Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences University of Zagreb Art and Politics in the Modern Period Conference Proceedings PUBLISHED BY PROOFREADING Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Jeremy F. Walton University of Zagreb, Croatia FF-press TECHICAL ASSISTANCE Patricia Počanić FOR THE PUBLISHER Vesna Vlahović-Štetić COVER AND LAYOUT DESIGN Maja Brodarac EDITORS Dragan Damjanović COMPUTER LAYOUT Lovorka Magaš Bilandžić Marko Maraković Željka Miklošević Boris Bui Jeremy F. Walton EDITION REVIEWERS 300 Tamara Bjažić Klarin (Zagreb) Julija Lozzi Barković (Rijeka) PRINTED BY Matej Klemenčič (Ljubljana) Denona, Zagreb Lidija Merenik (Belgrade) Milan Pelc (Zagreb) Markian Prokopovych (Durham) ISBN 978-953-175-643-3 A catalogue record for this book is available from the National and University Library in Zagreb under CIP code 001046414. The book is financially supported by the Ministry of Science and Education of the Republic of Croatia, City of Zagreb's Office for Culture, Art History Department of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, The Foundation of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts. mpimmg EDITED BY Dragan Damjanović Lovorka Magaš Bilandžić Željka Miklošević Jeremy F. Walton Zagreb, 2019 7 Introduction: Intersections of Art and Politics 15 Portraits of Artists as Political Subjects and Actors 17 Angelina Milosavljevic-Ault AN ARTIST IN AND OUT OF THE SYSTEM IN EARLY MODERN FLORENCE. SOCIAL CONTEXT AND THE STRUGGLE FOR ESTABLISHMENT OF YOUNG GIORGIO VASARI AS REFLECTED IN HIS LETTERS OF 1534 AND 1536 25 Vladimir Peter Goss RESURRECTIO MEMORIAE – THE CASE OF JOSEF STRZYGOWSKI 33 Elizabeth Kajs THE ORIGINS OF AN IDENTITY: KÄTHE KOLLWITZ’S EARLY EXPLORATIONS OF THE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE 41 Daniel Zec OSCAR NEMON’S SYSTEM OF UNIVERSAL ETHICS 53 Maria de Fátima Morethy Couto KINETICS, DESPITE IT ALL: SOUTH AMERICAN ARTISTS IN EUROPE AND SPECTATOR PARTICIPATION 63 Martina Bratić SHOULD ENGAGED ART RE-ENGAGE? SOME PERSPECTIVES OF YAEL BARTANA’S WORKS 73 Spaces of Political-Artistic Representation 75 Hadrien Volle THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE DECORATIVE PROGRAMME OF THE FAUBOURG SAINT-GERMAIN THEATRE DURING THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 83 Katarina Mohar ART REPRESENTING THE STATE: THE VILLA BLED OFFICIAL RESIDENCE 93 Tijana Borić A MANIFESTO OF POWER AND RESTORED STATEHOOD: KARAĐORĐE’S TOWN OF TOPOLA 101 Sanja Zadro TRANSFORMATIONS OF THE RONDO SQUARE IN MOSTAR IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE 20TH CENTURY 109 Representing Politics 111 Danko Šourek ICONOGRAPHY OF THE SACRED STAGE: SCENOGRAPHY FOR THE CANONICAL CORONATION OF OUR LADY OF TRSAT (1715) 119 Aleksandra Kučeković ART, POLITICS AND RELIGIOUS IDENTITY – COATS OF ARMS OF THE PAKRAC SLAVONIAN BISHOPRIC IN THE 18TH CENTURY 129 Tiphaine Gaumy THE ICONOGRAPHY OF POPULAR REVOLTS IN MODERN EUROPE (14TH – 18TH CENTURIES): IMAGES AND AUTHORITIES 139 Jovana D. Milovanović THE MILLENNIUM CELEBRATIONS OF 1896 AND THE CITY OF RIJEKA: ON ANDOR DUDITS’ PAINTING THE CEREMONIAL PROCLAMATION OF THE ANNEXATION OF RIJEKA TO HUNGARY IN 1779 147 Igor Borozan BETWEEN THE ARTS AND POLITICS: RITUAL CRADLE DONATION AND THE CASE OF THE FALSE PREGNANCY OF QUEEN DRAGA OBRENOVIĆ 157 Frano Dulibić IDEOLOGIES, CARTOONS AND COMIC STRIPS DURING WORLD WAR II IN CROATIA 171 Ana Munk IDOLATRY: REFLECTIONS ON VISUAL PERMISSION AND PROHIBITION IN ISLAM AND CHRISTIANITY 183 The Politics of Patronage, Provenance, and Curation 185 Sanja Cvetnić THE FRANKAPAN FAMILY AND THE POLITICAL ICONOGRAPHY OF EARLY MODERN AND MODERN CROATIA 193 Marjeta Ciglenečki THE DIPLOMATIC GIFT OF A PAINTING AND ITS COPY IN THE PTUJ CASTLE GALLERY 201 Ljerka Dulibić, Iva Pasini Tržec THE LONG LIVES OF TRANSFERRED MUSEUM OBJECTS: THE EXCHANGE OF PAINTINGS FROM THE STROSSMAYER GALLERY (ZAGREB) FOR THE BAPTISMAL FONT FROM THE MUSEO CORRER (VENICE) IN 1942 213 Katja Mahnič JOSIP MANTUANI ON THE ROLE OF ART COLLECTION WITHIN THE MODERN MUSEUM 221 Jasminka Najcer Sabljak, Silvija Lučevnjak STATE AUTHORITIES AND THE HERITAGE OF NOBLE FAMILIES OF EASTERN CROATIA 231 Art, Nations, Nationalism 233 Marina Bregovac Pisk COLLECTING PAINTINGS, PRINTS AND SCULPTURES IN A NATIONAL MUSEUM FROM THE 19TH TO THE 21ST CENTURY 243 Sandi Bulimbašić THE MEDULIĆ ASSOCIATION OF CROATIAN ARTISTS IN THE CONTEXT OF CENTRAL EUROPEAN ARTISTIC AND POLITICAL ASPIRATIONS: THE MYTH AND THE NATION 255 Iva Prosoli FROM HEIMATKUNST TO THE ZAGREB SCHOOL (AN ATTEMPT TO CREATE NATIONAL IDENTITY THROUGH PHOTOGRAPHY) 263 Nikki Petroni SUBVERTING THE CANON: A RETHINKING OF THE PLACE OF TRADITION IN PERIPHERAL MODERN ART. THE CASE OF MALTA 271 Ana Šeparović CROATIAN PAINTING AND ART CRITICISM IN THE PERIOD OF SOCIALIST REALISM (1945–1950): THEORY VS. PRACTICE 281 Aldona Tołysz BETWEEN FREEDOM AND POLICY: THE POLISH ART SCENE IN THE COMMUNIST PERIOD BETWEEN 1945 AND 1965 291 Political Architecture/The Politics of Architecture 293 Cosmin Minea FOREIGN AND LOCAL ENTANGLEMENTS IN THE CREATION OF ROMANIAN ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE IN THE LATE 19TH CENTURY 303 Franko Ćorić PROTECTION AND RESTORATION OF HISTORIC MONUMENTS AS A CULTURAL POLICY OF THE AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN MONARCHY 313 Aleksander Łupienko ARCHITECTURE AND URBAN PLANNING IN SERVICE OF POLITICS: NEOCLASSICISM AND THE RESTRUCTURING OF CITIES IN THE KINGDOM OF POLAND 325 Michał Pszczółkowski ARCHITECTURE AS A TOOL OF TRANSCULTURATION IN POLISH LANDS DURING THE PARTITIONS 335 Dragan Damjanović AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN DUALISM AND CROATIAN 19TH-CENTURY ARCHITECTURE – POLITICS AND DESIGN 349 List of authors Portraits of Artists as Political Subjects and Actors Daniel OSCAR NEMON’S SYSTEM OF UNIVERSAL Zec ETHICS1 Museum of Fine Arts, Osijek Abstract This paper analyses the System of Universal Ethics, a conceptual project elaborated by the sculptor Oscar Nemon during the 1930s. This utopian, unrealized concept was based on the ideals of cosmopolitanism, pacifism and humanism, but also derived from a foundation of Jewish ethics and philosophy. It thus established the principles of a new school of thought, a new social movement and an ideal social community – in a time of destruction of cultural and human values by nationalist and racist ideologies. Keywords: Oscar Nemon, utopia, Jews, ethics, humanity, cosmopolitism INTRODUCTION 41 n the period between 1933 and the mid-1940s, Oscar Nemon2 conceived and promoted his proposal for a System of Universal Ethics, alongside a related architectural project for the Centre of Universal Ethics.3 These combined concepts represent a one-off de- Iparture from his established sculptural practices to explore the possibilities of social utopi- anism, which was itself indicative of the sociohistorical context of the time in which it orig- inated – Oscar Nemon’s initial development of his ideas for the System of Universal Ethics collided with the Nazis’ rise to power. The project was concluded just after the end of the World War II. Nemon’s undertaking – universal ethics – comprised two components, real- ized through the separate media of intellectual discourse and artistic form. The theoretical articulation of his concept combined pacifism and humanism within a framework of Jewish ethics and a philosophy of morality, to create the basis for a new school of thought, a new social movement and an ideal social community. The “concrete” or plastic arts component conceived a bold modernist architectural building as the centre-piece of this movement. Nemon’s dedication and commitment to this unrealized and unfulfilled utopian project (doubly unfulfilled: as architecture and as a social system or movement) is corroborated by numerous sketches, photographs, written notes and texts.4 This paper deals with the idea and content of Nemon’s System of Universal Ethics, focusing on its social meaning and reception and the cultural, historical and political context of its emergence, as well as on a comparison with some other examples of utopian artistic projects. An analysis of the form and style of architecture of the Centre of Universal Ethics will be presented elsewhere. This 1 This paper was co-funded by the Croatian Science Foundation Project no. 4153 Croatia and Central Europe: Art and Politics in the Late Modern Period (1780–1945). 2 Oscar Nemon (1906–1985), a sculptor of Jewish origin, was born in Osijek, Croatia. He worked in Vienna (1925), Brussels (1925– 1936) and England (1936–1985). He is best known for his portrait sculptures and monuments of Sigmund Freud and Winston Churchill. For more about Oscar Nemon, see Daniel Zec, Osječki kipari prve polovice 20. stoljeća: Leović, Živić, Nemon, Švagel-Lešić [Osijek Sculptors of the 1st Half of 20th Century: Leović, Živić, Nemon, Švagel-Lešić] (Osijek: Muzej likovnih umjetnosti, 2014), 179–229.; Oscar Nemon: memoari, eseji, osvrti i zapisi [Oscar Nemon: Memoirs, Essays, Reviews and Records], ed. Daniel Zec (Osijek: Muzej likovnih umjetnosti, 2016). 3 This paper outlines a chapter of my doctoral dissertation titled The Life and Work of Oscar Nemon, sculptor on which I am currently working as a PhD student at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb. 4 Temple of Universal Ethics, Box 2 (hereafter cited as Box 2), Oscar Nemon Archive Fonds (coll. ref. 2004.21), Henry Moore Insti- tute Archive, Leeds (hereafter cited as ONA-HMI Archive). The same institution holds materials relevant for this project. Art and Politics paper also takes into account the sequence of texts in which the artist speculates on social ethics and the idea of utopian society in particular.