CROSCULPTURE project
cro_sculpture
Manifestations of Modern Sculpture in Croatia:
Sculpture on the Crossroads Between Socio-political Pragmatism, Economic Possibilities and Aesthetical Contemplation
March 1, 2017 - February 28, 2020
Project funded by the Croatian Science Foundation
Outline
Our goal is to define modern sculpture in Croatia (as well as its stylistic changes) temporally, spatially and terminologically. In this process, broader contextual frameworks (social, political, economical, aesthetic) of sculptural production in the period beginning at the very end of the 19th century and ending in the middle of the '70s will be taken into consideration. During the initial preparations for the project, a fact was especially taken into consideration - that a considerable part of Croatian sculptural production was created extraterritorially, and that it attracted a great deal of attention from Europe as well as the rest of the world. The project will explore the manner and extent of the dissemination of Croatian sculptors' new approaches to sculptural activity. We also aim to establsih the specific protagonists, and how and if it is really possible to establish a discourse framework dealing with the deprovincialisation of Croatian cultural space.
Methodology
Our research methodology comprises traditional methods and tools used in art history, history and other disciplines in the sphere of Humanities. The research will require insight into available national and international archives, as well as the analysis of the selected material. Museum, city and state archives and artists' personal archives will be investigated, i.e every available source useful for the research of the subject area. Therefore, field research is a very important aspect of this project.
Our second step would be consulting literature related to the subject at hand and critically analyzing nationally and internationally published texts referring to the issues of Modern sculpture in Croatia.
Furthermore, visualizations will aid us in the presentation of comprehensible geographical maps, displaying events on the sculptural scene involving our artists. Thus, their positions will be determined more precisely. Such visualizations would explain the roles of each artist more clearly. Such mapping will mainly address the most prominent protagonists of the time such as Ivan Rendić, Ivan Meštrović, Antun Augustinčić, Vojin Bakić, Dušan Džamonja. This kind of approach delves into the field of digital humanities, or more precisely digital art history, which uses special software tools. These novelties were introduced to the area of art history in Croatia by a HRZZ (Croatian Science Foundation) project entitled „Modern and Contemporary Artistic Networks, Art Groups and Associations: Organisational and Communication Models in Collaborative Artistic Practices of the 20th and 21st Century“ (project leader: Ljiljana Kolešnik, PhD).
Methodologically, our research project is a combination of traditional procedures used by art history and innovative practices offered by the digital humanities.
Objectives
The primary aim of this project is to gain a thorough perspective on the complex of Modern sculpture in Croatia and to define key changes in the domain of sculptural morphologies and production methodologies, as well as future consequences for the approach to and redefinition of the medium of sculpture. The aim is to determine „Modernism“ in the area of sculptural activity and to find out how sculpture relates to the broader context of Modernist culture. One of our goals is also to investigate every available source that would shed light on new properties of Modern sculpture in Croatia and its mobility (archival, museum and library records, artists' personal archives, etc.). Furthermore, the aim is to form a thesaurus of terms related to Modern sculpture through formal analyses and typological determinations of sculptural activity, as well as theoretical approaches.
In terms of results, we expect to dislocate local values of judgment regarding Modern sculptural production in Croatia and introduce examples of sculptural activity to the discursive area of the deprovincialisation of Croatian cultural space. In addition to this, societal, political and economic formats within which such sculptural production was articulated will be clearly displayed. This approach will generate a list of important sculptural exhibitions and critical perspectives of public reception of sculpture present within Croatian territorial boundaries and other areas. This would facilitate the introduction of Croatian sculpture and inherent issues to general surveys of sculpture.
The desired outcome of the research project is the publication of lexicon of Modern sculpture, as well as a monographic edition that would present and explain, in a contemporary manner, the manifestations of Modern sculpture in Croatia and offer completely new insights into the subject.
The topics we will be investigating:
-
how to define modern sculpture’s temporal boundaries;
-
which political, social and economic factors determine modern sculpture production and in what ways;
-
where sculpture stands in relation to dominant cultural concepts in specific socio-political paradigms and what happens to it after a paradigm shift;
-
what comparative models of sculptural production exist in Europe and the world and how and why connections are established between some geographical and cultural territories;
-
in which specific geographical locations the greatest exchanges between the sculptors’ ideas in the designated period took place;
-
how to perceive the idea of a dominant center and a passivized periphery today and in what measure and how it is possible to transgress this idea on the examples of sculptural works in specific national and/or cultural spaces;
-
what the role and nature of modern portrait sculpture is and to what extent it is possible to consider it a reflection/generator of social and political networking and cultural diplomacy;
-
which specific narratives are related to sculpture and in what degree they are important for its comprehension and “orientation” in the process of translation between different semantic contexts;
-
what kind of language is used to describe modern sculpture and what kind of thesaurus can be generated in that sense;
-
how sculpture is mediated to the public, i.e. what systems of mechanic and virtual reproduction mean for its reception;
-
how to approach sculpture as a “mediator of memory” and how the knowledge about it relates to archives and data banks, i.e. defining the connection between sculpture, archives and data banks;
-
how conceptual turns in the field of artistic activity reflect on the understanding and language of sculpture and its manifestation.
Outline
Our goal is to define modern sculpture in Croatia (as well as its stylistic changes) temporally, spatially and terminologically. In this process, broader contextual frameworks (social, political, economical, aesthetic) of sculptural production in the period beginning at the very end of the 19th century and ending in the middle of the '70s will be taken into consideration. During the initial preparations for the project, a fact was especially taken into consideration - that a considerable part of Croatian sculptural production was created extraterritorially, and that it attracted a great deal of attention from Europe as well as the rest of the world. The project will explore the manner and extent of the dissemination of Croatian sculptors' new approaches to sculptural activity. We also aim to establsih the specific protagonists, and how and if it is really possible to establish a discourse framework dealing with the deprovincialisation of Croatian cultural space.
Methodology
Our research methodology comprises traditional methods and tools used in art history, history and other disciplines in the sphere of Humanities. The research will require insight into available national and international archives, as well as the analysis of the selected material. Museum, city and state archives and artists' personal archives will be investigated, i.e every available source useful for the research of the subject area. Therefore, field research is a very important aspect of this project.
Our second step would be consulting literature related to the subject at hand and critically analyzing nationally and internationally published texts referring to the issues of Modern sculpture in Croatia.
Furthermore, visualizations will aid us in the presentation of comprehensible geographical maps, displaying events on the sculptural scene involving our artists. Thus, their positions will be determined more precisely. Such visualizations would explain the roles of each artist more clearly. Such mapping will mainly address the most prominent protagonists of the time such as Ivan Rendić, Ivan Meštrović, Antun Augustinčić, Vojin Bakić, Dušan Džamonja. This kind of approach delves into the field of digital humanities, or more precisely digital art history, which uses special software tools. These novelties were introduced to the area of art history in Croatia by a HRZZ (Croatian Science Foundation) project entitled „Modern and Contemporary Artistic Networks, Art Groups and Associations: Organisational and Communication Models in Collaborative Artistic Practices of the 20th and 21st Century“ (project leader: Ljiljana Kolešnik, PhD).
Methodologically, our research project is a combination of traditional procedures used by art history and innovative practices offered by the digital humanities.
Objectives
The primary aim of this project is to gain a thorough perspective on the complex of Modern sculpture in Croatia and to define key changes in the domain of sculptural morphologies and production methodologies, as well as future consequences for the approach to and redefinition of the medium of sculpture. The aim is to determine „Modernism“ in the area of sculptural activity and to find out how sculpture relates to the broader context of Modernist culture. One of our goals is also to investigate every available source that would shed light on new properties of Modern sculpture in Croatia and its mobility (archival, museum and library records, artists' personal archives, etc.). Furthermore, the aim is to form a thesaurus of terms related to Modern sculpture through formal analyses and typological determinations of sculptural activity, as well as theoretical approaches.
In terms of results, we expect to dislocate local values of judgment regarding Modern sculptural production in Croatia and introduce examples of sculptural activity to the discursive area of the deprovincialisation of Croatian cultural space. In addition to this, societal, political and economic formats within which such sculptural production was articulated will be clearly displayed. This approach will generate a list of important sculptural exhibitions and critical perspectives of public reception of sculpture present within Croatian territorial boundaries and other areas. This would facilitate the introduction of Croatian sculpture and inherent issues to general surveys of sculpture.
The desired outcome of the research project is the publication of lexicon of Modern sculpture, as well as a monographic edition that would present and explain, in a contemporary manner, the manifestations of Modern sculpture in Croatia and offer completely new insights into the subject.
The topics we will be investigating:
-
how to define modern sculpture’s temporal boundaries;
-
which political, social and economic factors determine modern sculpture production and in what ways;
-
where sculpture stands in relation to dominant cultural concepts in specific socio-political paradigms and what happens to it after a paradigm shift;
-
what comparative models of sculptural production exist in Europe and the world and how and why connections are established between some geographical and cultural territories;
-
in which specific geographical locations the greatest exchanges between the sculptors’ ideas in the designated period took place;
-
how to perceive the idea of a dominant center and a passivized periphery today and in what measure and how it is possible to transgress this idea on the examples of sculptural works in specific national and/or cultural spaces;
-
what the role and nature of modern portrait sculpture is and to what extent it is possible to consider it a reflection/generator of social and political networking and cultural diplomacy;
-
which specific narratives are related to sculpture and in what degree they are important for its comprehension and “orientation” in the process of translation between different semantic contexts;
-
what kind of language is used to describe modern sculpture and what kind of thesaurus can be generated in that sense;
-
how sculpture is mediated to the public, i.e. what systems of mechanic and virtual reproduction mean for its reception;
-
how to approach sculpture as a “mediator of memory” and how the knowledge about it relates to archives and data banks, i.e. defining the connection between sculpture, archives and data banks;
-
how conceptual turns in the field of artistic activity reflect on the understanding and language of sculpture and its manifestation.
Conferences / Events
Sculpture on the Crossroads Between Socio-political Pragmatism, Economic Possibilities and Aesthetical Contemplation
Call for papers is launched!
June 26, 2018
We invite you to apply for participation in our second conference! The process is quite simple.
For the official call for papers, just follow the links below. There, you will find a detailed description of the conference and instructions on how to apply.
Simply fill in the Application Form.
The abstract submission deadline is July 20, 2018.
Call for Papers:
Conference location:
Department of Art History
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Split, Croatia
October 15, 2017
It's almost time for the first Crosculpture conference and we are feeling very excited! You can stay updated on the details of the conference by following our Facebook page and the Facebook event .
We hope to see you there on October 26 and 27, 2017!
Click below for the full conference schedule and extra information.
Modernist Sculpture and Culture: Historiographical Approaches and Critical Analyses
Date: October 26-27, 2017
We invite you to apply for participation in out first conference! The process is quite simple.
Download the official Call for Papers either in English or Croatian (where you will find a detailed description of the conference and detailed instructions) and simply fill in the Application Form.
The abstract submission deadline is May 20, 2017.
Conference location:
Department of Art History
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Split, Croatia
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News
Project Team Activities:
Dissemination of results
PR activity
Field research
Sending Support after the Earthquake in Zagreb
March 23, 2020
Sculpture and Culture Book
February 13, 2020
We are proud to present the results of the "Sculpture and Culture" workshop - an extremely elegant booklet filled with wonderful interviews conducted by our students!
A big thanks to the designer Nikola Križanac!
You can have a look at the complete booklet here.
We hope you enjoy these fantastic interviews and learn something new about the artists.
A Seminar on Sculpture in Lisabon
January 22, 2020
Two of our team members, Dalibor Prančević and Barbara Vujanović, are heading off to Lisabon to hold a seminar at the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum in collaboration with the Institute of Art History (Instituto de História da Arte, Faculdade deCiências Sociais e Humanas – UniversidadeNova de Lisboa) on January 24, 2020 on the topic of researching sculpture. The seminar is organized as part of what is now a several-year-long collaboration between the Institute and the Crosculpture project team members.
If you are interested in finding out more about the seminar, have a look at our blog post below!
Back from Berlin: Borders and Spaces in South-East Europe
November 19, 2019
Our team member Sanja Horvatinčić just came back from the conference "Borders and Spaces in South East Europe – Historical and Contemporary Imaginations and Practices of B/ordering" which was held at the Humboldt-Universität in Berlin on November 14 and 15, 2019.
At the conference, Sanja successfully presented a paper on the topic of "Monuments beyond Borders: Yugoslav Monuments, Revolutionary Legacy and the Notion of National Borders".
We are bringing you her full abstract on our blog post in case you want to read about her recent research. You can find the full program of the conference here to see what other interesting topics were presented.
Artistic contacts between political blocs in post-1945 Europe
October 15, 2019
Our team member Dora Derado is off to Poland for a conference - "Artistic contacts between political blocs in post-1945 Europe".
The conference is being held in Kalisz on October 18 - 19, 2019. You can find the full program here.
In case you are interested in the topic Dora is going to present at the conference, you can read her full abstract on our blog.
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Meet The Team
Dalibor Prančević, PhD – project leader
…teaches Contemporary Art, Visual Communication, and Art through Contemporary Exhibition Practice at Art History department of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Split. His scientific interest is focused on the life and work of Ivan Meštrović as well as his artistic and social milieu. He has published widely on the artist, and curated several exhibitions of his work. He regularly publishes articles on modern and contemporary art and visual culture, and is the author of numerous exhibition catalogues.
Assistant professor, Department of Art History, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Split, Croatia
Aleksandar Jakir, PhD - researcher
…is a historian who has focused on twentieth-century history in his research. In particular, his area of scientific research is the history of southeastern and eastern Europe of the twentieth century (especially Croatia and the area of former Yugoslavia). He delves into the political, cultural and social aspects and histories of this area. Aleksandar Jakir is also a full-time professor at the Department of History of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Split (Croatia) as well as its current dean.
Full professor, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Split, Croatia
Ljiljana Kolešnik, PhD - researcher
…is focused on the art of the twentieth century, especially on modern art (sculpture, painting, art criticism), and post-war art and visual culture of the 1950s and 1960s in middle and eastern Europe. She conveys her knowledge and experience as an external professor at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Split at the graduate and postgraduate levels of Art History studies. In addition to this, she is the leader of the Artnet project (full title: Modern and Contemporary Artist Networks, Art Groups and Art Associations - Organisation and Communication Models of Collaborative Art Practices in the 20th and 21st Century).
Senior Research Adviser, Institute of Art History in Zagreb, Croatia
Ivana Mance, PhD - researcher
…has primarily dealt with the history of art history throughout the nineteenth and twentieth century at the national level. Apart from the history of the discipline itself, her scientific interests also include the theory of art with an emphasis on the cultural phenomenon of peripheral environments during the period of modernity, the visual ideologies of the national middle class and various topics from Croatian nineteenth- and twentieth-century art.
Research Associate, Institute of Art History in Zagreb, Croatia
Barbara Vujanović, MA - researcher
…intensely deals with the life and opus of the sculptor Ivan Meštrović. She is the author of several exhibitions of his works and the author of a number of peer-reviewed works which thematize certain aspects of his work. In addition to this, she is the head of Atelier Meštrović in Zagreb. She is currently a PhD student of the Art History department of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb.
Senior Curator, Ivan Meštrović Museums – Atelier Meštrović, Zagreb, Croatia
Davorin Vujčić, M. Sc. – researcher
…is the author of several exhibitions on modern and contemporary sculptors and several books on the same topics. He has directed his scientific and professional interest towards issues regarding Croatian sculpture throughout the entire 20th century and of the present day.
Museum Adviser, Museums of Hrvatsko Zagorje – Antun Augustinčić Gallery, Klanjec, Croatia
Daniel Zec, M. Sc. – researcher
…dedicated his master’s thesis to sculpture between the two world wars and has published it as a separate book. He is currently enrolled in the postgraduate art history program of the Art History department of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb. His scientific interest is particularly focused on the sculptor Oscar Nemon.
Senior Curator, Museum of Fine Arts, Osijek, Croatia
Darija Alujević, MA – researcher
…is the author of several notable scientific studies and public lectures related to the female entity in the context of the practice of modernist sculptural. She is also the co-author and author of texts and catalogues of exhibitions related to sculpture. She is currently a PhD student of the Art History department of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb.
Senior professional associate, Fine Arts Archives, Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Zagreb, Croatia
Sanja Horvatinčić, PhD – researcher
…is currently a research fellow on the “Modernity, Modernism, and Postmodernism in 20th-Century Croatian Art” project where she is researching public monuments from the socialist period in Croatia. Her scientific interests are focused on modern art of the second half of the twentieth century and on contemporary artistic practices[K1] . She is also currently a PhD student at the Postgraduate Study of Humanities (Department of Art History) at the University of Zadar.
Research Assistant, Institute of art history, Zagreb, Croatia
Božo Kesić, MA - PhD student
…is a PhD student at the Postgraduate Study of Humanities (Department of Art History) at the University of Zadar and an instructor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Split. His scientific interest is predominantly focused on Modern and contemporary sculpture.
Assistant, Department of Art History, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Split, Croatia
Dora Derado, MA - PhD student
…is currently a PhD student of the Art History department of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb where she is working on her doctoral thesis entitled “Provoking Art History: Readymades and Changes in the Perception and Status of Artworks (Reflections on 20th Century Art and Visual Culture in Croatia)”.
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Acknowledgements
The project could not be realized without the help of these wonderful people:
Snježana Dimzov (library)
Maja Kuzmanić (legal affairs)
Magda Karin (financial affairs)
Irena Mišević (human resources)
Jelena Novaković (administrative assistance)
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