Art Deco and National Tendencies in Serbian Architecture

Author(s): Zoran Manević, Rajka Davison, David Davison

Source: The Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts, Vol. 17, Yugoslavian Theme Issue
(Autumn, 1990), pp. 70-75
Published by: Florida International University Board of Trustees on behalf of The Wolfsonian-FIU
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1504080 .
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 Art Deco and National
Tendencies in Serbian Architecture
By Zoran Manevic

Translated by Rajka and David Davison

l W- - -
_ ~ _

omantic artistic ideals constantly prevail over classical ones in

Serbian architecture. The development of shapes, imagination,
and a literarybackground are valued more highly in Serbian ar-
. , chitecture than are sustained expression, rationality,and abstract
i?i^i
'
1expression. This phenomenon, particularlypresent around
Fig.1. MomirKorunovi6 WorldWarI, is grounded in Serbian history.

(1883-1969),Post Office, Historically,the Sava and the Danube rivers represented not only a firm
border between the Austro-Hungarianmonarchy and Ottoman Empire, but
Belgrade,1928. also served as a border between two civilizations, that of western Europe and
the Levant in the east. Although there had been casual, physical mingling,
such as when the Austrians had broken into Turkish territories or when the
Turkspushed to the north, in a psychological sense the border was stable. To
the north and south of the great rivers, however, the organization of the cities
and the manner in which private and public buildings were constructed were
totally different.
Between 1830and 1835,the Serbs, in their renewed state south of the Savaand
the Danube, had adopted western Europe's system of urban planning as well
as its building techniques, and had thus broken with centuries of tradition.
The ease with which this and the demolition of the remains of Turkishcities
took place can be explained by a series of factors.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, those Serbs remaining to the
south of the Sava and Danube did not possess an indigenous culture because
they had lived in villages or in refuges in the woods. Serbs who had escaped
to the north centuries before, on the other hand, had mingled in Pannonian
towns with other nationalities and had adopted foreign ways. The lack of an
autonomous building tradition, which would have rested on a system of great
historical styles, accounts for the extremely broad spectrum of ideas that ap-
peared in Serbian architecture in the early twentieth century.
The Serbs of the north came to aid the Serbs of the south. In spite of their
academic education, northern Serbs preferred Byzantine architecture and
wanted their country liberated not only from Turkishbut also from possible
Austro-Hungarianrule. It was, therefore, no accident that Serbian architects
from the north--for example, Svetozar Ivackovic (1844-1924), Jovan Ilkic
(1857-1917), Dusan Zivanovic (1853-1937), and VladimirNikolic (1857-1922)-
were outstanding pupils of the famous Teophil Hansen, whose neo-Byzantine
visions were realized in churches and chapels built in Serbia in the 1880s and
the 1890s.

DAPAFall 1990 71
1/
 The domestic, autochthonous romantic school originated under the influ-
ence of a national political program that, since the 1860s, had been dedicat-
ed to uniting all the south Slavic peoples into one state. In the 1870s the first
architects educated in Serbia, Mihajlo Valtrovic (1839-1915) and Dragutin
Milutinovic (1840-1900), paid visits to medieval monasteries. Their pupils
during the 1880s and the 1890s in turn formulated the basis of the Serbo-
Byzantine style, the character of which is more decorative than structural
and, thus, naturallyand easily merged with local variants of Art Nouveau or
Secession.
Between 1900 and 1914the academic tradition was prevalent in Serbia, espe-
cially in the architecturaltreatment of schools. In large public buildings and
in private residences and villas, however, numerous examples of historicism,
based on classical traditions or completely free combinations of romantic
shapes, are detectable.
The different tendencies characteristicof Serbian architecture can be catego-
rized into several groups whose guiding forces were the decorator Dragutin
Inkiostri (1866-1942), who was originallyfrom Dalmatia, and the architects
Branko Tanazevic(1876-1948), Petar Popovic (1873-1945), and the most sig-
nificant of them, Momir Korunovic (1883-1969).

Dragutin Inkiostri's designs for interior decoration, furniture, and everyday

objects were based on traditionalpatterns derived from weaving carpets
or carving, which were then still living folk crafts. His ideas should have led
to the foundation of an institute of national art, which would have establish-
ed Serbian artistic craft traditions. Nevertheless, an indigenous domestic
contribution to the history of European applied art reached contemporary
academies for applied art and design through the Arts and Craftsmovement
via the Bauhaus.
Fig.2. Momir
Korunovic Branko Tanazevicalso reevaluated the utilization of folk crafts in building,
Chamber
(1883-1969), of and he especially advocated using the shape of the Balkan house when con-
structing village schools. In designing monumental buildings in Belgrade-
Commerce, 1931.
Svetozarevo, the Telephone Exchange Building (1908) and the Ministry of Education

72 DAPAFall 1990
 I
c., r is L -
...... .
- .- .. - - . . h

Fig.3. MomirKorunovic Building (1912)- Tanazevicmerged decorative elements from Serbian me-
dieval architecture with typically Secessionist features, such as masks or
residencein
(1883-1969),
long bands descending from pilasters. He, thus, succeeded in combining,
1930-1931.
Kumanovo, in a typically Serbian way, essentially similar antiacademic tendencies of
various origins.
Considerablymore stylistic coherence is found in the work of PetarPopovic.
His 1908 design for the local Council Building in Vranje is an excellent
anthological example of the recent application of the Serbo-Byzantine style
in Serbian architecture. Because Vranjewas located, at that time, near the
Turkish border, Popovic thought it was best politically to adhere to the do-
mestic tradition. In other works, however, the architect was inspired by late
Secessionism-the most significant being the Hotel Petrograd in Belgrade
(1914-1921), which exhibited features of the emerging Art Deco style.
Momir Korunovic led Serbian architects in their resistance to Academism.
The roots of Korunovic's personal style are numerous. He referred to his
style as Moravian,alluding to a school of architecture that in the fourteenth
century developed a unique decorative system based on Byzantium (figs. 1-3).
Admittedly,the elements of the Moravianschool were more precisely adopt-
ed in works by Tanazevicand Popovic. Korunovic's great talent was in fact in-
Fig.4. MomirKorunovic spired by the spirit of national architecture, but beyond its formulation, the
studyforthe
(1883-1969), experiences he gained on numerous journeys throughout Europe, especially
his stay in Prague, were equally significant.
PostOfficein Belgrade,1912.
Korunovic'ssense of decoration is overly rich, violent, and in its extreme con-
PrivateCollection,
Belgrade. sequences (The Monument to SerbianHeroes from BalkanWarsin Zebrnjak,
1937) close to Expressionism.In its initialform, such as the 1912design for the
Post Office Building (fig.4), it resembled a typicalromantic fairytale recalling
medieval knighthood and rallied the nation before its decisive battle for survival.
Politics and architecture were closely connected before and after WorldWarI.
At the WorldExhibition in Parisin 1900, the Serbian pavilion echoed the shape

DAPAFall 1990 73
Fig.6. BrothersPetar (b. 1899)

and Branko(1902-1978)Krstic,

YugoslavPavilion,Philadelphia,

1926.PrivateCollection,

Belgrade.

Fig.5. MilanKapetanovic

(1859-1934),Pavilionof Serbia,

Paris, 1900.

Fig. 7. Dragiia Bra:ovan
(1887-1965),YugoslavPavilion,
Barcelona,1929.
of a church (fig. 5). Its designer, the architect MilanKapetanovic (1859-1934),
was active in politics and ended his career as Minister for Buildings. The final
design for the Serbian pavilion emphasized the independence of the Serbian
state by underscoring the freedom of the Serbian Orthodox church. In the
mid-1920s, the pavilion designed by the Krstic brothers for the 1926 Sesqui-
Centennial Exposition (150th anniversary of the founding of the United
States) in Philadelphia also resembled a church (fig. 6), which allegedly corre-
sponded to the "wishes of America"and met one of the key conditions for
entering the design competition in Yugoslavia.
Immediatelybefore the 1925l'ExpositionInternationaledes Arts Decoratifs et
IndustrielsModernes in Paris,a competition to design the Yugoslavpavilion was
advertised. MilanZlokovic (1895-1965) submitted two designs, which was not
an uncommon practice. One was inspired by premodern styles reminiscent of
works byAuguste Perret,while the other relied on folk building traditions.
At the end of the 1920s, romantic tendencies were put aside in favor of the
International Style. Modern architecture arose within the movement Group
of Architects of Modern Expression (1928-1934) and one of its leaders, Milan
Zlokovic. Although Art Deco became a peripheral feature after 1930, numer-
ous projects and buildings constructed between the 1925 Parisexhibition and
the predominance of the International Style (1930) were influenced by this
style. Zlokovic's buildings embraced simple, uncluttered faqades, stylized
reminiscences of Renaissance shapes, cubic decorative elements, and decora-
tive framing on the faqades and between windows.
Dragisa Brasovan, also considered one of the founders of the modern
architectural movement in Serbia, similarlybroke with eclectic
Academism by turning decorative elements into accents that artic-
ulated the plain and empty spaces of the fagade. His 1929 de-
sign for the Yugoslavpavilion at the Barcelona Exhibition
(fig. 7) apparently emerged under the influence of Loos's
house forJosephine Baker,whose spiked corner motifs recall
those by FritzHoger, at least from a skillfullydrawn per-
spective. That pavilion is one of the last
works in which the decorative outweighs
_.^^^^^^lf:k|^ the structural.There is a certain symbol-
.
',U_.^^,...Bt. 'ism in Brasovan's statement that the
~'d,,<_:. jurywas indecisivein choosingthe
~' ' '~~:
:.'_ . . "most successful pavilion,"and the
~'~~~
~'""'~'~'~'' ~' prize that was initiallypresented to
: Bravovanwas later given to Mies
van der Rohe. Thus, in Barcelona,
a Serbian architect con-
tributed to the replace-
ment of Art Deco
' by the Interna-
,. .... Style. [
tional
DAPAFall 1990 75