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Ове године се навршава сто година од првог јавног представљања сликарства Саве Шумановића у Београду у оквиру Пете југословенске изложбе, која је отворена у јуну 1922. године у згради Друге београдске гимназије. Шумановић је на изложби наступио у оквиру београдске „Групе слободних уметника“, уз Јована Бијелића, Ивана Радовића, Живорада Настасијевића, Сиба Миличића, Душана Јанковића, Вељка Станојевића и Петра Палавичинија, и изложио пет слика насталих у Паризу током 1921. године: Берба (1920/21), Лучки агент (1921), Предео из Орсеја (1921), Француско село, Композиција/Две наге жене (1922). То је уједно и први пут да се Шумановић представља као протагониста београдске уметничке сцене. У раду се разматрају околности које су довеле до Шумановићевог наступа на овој изложби и његовог укључивања у београдску групу уметника и анализира се веома запажена рецепција Шумановићевог рада у ликовној критици. Sava Šumanović showed his painting to the Belgrade public for the first time in 1922 when he took part in the “Fifth Yugoslav Exhibition” with the “Free Artists Group” from Belgrade, together with Jovan Bijelić, Ivan Radović, Živorad Nastasijević, Sibе Miličić, Dušan Janković, Veljko Stanojević and Peter Palavičini. On that occasion, he exhibited five paintings created in Paris during 1921: Harvest (1920/21), Port Agent (1921), Scenery from Orsay (1921), French Village and Composition/Two Nude Women (1922), which received extremely affirmative criticism. Despite having spent this period in Zagreb, Šumanović was presented at this exhibition as a Belgrade artist. There is more than one reason for this and are all related to Šumanović’s personal motives stemming from how dissatisfied he was with the reception of his work in Zagreb, and his desire to become more professionally connected to the Belgrade art circles with which he maintained close contacts. In the broader context of art exchange in Yugoslavia after 1919, Šumanović’s participation at the “Fifth Yugoslav Exhibition” represents an example of increased cooperation between young artists from Belgrade and Zagreb, which is supposed to transform relations within the artistic life in these cities and actively promote new tendencies in art. A shortterm relocation to the Belgrade artistic community, where his work received (desired) critical and professional affirmation that occurred at a turning point in the painter’s career, finally established Šumanović as one of the most promising, leading Yugoslav artists of the new (post-war) generation. For the image of the “Fifth Yugoslav Exhibition”, the appearance of Sava Šumanović comes as a resolution of the dilemma about the development of modern art in Yugoslavia which would go beyond national and/or local frameworks. Art criticism recognizes a new model of artistic expression that speaks of the contemporary aspect of this important event for Sava Šumanović’s constructive painting, which gives credit to his painterly contribution to modernist painting in Serbia and Yugoslavia.

This thesis examines modernist attitudes towards the past generally and towards the medieval past in particular, by exploring the significance of gothic architecture and stained glass to the constructive pictorial enquiries of Joaquín Torres-García, František Kupka, Robert Delaunay, Otto Freundlich, Piet Mondrian, Theo van Doesburg and Josef Albers. Torres-García is taken as a case study given that his painted and written work shows an actual engagement with the medieval that has hitherto gone largely unnoticed. The discussion thus traces Torres-García's complex and changing relationship with the gothic over time, and examines its place in his constructive pictorial practice. Close attention is given to two particular periods in Torres-García's career. Firstly, his transition from Noucentisme to the avant-garde in the mid-1910s in Barcelona, coinciding with his involvement in a stained glass project for a public building. This period is examined under the light of prevalent attitudes towards the medieval in classicist noucentista Barcelona, which are inferred through a comprehensive survey of local modernist magazines. A second period of interest is Torres-García's late-1920s formulation of Constructive Universalism, the distinct primitive-constructive idiom he characterised as "the style of a cathedral," coinciding with a time when he was closely associated with three of the artists also under study here, van Doesburg, Freundlich and Mondrian. The discussion on these, as well as on Kupka, Delaunay and Albers, takes into consideration that, unlike Torres-García, they all developed their practice within a cultural context that celebrated the gothic. Their rapport with the gothic is analysed, when relevant, in the light of Worringer's theories on the subject. Additionally, several of these artists' interest in the pictorial constructive was concomitant with research into the sensorial properties of colour fragmentation and interaction. This area of pictorial enquiry, in which the study of stained glass proved especially useful, is also explored in the relevant cases. The focus on the constructive as a common denominator to the practice of all these artists, and a common motivator of their engagement with the cathedral, implies a largely formal approach to the issue at hand. This, nevertheless, takes into consideration that these artists' rapport with the gothic was mediated by contemporary discourses surrounding the Middle Ages and their legacy. As such, the analysis necessarily considers the ideological factors (political leanings, identitary issues, religious backgrounds) that came into play in each artist's relationship with the medieval. This, ultimately, serves to address the problem of how these forward-looking artists found a legitimate place in their modernist practice for references sourced in the medieval past. A presente tese explora as atitudes do modernismo em relação com o passado em geral e o passado medieval em particular, por meio de uma análise da relevância da arquitetura e do vitral góticos nas pesquisas pictóricas construtivas de Joaquín Torres-García, František Kupka, Robert Delaunay, Otto Freundlich, Piet Mondrian, Theo van Doesburg e Josef Albers. Torres-García constitui o caso de estudo da tese uma vez que a sua obra pictórica e teórica evidencia um diálogo com o medieval que até a data passou largamente desapercebido. O estudo traça portanto a complexa e variável relação que Torres-García estabelece com o gótico ao longo do tempo, e examina o lugar deste referente na sua prática pictórica construtiva. Dois períodos concretos da carreira de Torres-García merecem particular atenção. Em primeiro lugar, a sua transição do Noucentisme para a vanguarda, em meados da década de 1910 em Barcelona, que coincide com o seu envolvimento num projeto de vitral para um edifício público. Este período é analisado à luz das atitudes predominantes em relação ao medieval no ambiente classicista noucentista de Barcelona, atitudes estas que são inferidas a partir de uma análise abrangente da sua expressão nas revistas modernistas da cidade. Um segundo período de interesse situa-se nos finais da década de 1920, quando Torres-García formula o Universalismo Construtivo, a sua singular linguagem primitiva-construtiva que ele próprio caracteriza como "um estilo de catedral", num momento em trabalha em estreita associação com três dos artistas objeto de estudo desta tese: van Doesburg, Freundlich e Mondrian. A discussão acerca da obra destes três artistas, bem como a de Kupka, Delaunay e Albers, leva em consideração que, ao contrário de Torres-García, todos eles desenvolveram a sua prática num contexto cultural que celebrava o legado gótico. A sua relação com o gótico é examinada, segundo o caso, à luz das teorias de Wilhelm Worringer sobre a arquitetura medieval. Em alguns dos artistas aqui contemplados, ao interesse pela dimensão construtiva da pintura acrescia a pesquisa sobre as propriedades sensoriais da fragmentação e a interação da cor. Esta área de pesquisa pictórica, em que o estudo do vitral se revelou particularmente fecundo, é também explorada aqui para os casos pertinentes.