COURAGE

connecting collections

Miodrag Mica Popovic (1923-1996) was a painter, art critic, writer and academician. Popovic's lifestyle itself can be described as in cultural opposition to the regime and government that imposed its own ideological forms. Until the end of his life, he clearly demonstrated his incompatibility with the system, which let him stay faithful to the ideal of free thinking and expression. The images from the series the ‘Scenes Painting’ [Slikarstvo prizora] stem from the period between 1968 to 1971. Through that series the artist critized the social and political circumstances in socialist Yugoslavia.

The modern collection of the Gallery of Szombathely eloquently exemplifies the complex relationship between official culture and the culture of dissent during the socialist period. The genealogy of the collection is inseparable from the conservation of the leftist counter-culture of the Horthy era, especially of the legacy of the left-wing painter Gyula Derkovits, who was born in Szombathely. The collection of artworks was based on the notion of “progress,” and it became increasingly intense in the 1970s, but it only partly followed the socialist canon. It also initiated the emergence of new and critical trends that were in opposition to the official culture politics.

The film and television work of the unconventional screenplay writer and director Nikša Fulgosi (1919-1996) is a component of the cultural heritage, which in a peculiar way testifies to the culture of dissent in the period of socialism in Croatia and Yugoslavia. Many of Fulgosi's film works remained unfinished or were "put in the vault" after their completion because the censors considered them unfit for the public. Fulgosi made the first television documentary series about sex for the Zagreb Radio Television in the late 1970s, which was only partially aired.