red peristil

wandering around on our last day in Split, Croatia, we chanced on the Neranka Gallery, run by a charmingly genial painter and graphic artist, Pavo Majic. more importantly, he was one of the generation of artists who lived in Soviet-era Croatia, captivated by the perceived cultural vibrance and edge of the capitalist West.

he introduced to us to the work of Pave Dulčić and others who performed a piece of intervention art on Split's symbol, the Peristil of Diocletian's Palace, in 1968. the group painted the stone courtyard of the Peristil a red colour in the early morning, standing in stark contrast to the weathered granite of the Palace, as a reaction to Croatia's position within communist Yugoslavia. Dulčić later was arrested, prosecuted and committed suicide. today the stones are their original colour.



having come into contact with Soviet Constructivism in Rodchenko and Popova at the Tate Modern, i was struck by how this emotive and defiant piece stood at the other end of the scale from the mechanical art advocated by the Constructivists. at the same time one is aware that today as we look back on these works their social contexts have fallen away: they have been made less intense, transformed from symbols of social change into relics of a recent past.

more on Pavo Majic and the Neranka Gallery later...