Jugoslovanska naiva in popularna kultura
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| Title | Jugoslovanska naiva in popularna kultura |
| Authors | |
| Abstract | Naive art in Yugoslavia was not only an artistic phenomenon, but also a cultural and a social phenomenon that has grown into a form of popular culture. Using the example of the Trebnje Naive Artists’ Camp, it is argued that artistic creativity transcended the sphere of art and was shifted into popular culture through vigorous and large-scale production, reproduction, and commercialization of the artworks, and by a media and journalistic coverage of naive artists and the events related to naive art. However, without the support and Direction of the cultural policy of a socialist state, this would not have been possible. The term “naive art” was finally established in the 1950s and was applied to the art practiced by self-taught artists (mainly painters and less often sculptors), who often came from marginal backgrounds. Nonetheless, their talent was noticed by some art collectors, critics, and already established artists, as was the case in France or in Yugoslavia. Naive artists expressed themselves in a simplified form with figurative and narrative motifs related to their inner or outer world or local visual tradition. The masters of naive art were part of modern art and some avant-garde movements, exemplifying how no educated person from a marginal environment could attain a high aesthetic value and strong creative expression. Furthermore, after the Second World War naive art become quite popular among the general public in Europe and the rest of the world, yet this was also the time of its decline. Naive art in Yugoslavia and especially the Hlebine school may be considered the last phase in historic European naive art. After the Second World War, the Yugoslav socialist state also strove to equalize and democratize society through art by minimizing the differences between the producers and consumers of art. Such a policy led to the decentralization of culture by forming various cultural and artistic institutions and by holding cultural events and spectacles in the countryside and peripheral areas. Through these various informal ideological mechanisms, the state apparatus exercised its authority in socializing its people in the spirit of Yugoslav socialist self-management and the ideology of brotherhood and unity by joining together the producers and consumers of naive art from various ethnicities, cultures, and social classes. Unfortunately this transformed naive art at its peak of popularity into a decorative and souvenir artifact with a pastoral image and folklore motifs. The encouragement from the authorities on the one hand and the market on the other produced and reproduced simple art forms and narrative contents without a complex iconography, which were consumed uncritically and on a large scale. Consequently, this completely denied the core of naive art and resulted in its final devaluation. |
| Publisher | Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakulte / Ljubljana University Press, Faculty of Arts |
| Date | 1970-01-01 |
| Source | Ars & Humanitas: Revija za umetnost in humanistiko Vol 3, No 1-2 (2009) |
| Rights | @ Univerza v Ljubljani, Filozofska fakulteta |