Parallels and Divergences in Marxist Humanist Approach to Art in Croatia during the 1960s and 1970s

Praxis School and Matko Meštrović

Abstract

Based on reading and interpreting the key texts on the topic, the article explores the parallels and divergences between Matko Meštrović’s theory of the Neo-Avantgarde art practices of the New Tendencies and the Marxist Humanist intellectuals of the Praxis school of thought, in relation to different Marxist approaches to art in Yugoslavia. Both currents were critical, utopian, and avantgarde in nature, advocating for radical social transformation towards a new society and a new human, which they shared with the Yugoslav experimental model of self-management socialism in its initial phase. Despite these common approaches, the article argues that there was no direct connection between Yugoslav Neo-Marxists and Neo-Avantgarde artists and theoreticians. This assertion is reinforced by their different approaches to art and art history.