Preliminary note

Dubravka Kuščević, Sveučilište u Splitu, Filozofski fakultet, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4572-9933
Marija Brajčić, Sveučilište u Splitu, Filozofski fakultet, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2440-7724

pp. 151-166

https://doi.org/10.38003/zrffs.14.9

Abstract:
Milan Tolić (Split, September 1, 1899 – November 20, 1990) was a painter, stage
designer, pedagogue and caricaturist from Split, whose caricature opus has not been
studied sufficiently. The paper analyses Tolić’s album of caricatures named Osijek in
Caricature which was printed in Građanska tiskara in Osijek in 1940 and was based on
painter’s original drawings. Tolić’s album is a collection of drawings categorized into
groups: actors, lawyers, doctors, members of the Chamber of Commerce, professors,
industrialists, merchants, craftspeople, policeofficers, city clerks, innkeepers and
bankers.
There are three hundred faces presented on 187 pages in fifteen group and two
hundred twenty-eight individual caricatures. Tolić’s album of drawings presents
mostly caricatures done for the most part in pen, and some were done in pencil and
ink. From the technical standpoint all the caricatures were done in a similar manner
– Tolić’s drawing in the album is recognizable and readable. The author is presented
as a skillful artist and keen observer, expertly recording figures in motion in easy
rhythm by summarizing the lines of a moving figure. The outline of the drawing
runs in longer uninterrupted lines, and the structural lines are sometimes providing
texture of materials in their contrasted relationships. The characters are presented
full face and in profile, and the caricatural characters are often drawn performing the
work typical for their profession.
Tolić builds his artistic style mostly on the whole figure, but directs his personal
artistic attention to the head, immensely rich and interesting in its artistic content,
which he deforms, corrects and changes until he finds the traits which best fit the
character of the models drawn. Thus, the irony expressed in the excessive artistic style
is not restricted to the outward appearance, but also in an emotional communication,
although the persons are primarily presented physically through their deformed
excessiveness.
The group caricatures in the album communicate to the public through the flourishing
dictionary of the line, all built upon a funny and satirical basis in the comedy of
line and form, but also in the humor of gestures and grimaces. The album Osijek in
Caricature is in fact the presentation of Osijek of the late Thirties of the Twentieth
century in its intimate spheres in the relations of time, space and people, whereby
the author successfully refers to the political, social and public lives of Osijek. Tolić’s
caricatures impress by their sincere light-hearted humor, which good-naturedly mock
the caricatured characters. The album Osijek in Caricature is a valuable contribution
of Milan Tolić to our visual arts of caricatural expression.

Key words:
Milan Tolić, painter from Split, album of caricatures, Osijek, 1930,
caricature

URL

https://www.ffst.unist.hr/en/zbornik/archive/14_2021/14_9