ABSTRACT
The expressionist complex is a significant component of Croatian modern culture that made its appearance primarily in literature and painting—with rare but important reverberations in theatre, film, architecture, and music. Croatian expressionism, therefore, can be understood as the sum of a number of individual contributions, marked by various influences, with a social and artistic significance that justifies its consideration within this large and important transnational artistic phenomenon. In the 1960s and 1970s, Croatian art historians approached expressionist tendencies with a certain degree of caution arising from the rigid application of the interpretative model regarding center–periphery relations. The emergence of expressionism in Croatian culture bears witness to the importance of the individual in the transfer of avant-garde postulates. Therefore, the expressionism created by Croatian artists—contributing to the great diversity of form, content, and meaning—can also be viewed and interpreted as one of the many confirmations of the international nature of the expressionist movement.
