mileva Marić, Milutin Milanković and Nadežda Petrović, and in Zurich he created a memorial plaque for Mileva Marić.

He spent his working life at the “Vuk Karadžić” school.

As a reminder, the duty public prosecutor of the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Nis ordered the police officers to file a criminal complaint against AA (47) for the criminal offense of serious offense against public traffic safety due to the traffic accident in which the famous sculptor Ivan Felker (74) died.