Država kao naručitelj – narudžbe i otkupi likovnih djela za interijere javnih ustanova u Hrvatskoj od početka 1950-ih do kraja 1960-ih
Authors:   , Počanić Patricia 
Published: February 2025

This doctoral thesis focuses on the relationship between the state and art based on the commission and acquisition of artwork for the interior spaces of public institutions in the territory of the People's Republic (NR) and the Socialist Republic (SR) of Croatia from the early 1950s to the late 1960s. The works of art commissioned from contemporary artists or acquired throughout the 1950s and 1960s for the purpose of interior design of public, or social institutions, as they were called at the time, form a significant, but still largely under-researched, segment of Croatian art history. Commissions, tenders and acquisitions of art have a prominent role in the context of post-war reconstruction and the formation of a new state, as evidenced by the aesthetic quality of some of the completed works, and a vast number of works that have only partially been preserved today or segmentally dealt with in literature, museum documentation and archival material. The number and quality of the works offer themselves today as testimonies of a range of state initiatives in the period from the 1950s to the 1960s especially those that were launched in order to ensure that a percentage of investment construction funds in the entire Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia (FNRJ), that is, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRJ) was used for the acquisition of artworks. In addition, the artistic quality also represents the artist's active consideration and commitment to the adoption of the so-called synthesis of all arts. This concept signified a unification of architecture, fine arts and design into a unique, total work of art. Since the artworks in this thesis primarily relate to paintings and sculptures commissioned or acquired for buildings of representative public characteristics, the research focused primarily on artistic furnishing of public interiors (governmental, cultural, sports and health institutions, military, tourist, catering and transportation facilities, and factories, company branches and banks) which have been analysed within the context of Yugoslav social ownership and a range of legal acts and by-laws passed in the researched period. The corpus of artworks on which the research was conducted includes a wide scope of media and different functions of buildings, and since the largest client was the state, i.e. state administration, institutes, associations, cooperatives, companies and other institutions financed from the state budget, the research topic and interpretation have been subject to a broad historical, cultural and artistic analysis. The first chapter (Introduction) provides an overview of previous research directly or indirectly linked to the topic of the thesis, the sample and methodology as well as research limitations, which have mostly been related to the issue of availability of archival documents. The chapter concludes with the research goal and hypotheses. The hypotheses are the following: 1) the acquisition and commission of artwork in Yugoslavia and the Republic of Croatia during the 1950s and 1960s were initiated and heavily regulated by the state; 2) the concept of artistic synthesis, or more specifically, the integration of architecture and fine arts, is advocated on all levels of government administration and state institutions that were responsible for culture and art; 3) cultural policy, ideological agendas of the state and the type of public institution impact the use of iconographic, formal and stylistic features of artworks and the level of the artistic synthesis; 4) due to their number, quality and socio-political circumstances the acquired and commissioned artworks for public interiors in the 1950s and 1960s represent an important segment in Croatian art history. The second chapter of the thesis (Socio-historical context and cultural policy of FNRJ/SFRJ and NR/SR of Croatia) presents the socio-historical and political context in Croatia and Yugoslavia between the Second World War and the 1970s. The chapter explains the definitions of ideology, culture and cultural policy that form the basis of the state's political decisions of the time as well as a political and cultural framework from within which the artworks have been analysed. The chapter ends with a brief overview of the cultural policies in the People's /Socialist Republic of Croatia and the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia or, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which includes the period of the so-called agitprop culture, an institutional implementation of cultural policy in the 1950s and 1960s and the reforms and censorship of the early 1970s. Within the legislative framework, the Yugoslav cultural policy objectives were to protect cultural heritage, incentivise the production of artworks through the organisation of events and otherwise, supervise and educate artists, experts and cultural workers, while maintaining control of the entire field of artistic and intellectual creativity. The development of cultural policies from the end of the Second World War to the early 1970s had several phases. In the first phase, from 1945 to 1951/1952, also called the period of "agitprop culture," the Yugoslav cultural policy exercised strict supervision and intense ideological pressure on culture. This could be felt in the production, acquisitions and commissions of artworks especially during 1948 and 1949, when the acquired art represented predetermined partisanship, particular ideas and connective affinities among all Yugoslav peoples. In other words, the socially engaged message of these works could be interpreted in a rather straightforward fashion. The second phase of Yugoslav cultural policy came after the temporary cessation of Agitprop (until the reactivation of the Ideology Committee). Although this phase saw a gradual liberalization, decentralization and bureaucratization of the artistic and cultural field of production, especially after the Sixth Congress of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (1952), in the 1950s and 1960s Yugoslav cultural policy was completely dependent on the state-party policy, which meant that state's cultural institutions exercised exclusive control of the field. This also meant there were coexisting tendencies – one was an increased openness towards expressions of high modernism - abstract and new post-war figurative forms, especially in public art and monuments, and the other was the retention of a clear ideological and memorial function of art, very often manifested as socialist realism. Following the early liberalization process and lowered ideological pressure, the early 1950s saw an individualization of artistic expression, and various works of art of moderate and radical modernist tendencies appeared on the art scene, which, despite numerous debates and resistance, were supported by the state through exhibitions, scholarship, public acquisition and commission. In the early 1960s, the highest echelons of the government denounced the dominant position of abstract art, which in 1962 and 1963 led to changes in the acquisition policy. The restricted freedom of artistic expression did not, however, continue in the second half of the decade when the state encouraged both institutionally and financially the development of art that could be characterised as supporting modernist tendencies. The third chapter of the thesis provides an overview of the post-war art in Croatia, or more specifically, an overview of artistic developments and debates, cultural and political upheavals and overviews of artistic forms, styles and movements, mostly socialist realism and abstract art, which marked the post-war art scene and which were particularly significant in the context of the commission and acquisition of artworks for the interior spaces of specific state institutions. The overview begins with the cultural and political context of post-war art and a series of important speeches by statesmen and artists on the role and position of art - from adherence to the ideological program of the state to the freedom of artistic creation. The chapter also gives an account of important exhibitions that served as testing grounds for the affirmation of new artistic expressions and events that spurred a number of critical reviews. These exhibitions include Archaic Surrealism (1952) by Antun Motika, Miljenko Stančić and Josip Vaništa (1952), American Experience (1953) by Edo Murtić, the exhibition of painters from the EXAT 51 group (1953), Salon 54 (1954) and the 1 st Didactic Exhibition: Abstract Art (1957). One segment of the chapter provides a brief overview and definitions of artistic forms, styles, movements and protagonists in post-war art in Croatia, while other focus more on the ideological aspects of socialist realism and abstract art and their significance concerning the specific geopolitical position of Yugoslavia. The fourth chapter, entitled The Synthesis of Fine Arts – the Development of the Concept and Its Influence on Art in Public Interiors in the 1950s and 1960s in Croatia, deals with the history of the concept "synthesis of fine arts" from the 19th century to the 1960s, particularly focusing on the post-war period in the international context and the Socialist Republic of Croatia. It was a complex idea that most often implied the unification of architecture, design and applied arts, painting and sculpture into a unique work of art. The chapter provides an explanation of the institutional framework of the concept of synthesis, and based on the research of archival material and the then-current periodicals it offers a reconstruction of the debates about the synthesis of all arts that took place during artists' meetings, at exhibitions and conferences and in magazines published in the period in question. It also highlights the significance of the synthesis of fine arts in the theoretical concept of gestalt theory. The fifth chapter, entitled Instruments of the Acquisition and Commission of Artworks for the Interiors of Public Institutions in the Territory of the People's/ Socialist Republic of Croatia in the 1950s and 1960s offers an unprecedentedly thorough reconstruction and explanation of the role of institutionalized cultural activities in the 1950s and 1960s (state administration, foundations, academies, state master workshops and professional associations and cooperatives) in the history of acquisition and commission policies regarding artworks in Yugoslavia and Croatia. The chapter goes on to explore in detail the state acquisition and commissioning process and the instruments, the impact of cultural policy on the acquisition and commission of artworks in the context of the expenditures for culture from the annual federal /republican budget, in the context of cultural and socio-political developments and legal acts and by-laws on the allocation of a percentage for artworks within investment construction project budgets. An important aspect of the chapter represents the investigation into the work of acquisition committees at the federal, republican and local levels of government, which often decided the fate of artists, the allocation of funds to numerous museum and gallery institutions, but also influenced the visual presentation of government in public buildings. The composition of the committees was also indicative of and depended on the country's cultural policy. In the post-war period, the committees were often made up of state administration employees, people imposed by the party, but also experts in culture such as art historians. In the early 1950s, they were largely made up of visual artists, and members of professional art associations who were sometimes accused of irregularities in following the procedures of purchasing and commissioning artworks. Apart from the association, the commissioning process was also greatly influenced by the State's Master Workshops as independent institutions which, due to considerable grants, favourable working conditions and the buildings they owned, were the only ones able to realize large orders, and thus influence the form and content of the works. Attempts to regulate the aforementioned instruments were the subject of numerous debates, as well as proposals for regulations, decrees and recommendations, especially during the 1950s. Considering the proliferation of proposals and legal acts in a single decade, artistic commissions and acquisitions for the interiors of public institutions embody a dynamic relationship between art and the state. The sixth and biggest chapter of the thesis offers a typology of artworks commissioned and acquired for public buildings of various functions. Sub-chapters contain an analysis and interpretation of a considerable number of diverse works of art situated in the interiors of administrative, military and educational institutions, cultural, and health institutions, catering establishments, shops, branches of banks and post offices, transport infrastructure facilities, factories, associations and societies, tourist architecture and residences of the President of the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia. Although the typology has been created based on several criteria, including the type of work, location, client and motivation for the integration of art and architecture, the research of archival and museum documentation, periodicals, in situ buildings and previous research is given in sub-chapters by the type of public institutions in order to combine in one place the similarities and differences of artworks situated in the interiors of particular institutions that depended on socio-political circumstances. Each function of the building is presented within its context, with numerous examples which represent an overview of acquisitions and commissions for the interior, an example selected for its aesthetic and sociopolitical significance, which provides an in-depth analysis and interpretation of the work. They are also presented through a comparative example in other Yugoslav republics. At the end of the chapter, there is a short list of examples divided according to the proposed typology. At the very end, in addition to the list of references, the doctoral dissertation includes appendices (various archival documents) and a list of works in the interiors of public institutions in Croatia in the 1950s and 1960s. The list contains known information about the location, author, year, type of work and technique, client, selected works of literature related to the work, and a photograph (if the work has been preserved or if there is photo documentation). Additionally, each work has a note related that usually includes information about the architect of the building, the collaborators and the degree of preservation of the work. The research carried out for this thesis has resulted in the first comprehensive analysis, contextualisation, interpretation and valorisation of artworks produced for public interiors in Croatia in the 1950s and 1960s. It also provides an insight into the role of the state as a client, and numerous aspects of cultural and acquisition policies that have not been addressed so far. New information is provided about numerous unknown or lesser-known works of painting and sculpture commissioned and acquired for the interiors of public institutions. Consequently, the results include the attribution and dating of ten artworks. The contribution of the research comes in the form of typology and a list of artworks in the interiors of public institutions that were commissioned or acquired in the 1950s and 1960s with some examples from the 1940s and 1970s). The systematization and interpretation of the material and the critical analysis of primary and secondary sources expand on the previous knowledge about the art of the 1950s and 1960s and fragmentarily researched works of art.