Zenitism ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Zenitizam, Зенитизам) was an

avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...

art Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...

movement in

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

that lasted from 1921 until 1926, first appearing in

Zagreb Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital and largest city of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb stands near the international border between Croatia and Slov ...

from 1921 to 1924 and from 1924 in Belgrade. It primarily involved

visual arts The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, filmmaking, design, crafts and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual art, and textile art ...

, graphic design,

poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...

literature Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

, film,

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...

and

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspe ...

. Like other avant-garde movements at the time, it held anti-war, anti-bourgeois and anti-nationalist views and rejected traditional culture and art. Micić defined it as "abstract metacosmic expressionism."

The movement

Ljubomir Micić Ljubomir Micić ( sr-cyr, Љубомир Мицић, 15 November 1895 – 14 June 1971) was a Serbs, Serbian poet, writer, critic, editor and actor. He was the founder of the avant-garde movement Zenitism and its magazine ''Zenit''. Both he and his ...

, a Serbian socialist, established the movement following

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, during which Kingdom of Serbia lost a million inhabitants prior to creating

Kingdom of Yugoslavia The Kingdom of Yugoslavia ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Kraljevina Jugoslavija, Краљевина Југославија; sl, Kraljevina Jugoslavija) was a state in Southeast and Central Europe that existed from 1918 until 1941. From 1918 ...

.Erlikman, Vadim (2004). Poteri narodonaseleniia v XX veke : spravochnik. Moscow. . In June 1921, he proclaimed the "Zenitist manifesto". Although some artists from the region were known in Europe, Zenitism was the first notable art movement from the Balkans in Europe.

''Zenit''

Most of its artistic ideas were communicated through the ''Zenit'' magazine which

launched and which published 43 issues between 1921 and 1926. The magazine soon became famous internationally and saw many famous artists contributing the magazine. Most famous amongst them are Sergei Yesenin,

Alexander Blok Alexander Alexandrovich Blok ( rus, Алекса́ндр Алекса́ндрович Бло́к, p=ɐlʲɪˈksandr ɐlʲɪˈksandrəvʲɪtɕ ˈblok, a=Ru-Alyeksandr Alyeksandrovich Blok.oga; 7 August 1921) was a Russian lyrical poet, writer, publ ...

Wassily Kandinsky Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky (; rus, Василий Васильевич Кандинский, Vasiliy Vasilyevich Kandinskiy, vɐˈsʲilʲɪj vɐˈsʲilʲjɪvʲɪtɕ kɐnʲˈdʲinskʲɪj; – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter a ...

, Boris Pasternak,

Miloš Crnjanski Miloš Crnjanski ( sr-cyr, Милош Црњански, ; 26 October 1893 – 30 November 1977) was a Serbian writer and poet of the expressionist wing of Serbian modernism, author, and a diplomat. Biography Crnjanski was born in Csongrád (mode ...

. The authors shared their radical views of the European civilisation and art. The movement would soon conflict and distance from

Dada Dada () or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, with early centres in Zürich, Switzerland, at the Cabaret Voltaire (in 1916). New York Dada began c. 1915, and after 1920 Dada flourished in Pari ...

movement and Expressionism

Political views

The movement was avant-garde socialist, anti-traditionist, anti-militarist with the focus on human. Micić himself believed in the imminent collapse of western Europe and the rise of "barbarogenie" - barbaric Balkan man who will take its place. Barbarogenie was capable of recovering Europe using his barbaric strength of a man from the Balkans, unsoiled by the legacy of European civilization which collapsed after WW1. The concept is arguably expressing signs of nationalism. In reality Micić, an ethnic Serb, initially expressed anti-Serbian sentiment. In the eve of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, Micić changed his worldview, now expressing Serbian nationalism. He created the new magazine where he proclaimed the "Serbianhood manifest", promoting Serbian integralism and unitarism, and Serbia as the unifying center of all Serbs.

References

External links

Zenit
at Monoskop.org. Art movements Concepts in aesthetics Modern art Literary movements Poetry movements Serbian art movements Serbian culture Serbian literature Serbian art 20th century in art 20th-century literature {{lit-mov-stub