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Centre and periphery in the interpretations of Croatian modern art

Based on the Vienna School of Art History and strongly influenced by the tradition of geographical approaches in German art history, Croatian art history has always implied geographical postulates. The fact of geographical positioning, which in the historical and political constellation is most rightly understood as peripheral or marginal, was implicitly or explicitly present in almost all interpretations of national art of different periods. In this sense, the interpretations of Croatian modern art in the period after the Second World War were determined by the awareness of the geographical positioning of the national space. Ljubo Karaman's work – with the affirmation of geographical predestination manifested in regional artistic features and theoretical principles based on three concepts (provincialized, border and peripheral art) – also had an important impact on the observation of Croatian modernism. It can therefore be concluded that Croatian modern art was interpreted with an awareness of the influence of different cultural circles and, accordingly, formal and stylistic adaptation to the social, political and economic situation. This paper will briefly look at the problems of the centre and periphery in the interpretation of Croatian modern art, with reference to the most important protagonists, art historians Grgo Gamulin, Božidar Gagro, Igor Zidić, and others. It will be emphasised that many Croatian modern artists created with the awareness that they live and work outside the centre, and that national art was very much influenced by crucial art movements in Central and Western Europe. Ways of interpreting the most important phenomena in Croatian art – from expressionism to surrealism – will be analysed and attention will be paid to the problems of valorisation that have always been closely related to the centre-periphery paradigm. Finally, the possibilities of deconstructing the prevailing views on art created outside European art centres will be considered and questions will be asked about the productivity of such attempts.

Croatian art history, geography of art, Croatian modern art, centre and periphery

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