The exhibition that was to be held in the gallery of the Belgrade Cultural Centre in 1974 was cancelled at the last moment on the grounds that in his paintings Mića Popović was pursuing ‘pamphlets and provocations’. Among the work to be displayed was the ‘Ceremonial Painting’ created in 1974, which among other figures depicted the President of Yugoslavia, Josip Broz Tito. The figures in the picture represent luxury and the power of the ruling elite. It was to be prominently displayed in the exhibition.

The catalogue of the exhibition included a foreword written by writer and at that time dissident Dobrica Ćosić. Ćosić noted: ‘that a generation was worn out by ideological struggles and satirisation.’ In an article titled ‘The Fumes of Dobrica Ćosić’, the Komunist newspaper attributed this to an obscure ideological orientation and that the political implications of some of the author’s messages [are showing] that the author, instead of cultivating his good literature, was writing poor philosophical-political columns.