THE SOCIAL CONTEXT OF THE DIALECTICAL STRUCTURE IN THE MACEDONIAN ART-MODERNIST DISCOURSE

Abstract

Through a summarized insight into the historical developmental stages in art
and culture, this paper anticipates the hypothesis of the existence of a dialectical structure
in the Macedonian art-modernist discourse, generated by the positions of the artist/
art in relation to the complex social reality in Macedonia.
Since the pre-war period, the subject of analysis has been art as a social practice
and the artist as a social actor (the founders of modern art, Ličenoski, Martinoski) who,
through the theme of labor and the worker, provides an engaged response addressing the
question of class consciousness. From the post-war period (the division of the world into
blocs, the clash of East and West) as a turning point, the paper explores the potential of
public speech (by Miroslav Krleža) as a call for freedom of artistic creation and as resistance
to imposed dogmas (socialist realism). The step towards a decisive dialectization of
art and culture is examined through the activities of the group “Denes” (a promising
step), the democratization of art, and the “aesthetic pluralism” of its creators (Lazeski,
Grabuloski). Post-war monumental art is analyzed through the aspect of man-society,
that is, through the role of individual artistic impulses (Mazev, Čemerski) in the construction
of a new social system.
In a continuity of crisis historical situations, the foundation of art is guided by
the need for participation in the construction of a new society, based on and constituted
by the dialectical attitudes and individual decisions of modernist artists.