АНТОН АЖБЕ И ЕГО ЮГОСЛАВЯНСКИЕ УЧЕНИКИ

Abstract

In 1891, a private art school led by Anton Ažbe (1862–1905), a Slovenian artist and teacher, opened in Munich. A lot of artists from all over the world studied at the school during its operation. Anton Ažbe’s approach to teaching, which was based on the “Sphere Principle” and the “Crystallization of Color Principle”, influenced stylistic development of the European and Russian art in the late 19th – early 20th centuries. The distinctive feature of Ažbe’s method was a combination of thorough technical skill training and openness to new ideas, which would bring out students’ personal creative talents. The school's alumni were later engaged in quite different areas of style, including the avant-garde. This paper offers brief overviews of the artistic careers of Ažbe’s most famous South Slavic students — Slovenes, Serbs and Croats; it also discusses some aspects of their relationships with their teacher and analyzes the impact of Ažbe’s teaching method on their stylistic development. Thus, the oeuvre of the Slovenian Impressionists R. Jakopič, I. Grohar, M. Yama and M. Sternen, of the Croatian painters J. Račić and O. Hermann and of the Serbian artist N. Petrović have been consistently examined. The author concludes that the Ažbe’s South Slavic students consistently introduced elements of his painting principles into the art of Slovenia, Serbia and Croatia.