Art history and discourse on the centre and periphery An homage to Ljubo Karaman 1886—1971

ART HISTORY AND DISCOURSE ON THE CENTRE AND PERIPHERY AN HOMAGE TO LJUBO KARAMAN 1886—1971
AN HOMAGE TO LJUBO KARAMAN 1886—1971
 
Since its founding in 1956, the Croatian Society of Art Historians has brought art historians together to promote the importance of our profession through a variety of events and publishing projects. Over the past eight years, we have undertaken a project entitled Croatian Art Historians, which we believe will have an important impact on domestic and international dialogue. This international conference encourages academics and scholars to meet and exchange ideas and views in a forum that will stimulate respectful dialogue by bringing together European and international university scholars to share ideas and research on the dualistic centre-periphery paradigm in terms of art history based on work by Ljubo Karaman. Ljubo Karaman (1886–1971) was a Croatian art historian. Karaman’s theoretical and practical work strongly marked the formative period of art history and conservation in Croatia between the two world wars and in the immediate postwar period. His most important contribution to the general history of art lies in his theoretical considerations of the notion of the periphery, the true historical basis of which is the artistic heritage of the Croatian regions. Karaman combined the theoretical results of his research experience in the study of national heritage in his book O djelovanju domaće sredine u umjetnosti hrvatskih krajeva (Über die Einwirkung des einheimischen Milieus auf die Entwicklung der Kunst in den kroatischen Ländern, Zagreb: Croatian Society of Art Historians, 1963). Karaman’s study was an internationally acclaimed contribution to thought on one of the key issues in contemporary art history and cultural history. This issue is still relevant today, as confirmed by the numerous international conferences, research networks, and projects that focus on it. Contemporary critical thought is trending towards the complete deconstruction and overcoming of ideologically manipulated dualism in the valorization of cultural production in the ‘periphery’. Such manipulation perpetuates the paradigms of the relationship between power and influence, which are dictated from the very centres in which they were created. The conference in Zagreb will contribute to a critical reflection on the origins, application, and challenges of the dualistic paradigm, primarily in art history between the Adriatic and Central Europe, which was the focus of Karaman’s work. Ljubo Karaman was educated at the Vienna School of Art History at the beginning of the 20th century; his approach to historical art phenomena was essentially determined by the cosmopolitanism of the Vienna School and its affirmative attitude towards art in the ‘provinces’ (or peripheries). Another important element is his dialectical attitude towards the ideas of early 20th-century Austrian, Italian, Croatian, and Yugoslav art historians. Likewise, as a conservator, Karaman was delimited by the norms of the Austro- Hungarian Monarchy (k. k. Central Commission für Erforschung und Erhaltung der Baudenkmale), which was marked by the concepts and methodology of the new conservation movement in central Europe. In the field of conservation in the 20th century, Karaman was responsible for connecting European centres and the Croatian periphery. Karaman’s conservation work took place during a period of great changes and challenges, not only in the field of cultural heritage protection, but also in the field of politics. After the Italian occupation of Dalmatia in 1941, Karaman moved from Split to Zagreb, where he accepted the position of director of the State Conservation Institute during the Independent State of Croatia. He remained in this position in the new, socijalist Yugoslavia until 1950, when he retired. His active and critical role in three different political, economic, and ideological structures still encourages reflection on the possibilities and achievements of art historians, conservators, museologists, and experts in related disciplines in the scientific interpretation of heritage and the protection of monuments, in ‘primitive’, local parochialist, or nationally ideologised environments, i.e. under totalitarian regimes and social systems. This simultaneously begs the issue of the freedom of art historians/conservators and the conscientious, professional, and impartial performance of their duties.
 
 
Magdalena Kunińska
An entangled case of „style” problem in Central-Eastern Europe: between central model and local strategies for self-identification
 
Cristiano Guarneri, Ines Ivić
Different perspectives on the centre-periphery paradigm: Karaman and Castelnuovo-Ginzburg in comparison
 
Vladimir Peter Goss
Ljubo Karaman and the art of Croatian space
 
 
Katja Mahnič
France Stele (1886-1972), Monument Protection Office in Ljubljana and the Question of Method
 
Ivan Braut, Krasanka Majer Jurišić
Karaman and Szabo on “descended value” of monuments and preservation of historical character of Šibenik and Rab
 
Sigrid Brandt
Creative monument preservation and continuing to build on monuments
 
 
Konrad Morawski
Art for Polish Magnates or European Aristocrats?
 
Antonija Mlikota
The architecture, heritage and monuments protection under Fascist government in Zadar
 
 
Zoi Godosi
Periphery, Province, Borderline: the case of a local “Art World” in Florina (Greece)
 
Mina Radovanović 
Painting the periphery for the centre: orientalist works by Paja Jovanović created for western audiences
 
Lidija Merenik 
The local, ethnographic, oriental motif in the folk portraits by Nadežda Petrović and Zora Petrović
 
Giuseppe Andolina
Center vs periphery in the Stato da Mar: the public architecture and artistic production in the 15th century Eastern Adriatic
 
Karla Papeš 
What is the centre for the circulation of early modern fortification knowledge?
 
Laris Borić 
The applicability and the transformative nature of Karaman’s notions of peripheral/provincial in Dalmatian Cinquecento
 
Petar Strunje
Interpreting mosque to church conversion in Dalmatia
 
 
Angelo Maria Monaco
Refining a vernacular idiom. A focus on 14th and 15th centuries limestone Sculpture in Salento, through the looking glass of Scultura del Cinquecento in Italia meridionale by Francesco Negri Arnoldi
 
Stephanie Peršić
Karaman’s paradigm through the analysis of sacral iconography of the 17th and 18th centuries on the territory of the Diocese of Poreč and Pula
 
Beatrice Tanzi
The double “territorialisation/peripheralisation” of the Istrian and Dalmatian dioceses
 
Jelena Todorović 
The reversal of centre/perifery paradigm in the understanding of the world of Universal Baroque
 
 
Barbara Murovec
Art historians in tumultuous times: the safeguarding of cultural heritage in the province of Ljubljana (1941–1943)
 
Petar Prelog 
Centre and periphery in the interpretations of Croatian modern art
 
Petra Šarin
Defining local versions of socially engaged art: Zemlja and Portuguese neorealism
 
 
Nikolina Maraković, Tin Turković
The relevance of Ljubo Karaman’s paradigm in contemporary research of late antique and early medieval heritage in Croatia
 
 
Vanja Stojković
Center and periphery: the sacral portraits of the noble family of Lazar in the Church of st. John the Baptist in Ečka
 
Anđela Dukić
Between centerand periphery: architectural development of Niš (19-20 century)