Ivanka "Ida" Ćirić (; 3 March 1932 — 2007) was a notable Serbian illustrator for children.
Except for illustration,Ćirić the fields of her interest were book design, collage and papier-mache objects. She illustrated more than 50 books, and numerous book covers and magazine illustrations. Won 12 important Yugoslav national awards for illustration. Performed six one-man exhibitions.
Biography
Her father Svetislav Vučković (1902–1973) was an engineer and before the 2nd World War one of the leaders of the Slavic "Falcon" gymnastic movement (Serbian Soko, Czech Sokol). Mother Slavka (1903–1983) was professor of gymnastic. Her older brother dr Vladan Vučković (1928–2006) was an engineer, a professor at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering in Belgrade, an excellent pianist and chess problemist, and her younger brother was Dragan Vučković (1930–1998) traffic engineer and multiple Yugoslav champion in rally.
During the studies at the Academy of Applied Arts in Belgrade, she met her future husband Miloš Ćirić (1931–1999), with whom she got two sons, Rastko (b. 1955) and Vukan (b. 1959). It was the beginning of the artistic Ćirić family, today having the third generation of professional art creators.
Upon graduation, Ida and Miloš Ćirić work and exhibit together. Ida specialized in children's illustration, which she will cherish incessantly for the next thirty years, up to the end of the 1980s, marking the whole period with her characteristic stylization of figures and rich color. Art historian Vesna Lakićević Pavićević, the specialist for Serbian illustration, says: "Ida Ćirić, during the four decades, worked as an illustrator and reached the results without which one can not make the real picture about the development of Serbian illustration of the second half of the Twentieth century."
Ida's simplified and optimistic illustrations for children, full of bright colours, raised the generations of children. She had used art techniques as colour markers, coloured inks, which enabled an intensive colour scale and joyful emotive charge. Her black and white illustrations have legible and strong graphism, "which does not fall behind the Miloš's in their energy".
Only on Ida's posthumous retrospective exhibition, at the Museum of Applied Art in Belgrade, in 2009, her rich opus could be overviewed in its diversity of genres, art approaches, techniques.
Important illustrated books and picture books
A girl outwitted the tzar / Two dimes /Devojka cara nadmudrila / Dva novca/, "Vuk Karadžić", Belgrade, 1964. (in Slovene: Ljubljana, 1964; in German: Berlin, 1968; in Macedonian: Skopje, 1968). Devil and his apprentice / A lie for bet /Đavo i njegov šegrt / Laž za opkladu/, "Vuk Karadžić", Belgrade, 1964. (in Croatian, Zagreb, 1964; in German: Berlin, 1968; in Macedonian: Skopje, 1968). Baš Čelik, "Vuk Karadžić", Belgrade, 1964. and 1968. (in German: Berlin, 1968; in Macedonian: Skopje, 1968). Herzegovian and the Turk /Era i Turčin/, "Vuk Karadžić", Belgrade, 1965. (in Albanian, Slovene and Hungarian: Belgrade, 1967). He who knows wins /Ko umije, njemu dvije/, "Vuk Karadžić", Belgrade, 1966. The little golden key /Zlatni ključić/ (reader for the first grade of the primary school), Zavod za udžbenike i nastavna sredstva, Belgrade, 1966. German fairy tales /Nemačke bajke/, Narodna knjiga, Belgrade, 1967. Jovan Jovanović Zmaj, Zmaj's book of poems /Zmajeva pevanija/, Bigz, Belgrade, 1973. Branislav Nušić, Haiduks /Hajduci/, Bigz, Belgrade, 1973. Momčilo Tešić, Blossom of the childhood /Cvetnik detinjstva/, Bigz, Belgrade, 1975. Milena Jovović, An ant's heart /Mravlje srce/, Bigz, Belgrade, 1977. Velimir Milošević, Homeland /Domovina/, Prva književna komuna, Mostar, 1978. Jovan Jovanović Zmaj, Mice and cats /Miševi i mačke/, Zavod za udžbenike i nastavna sredstva, Belgrade, 1978. Branko V. Radičević, Poems about mother /Pesme o majci/, Nolit, Belgrade, 1978. Ahmet Hromadžić, A dwarf from a forgotten land /Patuljak iz zaboravljene zemlje/, Nolit, Belgrade, 1978. Pocket full of golden verses /Pun džep zlatnih stihova/ (a choice from the world poetry), Nolit, Belgrade, 1978. Milenko Ratković, Treasure of the childhood /Blago detinjstva/ (reader for the fourth grade of the primary school), Pokrajinski zavod za izdavanje udžbenika, Novi Sad, 1978. Dobrica Erić, Reader of the seasons /Čitanka godišnjih doba/ 1–4, Bigz, Belgrade, 1979. Vančo Nikoleski, Small magical packsaddle /Čarobni samarčić/, Nolit, Belgrade, 1986. Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland /Alisa u zemlji čuda/, Nolit, Belgrade, 1986. Grozdana Olujić, Fairy tales /Bajke/, Nolit, Belgrade, 1987. Dragan Lukić, Little and big ones /Mali pa veliki/, Nolit, Belgrade, 1989.