Historical-Aesthetic Laboratory of Dragutin Gostuški

In the foreword of the book Time of Art. A Contribution to the Foundation of a General Science of Forms, Dragutin Gostuški indicated that “historical problems of art – which are primarily problems of style – cannot be solved without having a clear idea of the aesthetic essence of individual art objects. Just like it is not possible to have a clear idea of the essence of any structural element of a work of art, if we are not able to isolate that element and observe it in its historical transformations.” With this introductory definition, the author activated a double platform from which he simultaneously approached the analysis of the “phenomena” characteristic of him: artistic activity/process, artistic act, and reception of artworks. In his theoretical treatise, the historical-aesthetic prism through which Dragutin Gostuški consistently directed his view towards art as a whole, showed itself in the outlines of a complex and above all innovative laboratory, in which many valid concepts and phenomena were redefined with bold interventions. A review of the key concepts of time and space from Gostuški’s point of view, as well as his revision of the established division of arts into temporal and spatial, will show with what pledge this versatile and, among his contemporaries, uniquely lucid intellectual had the right to confidently provoke the readers’ attention with the motto of his timeless monograph, addressing them with the following words: “Truth is what is not disputed.