The Surrealist Art of Partisan Warfare

• In Event: Yugoslav Aesthetics II: Surrealism’s Uncharted Territory: The Belgrade 13, and Counting

Abstract

Koča Popović, the founding member of Belgrade surrealist group, had a distinguished career as a military commander, first in the Spanish civil war, and then in the partisan struggle against the Nazi occupying forces in Yugoslavia. This paper argues that this passage from surrealist works to radical social action, exemplified most clearly in the anti-fascist struggle that several Belgrade surrealists joined during WWII, represents one of the key moments in the history of international surrealism.

Author

• Branislav Jakovljevic, Stanford U