This thesis discusses the First Slovene Art Exhibition, organized by the Slovene Art Society in 1900. The Society’s establishment and the organization of the exhibition are set within the broader context of Carniola’s changing art and political system, while also considering the influences from the wider Central European space. The first part of the thesis outlines social and cultural changes that followed the rise of the bourgeoisie’s new culture of socialising and
the art market’s new found demands. The next chapter goes more in depth into the actual process of the establishment of the Slovene Art Society and the organisation of the First Slovene Art Exhibition. A separate chapter is dedicated to the analysis of the exhibition itself – providing an overview of exhibitors and their pieces, as well as an attempt to classify the paintings by genre. Next, the thesis wants to answer the question of how the exhibition was received by critics and the general public. The thesis also poses the question of the Society’s influence on Slovene modern art movement and art criticism, especially in the context of the political conflict between the liberal and conservative parties from the 1890s onwards, which among other things, influenced the culture and art fields.
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