SECESSION AND MODERNITY

Zagreb u as included in the artistic nio! e»ie>ifs of E«ropean Secession by the creafiie uork of the»ie»ibers of t he Society of Cr oatian Fig»ral Ar t ists, a>nong thein R. Frangeš and R. Valdec acting as pro»ioters of ne>v ideas in the domain of sc>i/pt»re. Gifted avith oc uith a st rong feeling for contemporaneity and introducing neu> expressive tools, rich i>i »ioćifs, fhe» actually i>itrodr<ced the movement of Modernisni. R. Frangeš made sculptures of vavying dimensions, ranging fro»i rea/is»i a>id i»ipressionisn> thvough maximally purified surfaces. Sy>nbolic topics u\u27ere used by R. Valdec, by»<odel/ing natural realities of mor e condensed fov>ns uit h ih e appearance of stylizatio», from the origins through b/azi>ig li»earity, harmony of fopics and stylistics. I. Me štrović extended the sculptural dime»sions by ar t istic exper!t epochs, co»slructing a sc»/pti<re c iithi» a c/osed block. O» the same fou»tain, he disco>ered a >>eu uay of >naki»g a relievo u\u27ith a predo»ii»ance of lines and facets. Along with the line, expression became a constant nnd a constit«ent of both a reliei o and a separate sculpture. At ćhe e»d of t l ie 19th and beginning of fhe 20fh century, the >nodev» fov>»s thus created u >ere of iit>nost importance for the fi Croatia.