Given that in the modern postmodern world it is imperative to revalue one's own cultural milieu and re-read historical phenomena, the primary task facing contemporary Bosniak intellectuals is to establish proper views and set priorities for cultural heritage research. And the propo priorities of the Bosniak national encirclement are the profiling of the cultural matrices on which every modern nation rests. This certainly includes the autonomous history of modern Bosniak art, which will be valorized on the principles of self-determination and elimination of malicious interpretations aimed at appropriating or assimilating authentic Bosniak cultural and artistic values.
In the context of the above, it is very important to investigate the crucial period between the two world wars, the time when Bosniaks were completely eliminated in political and social life and when there was a complete negation of national identity and uniqueness. In such constellations, many intellectuals and artists had to break through these barriers through their work and thus lay the foundations of contemporary Bosniak history. Although they often worked in completely foreign environments and outside their homeland, they celebrated their national cultural values through art forms, narrated and inherited Bosniak uniqueness and spirit, and introduced Bosniak culture to European modernism. This is, in fact, the period when, especially in the field of art and literature, Islamic and Ottoman cultural matrices are slowly being abandoned and the Bosniak intellectual corps is gradually being integrated into contemporary European trends. In fact, at this crucial moment, national consciousness is being born and the battle to preserve national identity and identity is beginning.
In shaping the national identity, the key determinant in the profiling of the cultural values of that identity is certainly the proper valorization of historical events and personalities in a broad framework of national aspirations and engagements. This is especially true of the detection of the real values of Bosniak art, because it is, in fact, the spiritual continuity of the Bosniak people. The intention of this small compendium to talk about the pioneers and beginnings of contemporary Bosniak painting and the main protagonists of this key epoch when the modern language of artistic practices in Bosniak art is being established is directly correlated. There are five of them and they are the first generation of the Bosniak avant-garde, after which many top artists who characterize the period after the Second World War later appeared. So, these are the following artists - pioneers of contemporary Bosniak art: Omer Mujadžić, Behaudin Selmanović, Ismet Mujezinović, Rizah Štetić, Hakija Kulenović, but also we should mention three another which have been living in the same period without active participation in artistic stage of pre-war modern art movements. Acctualy we are talking about Muhamed Kulenović, Meho Sefić and Enver Krupić.