Expand the Women's World! Design of progressive women's magazines 1934. - 1946.

(Širite Ženski svijet! Dizajn progresivnih ženskih časopisa u periodu 1934. – 1946. )

2019, comparative study 

Comparative study thematizes feminist organizations publications printed from the middle 1930s until first postwar years, starting from local examples such as “Žena danas”/Woman Today (1936-1940; 1943-1953) “Ženski svijet”/ Women’s World (1939-1941) and “Žena u borbi”/ Women in Combat (1943-1053), and comparing them with contemporary internationally significant “sister” publications which had impact on Yugoslav magazines issued middle 1930s, e.g. French magazine “Les Femmes” or American “The Woman Today“. Editorial conception was to create content with antifascist agenda for women from all social strata, and initiative to launch those magazines came from the “World Committee of Women against War and Fascism” / Comité mondial des femmes contre la guerre et le fascisme. Exhibition was produced by the Croatian Designers Association in 2019, for the first time in their gallery in Zagreb in June/July 2019, then in Split in the Multimedia Cultural Centre’s gallery in September 2019, and in Pula in the Croatian Association of Interdisciplinary Artists gallery in February 2020.

“With this exhibition Blasin successfully shows similarities and differences in graphic design of magazines published between world wars in France, United States and Kingdom of Yugoslavia, and also during the WWII on liberated territories from where they were distributed all over the country even in still unliberated parts. “Those magazines had the same purpose”, stressed Blasin. “Namely, to reach women from all social strata.” All close readings and leafing through reprints and catalogues would induce following question: What should we do today? “

Sonja Leboš, Vox Feminae, July 8, 2019.