BRANKO VE POLJANSKI AND THE SURREALIST CONCEPT OF IMAGE
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18485/f_zsmu.2026.22.1Keywords:
Branko Ve Poljanski, Primitivism, Zenitism, Surrealism, Syncretism, Fine arts, ParisAbstract
In the context of the Yugoslav avant-garde, Branko Ve Poljanski (1989– 1947) was known as a publicist and poet, ideologue and activists of Zenitism (1921–1926). During the post-Zenitist period (1927–1947) he developed his career as a painter in Paris, where he gained direct insight into the conceptual platform and formal solutions of Surrealism. Despite the animosities between the leaders of the two movements, a considerable portion of Poljanski’s visual production stemmed from the creative assimilation of the Surrealist concept of image, which is reflected in the thematic and formal plane, as well as the metaphorics of the scene. This is confirmed by his (self-)reflective artworks, where the main topoi are somnambulistic visions, love, and madness, and the methodology of articulation of the visual expression rests on the primitive lexicon, the principle of free association and procedure of simulated automatism. In a series of self-portraits, depictions of female and male characters, figures and situations, Poljanski develops the image of “otherness” of Caucasian Europeans in principle and the Self in particular, raising the issue of artistic freedom, gender relations, and social morality. Even though not manifestly Surrealism, this is a conceptually very similar but autochthonous understanding and presenting of his own persona and reality.
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