The Monument to the Fallen Fighters of the Battle of Prijepolje, created in 1953 by the Slovenian sculptor Lojze Dolinar, represents one of the early and most representative achievements within Yugoslav postwar memorial sculpture. Although conceived within the framework of the state's strategy of shaping a culture of remembrance, Dolinar's approach to this task goes far beyond mere ideological function. Through a strongly articulated plastic language, figurative clarity, and compositional monumentality, the monument embodies the aspiration toward a synthesis of ethical and aesthetic messages, in the spirit of the then-dominant socialist realism, yet enriched with elements of individual interpretation of the themes of sacrifice and heroism. Situated in a visually commanding position on the banks of the Lim River, the monument does not exclusively refer to the specific historical event, the struggle of the First Šumadija and Second Proletarian Brigades against German forces in December 1943, but rather assumes the role of a space of collective memory and a visual emblem of the new socialist identity. The aim of this paper is to analyze the formal stylistic and iconographic features of the monument, as well as its significance in the broader context of Yugoslav memorial art and the cultural policies of the 1950s. Special attention will be devoted to Dolinar's place within the postwar sculptural scene, as well as to the models of visual representation of national history in public space.
Dragana Frfulanović (Wed,) studied this question.