ABSTRACT
The expressionist complex is a significant component of Croatian modern culture that made its appearance primarily in literature and painting—with rare but important reverberations in theatre, film, architecture, and music. By focusing on the ambivalent sentiments emerging from modern industrial society, it affirmed the subjective perspective and individual values. Its significance from its German point of origin surpassed strict stylistic determinations, and thus it became an umbrella term for often diverse art phenomena exhibiting various levels of resistance to the conventions of bourgeois society and the canonical values of national culture. Croatian expressionism, therefore, can be understood as the sum of a number of individual contributions, marked by various influences, with a social and artistic significance that justifies its consideration within this large and important transnational artistic phenomenon.
