#srnec

After the war the communists established the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia as a socialist state closely modeled on the structures of the Soviet Union. The communist leadership's main goal was establishing new political and social structures. However, their long term goal was to transform the whole society not only through economic and social changes but also by performing a cultural transformation which was supposed to bring about an enlightened and progressive Marxist society1. The newly started policies soon took over all cultural production in the country. Collective workshops were started alongside massive architectural institutes, while socialist realism was established as the official artistic style. Srnec, who studied painting during the war, dropped out of the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb never finishing his studies. Despite this, by 1948 he was already a somewhat established cultural worker. Along with Vjenceslav Richter, an architect, and Ivan Picelj, a painter and his colleague from the Academy, Srnec was assigned to work on the design of Yugoslav exhibitions and pavilions at industrial and cultural fairs in Yugoslavia and abroad2. While older and more experienced artists (such as Antun Augstinčić, the sculptor of the Peace statue in front of the UN building in New York) , were commissioned to create works celebrating the communist resistance, revolution and its leaders, younger artists and architects worked on exhibitions and fairs creating exhibits and installations that were celebrating industrial and infrastructural achievements of the regime both at home and abroad.

By 1951 the concept of massive workshops and architectural institutes was abandoned and the scale and number of these exhibitions radically declined. This was the result of political changes in the Yugoslav Communist Party that came about after the political split with USSR in 1948. As a result Yugoslavia began to position itself more towards the West, which in turn brought about increased aid from the US and other countries as well as slow but effective changes to not only the economy but also virtually all policies established after the war3. However, this process of liberalization was slow and by the time workshops were disbanded the cultural authorities were still directing artists towards creating in the socialist realist style. After their work on the exhibitions ended, Srnec, Picelj and Richter started an informal art group, naming it EXAT-51 (for Experimental Atelier). They were soon joined by a couple other young architects and painters who were interested in experimenting with styles and concepts other than those sanctioned by the government. Taking advantage of the increasing liberalization in the country, the group soon after published a Manifesto expressing their ideas and wishes. Their basic platform was based around active advocacy for the legitimacy of abstract art, production of contemporary art that reflects social and economic conditions as well as equalizing the value of “pure” and “applied” arts, an idea that was later developed by Richter as “the synthesis of all arts”. This idea of synthesis of arts was based on constructing objects and spaces that utilized elements of architecture, painting and sculpture all at the same time. This concept was built upon the tradition of De Stijl and Constructivists, but it was also developed within the context of the postwar reconstruction and the social and economic relations of socialism. Despite certain subversive potential and sentiment of their activities, they were allowed to express their ideas freely in the public. Although abstraction was historically treated as an expression of western decadence by the critics and academics close to the regime, the two EXAT-51 shows in 1953 started a more constructive discussion. Those were the first exhibitions of abstract art in public space in communist Yugoslavia and they gave the younger critics and art historians a chance to look at abstract paintings for the first time as well as develop language and theory that was appropriate for this type of art. EXAT continued their activities until its members disbanded it in 1956, producing numerous abstract works, participating in discussions on art theory as well as paving a way for other Yugoslav abstract artists who soon followed.

The experimental nature of Srnec's Space Modulator and its dual quality as a both a plastic object and a flat image can be attributed to the groups proclaimed efforts at synthesis of arts. However, in order to analyze the possible influences and relations between the piece and its author to the group he was a part of, it is necessary to consider what kind of a collective the group EXAT-51 was and what was the immediate context of their activity, but it is also important to consider it within the tradition of the avant-garde collectives.

1 Lilly pp 3

2denegri