Art of Croatia
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Croatian art describes the visual arts in Croatia from medieval times to the present. In Early Middle Ages, Croatia was important centre for art and architecture in Southeastern Europe. There were many Croatian artists during the Medieval periods, and the arts flourished during the Renaissance. Later styles in Croatia included Baroque and Rococo.
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The Nineteenth Century
In Austrian countries on the beginning of 19th century (to which Croatia belonged than) building in Classicistic Manner prevailed. In Croatia most prominent architect was Bartol Felbinger who also build City Hall in Samobor (1826) and Januševac Castle near Zagreb.
Romantic movement in Croatia was sentimental, gentle and subtle – real image of bourgeoisie’s humble and modest virtues. In architecture there were simple decorations made of shallow arch like niches around windows, while the furniture was of mildly bended Biedermeier furniture, and even in dressing the cheaper materials with cheerful colors prevailed. So, it is no surprise that instead of representative portraits in Croatia miniature portraits are preferred.
At the end of 19th century architect Herman Bolle undertook one of the largest projects of European historicism – half-kilometer long neo-renaissance arcade with twenty domes on Zagreb cemetery Mirogoj.
At the same time the cities in Croatia got important urban makeover. But whit size and importance the urban regulation of Downtown Zagreb (largely the work of Milan Lenuzzio, 1860-1880) is revolutionary. Between Zagreb’s longest street – Ilica, and new railway the new geometrical city was build with large public and social buildings like neo-renaissance building of Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts (HAZU - learned society promoting language, culture, and science from its first conception in 1836; the juxtaposition of the words typically seen in English as "Arts and Sciences" is deliberate, F. Scmidt, 1884), neo-baroque Croatian National Theater (HNK, H. Helmer and F. Fellner, 1895), and to that date very modern Art Pavilion (1898) with montage construction of steel and glass – Croatian “Crystal Palace”, and finally the masterpiece of Art Nouveau – The National Library (Lubinski, finished in 1912). This urban plan is bounded with series of parks and parkways decorated with numerous fountains, sculptures, avenues and gardens (known as “Green Horseshoe”) making Zagreb one of first cities build according to new European art theory of “city as a work of art”.
Pseudo building that emphasizes all three visual arts is former building of Ministry of Prayer and Education in Zagreb (H. Bolle, 1895). Along side with rooms in Pompeii style and renaissance cabinet, the large neo-baroque “Golden Hall” was painted with historic compositions by Bela Čikoš-Sesija (The Baptism of Croats and Split Council), Oton Iveković (Meeting of Koloman and Croatian Nobility), Celestin Medović (The Arrival of Croats), Vlaho Bukovac (Frantz Joseph in Zagreb) and decorated with reliefs by Frangeš Mihanović. “The Golden Hall” becomes unified monument of its age, one of few in Europe. The in Zagreb is a .)
Realism appeared in bourgeois portraits by Vjekoslav Karas. The characters of his portraits are true expressions of their time. Realistic landscapes are linked to certain parts of the country – Slavonian forests by artists of Osijek school, Dubrovnik in works of Celestin Medović, and Dalmatian coast in works of Menci Klement Crnčić.
In sculpture the hard realism (naturalism) of Ivan Rendić was replaced by art nouveau composed and moving reliefs by Frangeš Mihanović.
Vlaho Bukovac brought the spirit of impressionism from Paris, and he strongly influenced the young artists (including the authors of “Golden Hall”). Right after he painted the screen in HNK in Zagreb with theme of Croatian Illyrian Movement, and symbolic portraits of Croatian Writers in National Library, he founded The Society of Croatian Artists (1897), so called "Zagreb’s colorful school". With this society the Croatian Modern Art started. On the Millennium Exhibition in Budapest they were able to set aside all other artistic options in Austro-Hungary.
The Twentieth Century
The turbulent twentieth century re-oriented Croatia politically on many occasions and affected it in many other ways, but it couldn't significantly alter its already peculiar position at the crossroads of many different cultures.
Avant-garde
From numerous works of art that reached high quality with symbolic ideology original is painting “Black Flag” dedicated to disintegration of Austro-Hungary by Ljubo Babić in 1919. The black flag, like guillotine hangs over graceful crowd in cheerful colored dresses. Babić is often linked with expressionism and writer Miroslav Krleža, best seen on his cover of magazine “Plamen” (The Flame) in 1919.
In twenties the Croatian painters have reached the envious level of original style under direct influence of European avant-garde movements. Architect Josip Scissel (Jo Klek) is original with his cheerful dada aquarelles and first Croatian abstract paintings. Cubistic compositions can be fined in works of Vlado Gecan, Sonja Kovačević Taljević, and surrealistic are works of Krsto Hegedušić, Vanja Radauš, Anto Motika etc.
Image of the period is best shown through aspirations of two opposite art groups: “Spring Salon” group (Vjekoslav Varlaj, Đuro Tiljak etc.) and group called Zemlja (The Land) (Krsto Hegedušić, Oton Postružnik, Miroslav Detoni, Edo Kovačević, Đuro Tiljak and naïve artists Miroslav Virius and Ivan Generalić). On the exhibitions held every spring at the Art Pavilion in Zagreb (“Spring Salon”) the paintings represented nature of strong masses like it was made out of ceramics, while houses reminiscent early cubistic works. The world on those paintings was still, lifeless and petrified. Instead of misty formal approach of Spring Salon group, the Earth group searched for answers of social issues. Architect Drago Ibler founded the group in 1929, and it had clear program: independency of visual expression, oppression of uncritical taking of foreign styles, dilettantism and art that has purpose in it self (L’art pour l’art) while it reflected the reality of life suitable to needs of modern community.
Hlebine naïve art
Hlebine is also an important city for Croatian art, and is a center of Croatian naive art. It is a birth town of Franjo Mraz, Krsto Hegedušić, Ivan Generalić, Josip Generalić and Franjo Gaži.
