Petar Križanić | Origin of Street Names

Petar "Pjer" Križanić (1890 - 1962) was a Yugoslav painter and graphic artist, primarily remembered as one of the pioneers of newspaper and satirical caricature in this region.

He was born in Glina, Croatia, to a mixed marriage of a Serbian mother and a Croatian father. Although mixed marriages were a common occurrence in the Banija region for centuries, Petro's childhood was spent in a sort of competition among family members as to whether the child would be raised according to Serbian-Orthodox or Croatian-Catholic customs. This, it is believed, would significantly influence the frequent theme of Serbian-Croatian relations in Pjer's caricatures later in his work.

Having lost his mother while still an infant, he was taken care of by his grandmother. Although recognizing his grandson's unusual drawing talent at an early age, there was not much understanding for such child skills in the rural environment. As a result, Petar was sent to Petrinja and later to Zagreb for education and the development of his talent after elementary school.

At the age of 18, he published his first caricatures in a satirical magazine in Zagreb. Influenced by French literature, he already conceived his artistic name - Pjer, by which he would be known throughout his life.

As a child of a Serbian mother and a Croatian father, Petar Križanić had no dilemma when it came to political views. The common state of the South Slavs was the ideal of the majority of young people during those years, including Pjer. Considering caricature as a form of political and social struggle, he contributed to this goal in his own way, often falling under the censorship and repression of the Austro-Hungarian authorities.

Unlike most of his comrades who were arrested and taken to camps at the beginning of World War I, Petar Križanić was mobilized and spent the war on the Italian front as an Austro-Hungarian soldier responsible for editing humorous-propaganda newspapers.

After the establishment of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, he spent four years as the editor of a magazine in Zagreb before finally moving to Belgrade in 1922 and joining "Politika," the most prestigious daily newspaper in the country, where he created some of his most famous caricatures.

Sharp, yet mostly measured criticism of the system, through satirical depictions of current political events, foreign policy issues, and public life in the Kingdom, became the trademark of Pjer Križanić and "Politika." His caricatures targeting fascist Italy were the cause of several diplomatic scandals.

Besides caricatures, Petar Križanić also engaged in writing essays, illustrating books, and even fresco painting (he painted the iconostasis of the Grgeteg Monastery on Fruška Gora together with Uroš Predić). He was also a co-founder of "Ošišani jež" - the legendary humor magazine of both Yugoslavias.

He passed away in 1962 in the city where he had spent the majority of his life and was buried at the New Cemetery.

Symbolically, as a tribute to the "father" of newspaper caricature in this region, streets in Belgrade, Kragujevac, and Sokobanja bear the name of Pjer Križanić today.