Slikar Ivan Benković i hrvatska iseljenička zajednica u Sjedinjenim Američkim Državama od 1912. do 1918. godine
Authors: Ferber Bogdan Jasenka , Žaja Vrbica Sanja 
Published: April 2024

In the period from the 1880s to the end of World War I, several Croatian artists resided in the USA. In the 1880s, these included the Dubrovnik painters Vlaho Bukovac and Niko Zec, and in the early twentieth century, painters Bela Csikos Sesia, Robert Auer, and Oton Iveković, and sculptors Rudolf Valdec and Dujam Penić, as well as the lesser-known sculptors Pavao Kelečić Kufrin and Ivan Bulimbašić. With the exception of Oton Iveković, who painted the parish church of St John the Baptist in Kansas City in 1910, they did not significantly contribute to the cultural space of the Croatian diaspora during this period. The first Croatian artist who actively engaged with the diaspora was the painter and graphic artist Ivan Benković (Rečica, 1886 - Chicago, 1918), a member of the first generation of students at the newly founded future Academy, at that time the Temporary Higher School for Arts and Crafts in Zagreb. After receiving his diploma in 1911, he briefly stayed in Vienna and Paris before emigrating to New York in the spring of 1912. He then lived in Chicago from 1915 until his death. Most of his artworks and documentation, preserved in private archives, remained largely unknown to researchers until recently, and his life and work during his stay in the USA were almost completely unknown. From 1913, Benković closely cooperated with the Croatian Union in New York, the first major political organization of Croats in the USA. Upon moving to Chicago in 1915, he collaborated with the Croatian National Community, the Croatian Community of Illinois, and the Croatian Falcon in the west. During World War I, he supported the Yugoslav movement through his artistic work, cooperating with the Yugoslav Union and the Yugoslav Committee in London. Benković’s work on the design of Croatian-American printed matter included a variety of magazine covers, memorials, and diplomas, as well as the logotype of the most widespread Croatian-American daily newspaper, Hrvatski svijet, which was renamed Jugoslovenski svijet in 1917. He translated the contemporary aspirations towards national expression, incorporating reworked folk motifs from his homeland into the American environment. Through his artistic contributions to shaping the visual identity of Croatian-American printed matter and artworks with national themes combined with contemporary artistic solutions, he actively participated in constructing the cultural identity of emigrants during the continuous process of their positioning within “other” cultures. The role of culture and art is crucial in building a collective identity, especially during times of significant political upheaval, such as the years before and during World War I. Benković found himself at the right time in the position of a visual artist in America, acting as a “fighter for shaping national identity.” Until 1918, alongside Meštrović, who was renowned in America at that time due to the publication of his art in the Croatian-American press, Benković was the only prominent Croatian artist who successfully connected with the political efforts of the Croatian diaspora. Nevertheless, his oeuvre remained largely anonymous, limited to the Croatian community, which nearly forgot him after the disappointment with the developments in the Yugoslav situation after 1918.