Oto Bihalji-Merin and the Concept of the “Naïve” in the 1950s. Bridging Socialist Realism and Non-Figurative Art

Abstract

Jugoslovanski pisatelj, umetniški kritik in kustos Oto Bihalji-Merin (1904–1993) je v dvajsetih letih prejšnjega stoletja živel v Berlinu, kjer se je pridružil nemški komunistični partiji in objavljal literarno kritiko v levičarskem tisku pod sovjetskim vplivom. Rojen v židovski družini v Zemunu, je po vzponu nacističnega režima v tridesetih letih emigriral najprej v Češkoslovaško, potem pa v Francijo in Švico. Ob izbruhu druge svetovne vojne se je kot jugoslovanski vojak znašel v nemškem ujetništvu. Po vojni je postal eden najpomembnejših kulturnih teoretikov in administratorjev v Titovi Jugoslaviji. Po sporu Tita s Stalinom je postal goreč zagovornik naivne ljudske umetnosti kot prvobitnega in pristnega izraza proletarske in kmečke ustvarjalnosti. Merinova doktrina, ki je služila za premostitev razlik med socialističnim realizmom in zahodno nefiguralno umetnostjo, je temeljila na teoretskih idejah o tretji poti Mirolsava Krleže in gibanju neuvrščenih.Yugoslav writer, art critic and curator Oto Bihalji-Merin (1904–1993) lived in Berlin during the 1920s, where he joined the German Communist Party and published literary critique in the left-wing press. Born into a Jewish family, he moved to Czechoslovakia, France, Switzerland, and Spain after the rise of the Nazi regime. In this period, he established close contact with left-wing intellectuals from all over Europe. During the Second World War, he was imprisoned as a Yugoslav soldier by the Germans. After the war, he became the most important cultural theorist and administrator in Tito’s Yugoslavia. After Tito’s break with Stalin, he promoted the concept of naïve folk art as an authentic, primordial expression of proletarian and peasant creativity. His doctrine, destined to bridge the gap between socialist realism and Western non-figurative art, was inspired by Miroslav Krleža’s cultural theory of the Third Way and by the non-aligned movement