ABSTRACT
This essay offers a brief and general survey of expressionism in Slovenia, both the short-lived currents and expressionism proper, focusing predominantly on the visual arts. It is structured as a general introduction and subsequent inquiry into the reception of expressionism in Slovenia, which at the time of expressionism’s local emergence after the First World War was already a part of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Slovenian impressionism had appeared in the Carniola, or central region of Slovenia, only at the dawn of the twentieth century and initially found little acceptance among critics or the public, but it then quickly became the most well-established prewar art movement in Slovenia. The Slovenian expressionists were born under Austro-Hungarian rule at the turn of the century, with no properly established system of local art schools at their disposal.
