Croatian art of the 20th century
Croatian art of the 20th century, that is visual arts within the boundaries of today's Croatia, can be divided into modern art up to the Second World War, and contemporary art afterwards.
Modern art in Croatia began with the Secession ideas spreading from Vienna and Munich, and post-Impressionism from Paris. Young artists would study the latest trends and integrate them into their own work. Many strove to bring a native cultural identity into their art, for example themes of national history and legends, and some of the artwork following the First World War contained a strong political message against the ruling Austro-Hungarian state. A change was noticeable in 1919 with a move to flatter forms, and signs of cubism and expressionism were evident. In the 1920s, the Earth Group sought to reflect reality and social issues in their art, a movement that also saw the development of naive art. By the 1930s there was a return to more simple, classical styles.
Following the Second World War, artists everywhere were searching for meaning and identity, leading to abstract expressionism in the U.S. and art informel in Europe. In the new Yugoslavia, the socialist realism style never took hold, but bauhaus ideas led to geometric abstraction in paintings and simplified spaces in architecture. In the 1960s, non-conventional forms of visual expression took hold along with a more analytical approach to art, and a move towards new media, such as photography, video, computer art, performance art and installations, focusing more on the artists' process. Art of the 1970s was more conceptual, figurative and expressionist. However, the 1980s brought a return to more traditional painting and images.
Modern Art
The term Modern Art in Europe covers roughly the period from the 1860s to the Second World War, and denotes a move away from academic art with its classical mythology themes and stylised landscapes. In Croatia, the change was marked by the Croatia salon exhibit of 1898 in the new Art Pavilion in Zagreb. One of the prime movers of that exhibition, and in the construction of the Art Pavilion itself was the artist Vlaho Bukovac. Together with Bela Čikoš Sesija, Oton Iveković, Ivan Tišov, Robert Frangeš-Mihanović, Rudolf Valdec and Robert Auer he established a breakaway Croatian Society of Artists, who were to become known as the Zagreb Colourful School.This set the scene in the beginning years of the 20th century, for young Croatian artists studying in Munich and Vienna, bringing back the ideas of the new Secessionist movements. Impressionism and post-Impressionism ideas spreading from Paris would also influence the new generation of artists. In sculpture and in painting, new ideas of individual artistic expression were taking hold, leading to a new direction of art in Croatia.
The Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb was established in 1907, teaching a new generation of Croatian artists modern techniques and ideas.
Munich Circle
Munich Circle is the term given by art historians to a group of Croatian painters at the beginning of the 20th century at the start of Croatian Modernism. The painters were Josip Račić, Miroslav Kraljević, Vladimir Becić, and Oskar Herman. Together they attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, and were at the time known by their classmates as "Die Kroatische Schule". Račić and Herman had previously studied with Anton Ažbe at his famous private school in Munich, who insisted on studying the model, plasticity and drawing clear, clean volumes. The Munich painters achieved strong tonal forms in their work by studying the classical painting of Spanish and French masters. Their joint identity of style, with concise artistic expression, without literary, historical or moralistic framework, puts them in direct contact with French impressionism, particularly with Manet and Cézanne as role models. Each of them separately has influenced Croatian Modernism, and together they form an important category in Croatian art. The term "Munich Circle" was coined in the 1950s.Medulić Society
In 1908, a breakaway group of young Dalmatian artists in Split, founded the Medulić Society. Led by the artist Emanuel Vidović, they used themes from national legends, poetry and history in their art. Exhibitions were held in Split, Ljubljana, Zagreb, Rome, Belgrade and Split. The Medulić group had an ideological orientation and an underlying political message. Its aim was not simply to develop a national artistic style, but rather to increase political awareness of the south Slavic identity, and promote the idea of independence from Austria-Hungary.The Medulić Society's best known representative was the sculptor Ivan Meštrović, who by then was already receiving international recognition for his work. Within Croatia, his best known work includes the powerful "Well of Life", and statues of Grgur Ninski, and Bishop Strossmayer. Other sculptors in the group include Toma Rosandić, Ivo Kerdić, and Branislav Dešković. Painters in the group included Mirko Rački best known for his powerful illustrations of Dante and his posters, Tomislav Krizman and Jerolim Miše.
Two strong images from the time are "The Austro-Hungarian Monarchy" by Mirko Rački and "Black Flag" by Ljubo Babić, both portraying the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian state. Rački used the secessionist decorative style in a powerful statement: a soldier stands to attention against an empty grey field, while behind him sways a black and yellow snake. In Babic's painting, the subject is the funeral of Emperor Francis Joseph portrayed with a large elongated black flag hanging like a guillotine over a company of people dressed in gay, sumptuous colours.
Spring Salon
During 1916–28, the Spring salon exhibits in Zagreb brought together painters, sculptures and graphical artists. At the first exhibit in the Ulrich Gallery, artists included Ljubo Babić, Jerolim Miše, Tomislav Krizman, Zlatko Šulentić, and sculptors Ferdo Ćus, Hinko Juhn and Joza Turkalj. During the First World War, many artists went abroad, and the salon became the only organized art-related activity at the time. The paintings exhibited showed strong use of form, and restricted colour palettes. The move to flatter forms, in the manner of Cézanne, came in the 1919 Spring Salon exhibition, with the next generation of artists such as the Prague Four Vilko Gecan, Milivoj Uzelac, Marijan Trepše, and Vladimir Varlaj. Expressionism, cubism and secessionism ideas spread, and new directions also came from Đuro Tiljak who had studied with Kandinsky, while Marino Tartaglia bought back the ideas of the Futurists from Rome and Florence. By the 1920s, elements of neoclassicism were creeping in, with its simpler forms.Zenitism
The incoming ideas from the rest of Europe were balanced by artists who wanted to integrate the new artistic directions with their native cultural identity. The journal Zenit, was an avant-garde review of new arts and culture that played a key role in this movement. Founded in 1921 by the Croatian Serb poet and critic Ljubomir Micić and his brother Branko Ve Poljanski, despite criticism and controversy, Zenit continued for 6 years to promote the cause for international modernism consistent with a Yugoslav cultural identity in its issues published in Zagreb and Belgrade.One of contributors to Zenit was the architect and artist Josip Seissel, who under the pseudonym of Jo Klek is considered to be the first in Croatia to produce abstract paintings: geometric collages with linguistic motifs and Surrealist compositions.
1930s Classicism and Expressionism
By the 1930s, the sculptor Ivan Meštrović, whose work was by then well known internationally, moved into Classicism and encouraged a new "Mediterranean tradition" in his students' art. Other artists of time were Sergej Glumac and Vinko Foretić Sculptor Frano Kršinić created motifs of motherhood and music in marble, while Marin Studin created large works in wood, bronze and stone. Cubist influences can be found in works of Vilko Gecan, Sonja Kovačević Taljević, and surrealism in the works of Krsto Hegedušić, Vanja Radauš, and Antun Motika. On the island of Brač, Ignjat Job painted colourful landscapes in a personal Expressionist style.Motika's ''Archaic Surrealism''
In the 1950s, Antun Motika generated a strong reaction from the critics with his exhibition of drawings Archaic Surrealism. The exhibition had a lasting effect on Croatian artistic circles, and is generally considered to be the boldest rejection of the dogmatic frameworks of socialist realism in Croatia. Motika wasn't attached to any particular artistic school or dogma, and loved experimenting. His influence from Picasso, who reportedly praised Motika, is evident especially in his early work, when Motika used both the form principles of neoclassical figuration and synthetic cubism. Motika also had impressionistic and post-impressionistic tendencies, which characterize many of his most noted works. Motika became a professor in Mostar, where he lived and worked from 1929 to 1940. His paintings from the Cycles of Mostar, produced in this period, also left a mark, and are considered "the most radical landscapes from the tradition of mimicry in the field of abstract painting in Croatian modernism."Naïve Art
, or primitive art is a distinct segment of the art of the 20th century. In Croatia, naïve art was at first connected with the works of peasants and working men, ordinary men and women, of whom the most successful, over the course of time, became professional artists. Naïve art assumes the work of artists who are more or less self-taught, painters and sculptors with no formal art training, but who have achieved their own creative style and a high level of art. An identifiably individual style and poetic nature distinguishes the Naïve from other "amateur" painters and sculptors, and from the general self-taught artist. The view of a Naïve artist will usually display unusual proportions and perspective, and certain illogicalities of form and space. Such characteristics are the expression of a free creative imagination, in a similar way to other 20th-century art movements such as Symbolism, Expressionism, Cubism, and Surrealism.In Croatia, Naïve art is also seen as a democratic movement, as the movement proves anyone can create worthwhile art regardless of formal training. Within these art forms various the emotive qualities of works are often more visible than any reigning form of logic or reason. Common themes include: "the joy of life," "forgotten nature," "lost childhood," and "wonder at the world." However, Naïve art does not only reflect positive aspects of life, and dark and tragic themes can also be found within the genre.
Naïve art first appeared in Croatia at the beginning of the 1930s when the Zagreb Art Pavilion showcased an exhibition of the artists' association entitled the Earth group on 13 September 1931. Of the artists exhibited, two particularly stood out: Ivan Generalić, who showed three drawings and nine watercolors, and Franjo Mraz, who exhibited three watercolors. The artists sought to show that talent does not only reside in certain social classes or privilege and started the association with naïve art and paintings of villages or by artists from the countryside rather than cities. Themes in Croatian naïve art branched out in the 1950s from villages to "personal classics," which included architectural monuments and objects and opened a period known as "modern primitive art."