Maksimilijan Vanka

Vanka was born in Zagreb in 1889 as the illegitimate son of two Austro-Hungarian noble families. To avoid a scandal, he was given to a peasant woman in the village of Kupljenovo who raised him for the first few years of his life. However, at the age of eight, his maternal grandfather learned of his existence and had him sent away to a castle where he had access to an upper-class education.{{cite news |last1=Olujić |first1=Kristina |title=OBNOVA POZNATE KUĆE 2020.: Galerija Maksimilijana Vanke bit će nova atrakcija grada Korčule |url=https://www.nacional.hr/obnova-poznate-kuce-2020-galerija-maksimilijana-vanke-bit-ce-nova-atrakcija-grada-korcule/ |access-date=December 15, 2022 |work=Nacional |date=July 28, 2022 |language=Croatian}}{{cite journal |last1=Brett |first1=Edward |title=A Monument to Catholic Social Justice: The Maxo Vanka Murals of St. Nicholas Croatian Church, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |journal=American Catholic Studies |date=January 2011 |volume=122 |issue=1 |pages=101–107 |doi=10.1353/acs.2011.a443991 |s2cid=161875578 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236718631 |access-date=December 12, 2022}}

He studied art under Bela Čikoš Sesija at the College of Arts and Crafts in Zagreb as well as in Brussels with Jean Delville and Constant Montald. During World War I, he served with the Belgian Red Cross, because he was a pacifist and would not serve in the regular army. After the war, he returned to teach at the College of Arts and Crafts, becoming a professor in 1923. He taught composition, drawing and fresco work. He was elected as a corresponding member of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts in 1929. In 1931 he married an American, Margaret Stetten, whom he met while she was traveling in the Balkans with her parents. The couple moved to New York City with their daughter Peggy in 1935.

File:Altar at the St Nicholas Croatian Catholic Church in Millvale, PA, USA.jpg

{{see also|St. Nicholas Croatian Church (Millvale, Pennsylvania)}}

After moving to the United States, Vanka exhibited his work in New York and Pittsburgh, but without much financial success. In 1937, his friend Louis Adamic helped him get the commission for what would end up being his most important work, a series of murals for St. Nicholas Church, a Croatian parish in the Pittsburgh suburb of Millvale, Pennsylvania.{{cite web |title=National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination Form: St. Nicholas Croatian Church |url=https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71996574 |website=National Archives Catalog |publisher=National Park Service |access-date=December 5, 2022}} Working in two campaigns, the first in 1937 and the second in 1941, Vanka painted a total of 25 fresco murals on the apse, walls, and ceiling of the church, covering a total area of approximately {{convert|4500|ft2|m2}}.{{cite web |title=Vanka Murals |url=https://vankamurals.org/vanka-murals/ |publisher=Society to Preserve the Millvale Murals of Maxo Vanka |access-date=December 4, 2022}}

Vanka painted the first set of murals from April to June, 1937, working every day until 2 or 3 in the morning. During this time, he became convinced that the church was haunted by a ghostly, black-robed figure, which Adamic later wrote about in a piece for Harper's Magazine titled The Millvale Apparition. Nevertheless, he completed the murals on schedule.{{cite news |last1=McMahon |first1=Perry R. |title=Artist Did See 'Something,' Millvale Priest Declares |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/114157456/the-pittsburgh-press/ |access-date=December 10, 2022 |work=Pittsburgh Press |date=March 20, 1938 |via=Newspapers.com}} Although Vanka had "upset tradition in his introduction of labor scenes... within the sacred precincts of a church", the murals were met with acclaim from the press as well as church officials,{{cite news |last1=Naylor |first1=Douglas |title=Church Murals Portrays Lives of Immigrants |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/114157503/the-pittsburgh-press/ |access-date=December 10, 2022 |work=Pittsburgh Press |date=June 12, 1937 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{cite magazine |title=Art: Millvale Murals |magazine=Time |date=July 19, 1937 |url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,882750,00.html |issn=0040-781X}} and brought Vanka "significant if not prolonged fame."{{cite journal |last1=Christian |first1=Henry A. |last2=Kurent |first2=Tine T. |title=Reading a Painting: Maxo Vanka's Collage 'World War II' |journal=Dve Domovini/Two Homelands |date=1997 |volume=8 |pages=89–105 |url=http://twohomelands.zrc-sazu.si/uploads/articles/1515241552_Chrisstina_Kurent_Reading%20Painting.pdf |access-date=December 14, 2022 }}

Vanka was invited back to complete a second set of murals{{cite web |title=St. Nicholas Croatian Catholic Parish |url=https://vankamurals.org/about/st-nicholas/ |publisher=Society to Preserve the Millvale Murals of Maxo Vanka |access-date=December 8, 2022}} which were dedicated on November 16, 1941.{{cite news |last1=Breig |first1=Joseph A. |title=Life and Death Portrayed in Church Murals |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/114458659/pittsburgh-sun-telegraph/ |access-date=December 11, 2022 |work=Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph |date=November 16, 1941 |via=Newspapers.com}} With World War II then raging in Europe, these murals featured much more overtly anti-war subject matter than the earlier ones. With the completion of the full set of murals, the Pittsburgh Press wrote that the artwork would "put [the church] near the top of the 'must list' of places to see in the Pittsburgh district",{{cite news |last1=Naylor |first1=Douglas |title=Yugoslavian Artist Uses Sparrow as Alarm Clock |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/114455874/the-pittsburgh-press/ |access-date=December 11, 2022 |work=Pittsburgh Press |date=November 17, 1941 |via=Newspapers.com}} while the Sun-Telegraph wrote that Vanka and the parish priest, Albert Zagar, were "tossing the dogmas of religious art into the ash-can".{{cite news |last1=Kubly |first1=Herbert |title=Artist Toils Tirelessly on Paintings in Church |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/114455724/pittsburgh-sun-telegraph/ |access-date=December 11, 2022 |work=Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph |date=September 7, 1941 |via=Newspapers.com}} Vanka himself described the murals as "my contribution to America".

File:"Injustice" mural by Maxo Vanka at the St Nicholas Croatian Catholic Church in Millvale, PA, USA.jpg

The subject matter of the murals includes a combination of traditional religious imagery and social themes related to the Croatian American experience, such as war, injustice, and exploitation of workers. Vanka acknowledged traditional church decoration practices dating back to the Byzantine Empire in his placement of Mary, Queen of Heaven, above the altar and depictions of the Ascension of Jesus and the Four Evangelists on the ceiling. Elsewhere, Vanka included scenes from the Old and New Testaments, images of saints, and scenes depicting the Croatian immigrant experience such as Immigrant Mother Raises Her Sons for American Industry, in which a group of Croatian women mourn over a young man killed in a mining accident. Other murals included allegorical depictions of injustice and inequality in America, such as The American Capitalist, in which a wealthy businessman sits before an elaborate meal while ignoring a beggar, and Injustice, which depicts a hooded figure wearing a gas mask and holding a scale in which a loaf of bread is outweighed by gold. Vanka, a committed pacifist, also included strong anti-war imagery, such as a crucified Jesus being pierced by a World War I soldier's bayonet, and the Virgin Mary breaking a soldier's rifle.

Apart from the Millvale murals, the majority of Vanka's American work consisted of charcoal and pastel drawings, many of which depicted scenes and people he met during his travels, and oil paintings, which were predominantly landscapes and still lifes. Vanka mostly stopped exhibiting his work after World War II,{{cite news |title=Bird Sanctuary To Honor Max. Vanka |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/114575141/the-daily-intelligencer/ |access-date=December 13, 2022 |work=Doylestown Daily Intelligencer |date=August 23, 1963 |via=Newspapers.com}} although he did hold a small show consisting of "fruits, flowers, and allegorical landscapes" at the Charles Barzansky gallery in New York in 1957. As a result of this limited exposure, most of his later work is not well known.

In his later life, Vanka lived on a farm near Doylestown in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and taught art appreciation at the National Agricultural College (now Delaware Valley University). He died swimming off the coast of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, in 1963.{{cite news |last1=Thomas |first1=Mary |title=Church murals depicting spiritual, cultural lives of Croatian immigrants draw renewed attention |url=http://old.post-gazette.com/ae/20010927murals0927fnp2.asp |accessdate=27 December 2018 |work=Pittsburgh Post Gazette |date=2001-09-27}}

In 1968, Vanka's widow and daughter donated 47 of his works to the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts.{{Cite web|url=https://mojahrvatska.vecernji.hr/price/tuzan-pocetak-ali-i-zavrsetak-zivota-1086386|title = Tužan početak, ali i završetak života}} This collection was initially displayed at Vanka's former summer home on the island of Korčula, but was later moved to the Strossmayer Gallery of Old Masters in Zagreb. In 2022, it was announced that the collection would be restored and moved back to Vanka's villa on Korčula.{{cite news |last1=Demark |first1=Nikolina |title=Maksimilijan Vanka Gallery to Reopen in the Artist's Villa in Korčula |url=https://www.total-croatia-news.com/lifestyle/61153-maksimilijan-vanka-gallery-to-reopen-in-the-artist-s-villa-in-korcula |access-date=December 15, 2022 |work=Total Croatia News |date=March 14, 2022}}

Vanka and his work were largely forgotten in the United States after his death, but began to attract renewed attention since the 1990s. His first U.S. retrospective was held in 2001 at the James A. Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, Pennsylvania.{{cite news |last1=Gehman |first1=Geoff |title=Michener exhibit captures Maxo Vanka as a radical pied piper |url=https://www.mcall.com/news/mc-xpm-2001-04-15-3362131-story.html |access-date=December 15, 2022 |work=The Morning Call |date=April 15, 2001}} In 1991, the Society to Preserve the Millvale Murals of Maxo Vanka was founded with the mission to preserve and maintain the murals at St. Nicholas Church. SPMMMV is leading a campaign to clean, restore and light the murals, and offers docent-led tours every Saturday at 11:00 and 12:30.{{cite web |url=http://vankamurals.org/take-a-tour/ |title=Take a Tour {{!}} vankamurals |website=vankamurals.org |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151224214122/http://vankamurals.org/take-a-tour |archive-date=2015-12-24}}

Vanka was mentioned in several writings by Louis Adamic and was the inspiration for his 1936 novel Cradle of Life: The Story of One Man's Beginnings. The novel tells the story of a man named Rudo Stanka whose early life mirrors Vanka's own.{{cite news |title=Portrait of a Peasant Mother |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/114656771/the-province/ |access-date=December 15, 2022 |work=Vancouver Province |date=November 7, 1936 |via=Newspapers.com}} Vanka was also memorialized in Gift to America, a play written in 1981 by Professor David P. Demarest of Carnegie Mellon University.{{cite news |title=Church murals show joy, sorrow of immigrants |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/114660102/pittsburgh-post-gazette/ |access-date=15 December 2022 |work=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette |date=April 11, 1981 |via=Newspapers.com}}

{{more citations needed|date=April 2016}}

{{Reflist}}

• [http://www.catholic.net/index.php?option=zenit&id=31448 Rome Away from Home: Masterpiece in Pennsylvania by Elizabeth Lev]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20110715072016/http://www.pghquarterly.com/index.php?option=com_fpss&Itemid=216) Off the Wall: The Murals of St. Nicholas -- Pittsburgh Quarterly]
• [http://www.vankamurals.org The Murals of Maxo Vanka]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20110726024524/http://www.pittsburgharts.org/gallery_vanka.php Pittsburgh Center for the Arts-Paintings and Works on Paper, Maxo Vanka]
• [http://www.vankamurals.org The Society to Preserve the Millvale Murals of Maxo Vanka]
• [http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10115/1052856-437.stm Murals for the Ages -- Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 4/25/2010]
• [http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09061/952161-429.stm Pittsburgh Post-Gazette multi-media view of the Millvale Murals of Maxo Vanka]
• [http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/2aa/2aa531.htm The Gift of Sympathy: the Art of Maxo Vanka]
• [http://www.stnicholascroatian.org/ St Nicholas Croatian Catholic Church in Millvale]
• [https://www.korculainfo.com/maksimilijan-vanka/]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vanka, Maxo}}

Category:1889 births

Category:1963 deaths

Category:Artists from Zagreb

Category:People from the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia

Category:Yugoslav emigrants to the United States

Category:American people of Croatian descent

Category:Croatian painters

Category:Modern painters

Category:20th-century American painters

Category:American male painters

Category:American muralists

Category:20th-century American male artists