Alexander Dzigurski, who is known for his seascapes, landscapes, and some portraiture, is associated with the art of California, although he was born in the farming community of Backa, located in Stari Becej, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The son of a wheat farmer, he was one of four siblings. Alexander's father considered his son's artistic desires an unproductive pursuit; contrarily, his mother was most interested in her son's talent, and understood her son's wishes to extend his abilities beyond the farm.

With assistance from the Serbian Church, he went to Belgrade, where he lived at the Rakovica Monastery and attended the School of Art. He painted portraits for private families and did restorations of old iconostases...