When Europe fell prey to totalitarian regimes in the twentieth
century, the Slovene artist Tone Kralj responded to the cruellest
oppression by systematically depicting his own and his community’s
resistance against Fascism and Nazism in public spaces, under the very
nose of the regime. As incredible as it may seem, the regime never
discovered and punished his rebellious actions. The painter embedded
his ideological subversion of Fascism and Nazism in wall paintings in
more than fifty Catholic churches along the Slovene–Italian ethnic
border, thus disseminating his subversive message among the people
with whom he shared the same cultural memory. With many of them
covering a surface area of several square metres, the church paintings
introduced Hitler and Mussolini into Biblical visual narratives,
portraying the two dictators with irony and grotesqueness as
villainous Biblical characters, often in the role of hangmen,
murderers or clowns. The symbols of their regimes were incorporated
into Biblical scenes depicting eschatological dimensions of the
struggle between good and evil, thus spreading – in the time of the
most brutal fascistization – the painter’s firm belief in the
historical downfall of the Fascist and Nazi regimes.
Les mer
The Church Painter’s Subversion of Fascism: The Ideological Marking of Space along the Slovene–Italian Border
Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9781789971620
Publisert
2021
Utgave
1. utgave
Utgiver
Vendor
Peter Lang Ltd, International Academic Publishers
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter