Review article
https://doi.org/10.31664/zu.2022.110.06
Between an Idea and Realisation: Contribution to the Study of Artworks from the interior of the Building of Socio-Political Organisations — Kockica
Patricia Počanić
; Odsjek za povijest umjetnosti, Filozofski fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Abstract
Artworks created for the interior of the Building of Socio- Political Organizations (the so-called Kockica) in Zagreb, which was built between 1961 and 1968, represent a monumental example of the linking of architecture, design and fine arts in the context of a commission at the level of the city and the then republican government. At the suggestion of architect Ivan Vitić, who worked with art consultant Raoul Goldoni, the architecture of Kockica was completed with the works of renowned artists: Jagoda Buić, Dušan Džamonja, Raoul Goldoni, Stevan Luketić, Edo Murtić and Zlatko Prica. The idea was to represent the country's political power, progress and stability not just through the architecture, but also through its artistic equipment. Continuing on their previous work, these artists created works of abstract artistic expression, which the government had publicly rejected only a few years before. The artworks in the interior of Kockica thus represented not only the artistic achievements at the level of individual oeuvres of the artists, who by 1968 had already participated in the realization of numerous solutions for the interiors of public institutions, but also a confirmation of the government’s official attitude to the freedom of artistic expression, embodied in a building of the highest political significance in the Federal Republic of Croatia — the headquarters of the Central Committee of the Croatian Communist Party — which thus affirmed the abstract artistic expression and the idea of the synthesis of all arts. It is precisely this idea of the synthesis of plastic arts, which implies the unification of painting, sculpture, design and applied arts under the auspices of architecture, thus creating a “total” work of art, that is key to understanding the interior furnishing of the Building of Socio-Political Organizations, as well as the furnishing of other public buildings in the post-war period of the national and international history of art. Investigations of the idea of the synthesis of plastic arts, in the context of art theory and the then new republican and federal laws and bylaws, influenced the more or less successful articulation and linking of Kockica's artworks and architecture. The Building of Socio-Political Organizations has so far been the subject of multiple analyses, especially following an increased awareness of the need to research and preserve the cultural heritage created during the period of socialist Yugoslavia. Despite the valuable analyses of the architectural edifice, the reconstructed history of the building and its artistic equipment, some information on certain artworks, equipment, circumstances and the course of artwork commissioning remain unknown. This paper explains the process of commissioning artworks for the interior of the Building of Socio-Political Organizations on the basis of archival material, contemporary press reports and previous research. Also, the created artworks are interpreted in the context of the practice of furnishing the interior of public institutions, or rather in the context of the idea of the synthesis of art in general. The aim of this paper is to supplement the previous insights into the course, participants and circustances of their creation, and to consider the artworks in the interior of the Building of Socio-Political Organizations in the context of the idea of the synthesis of plastic arts and the possibility of its realization.
Keywords
Kockica; abstraction; synthesis of plastic arts; Vojin Bakić; Jagoda Buić; Dušan Džamonja; Raoul (Raul) Goldoni; Stevan Luketić; Edo Murtić; Zlatko Prica; Ivan Vitić
Hrčak ID:
294935
URI
Publication date:
1.7.2022.
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