Maksimilijan Vanka

Maksimilijan Vanka (Maxo Vanka)
Maksimilijan Vanka in 1946
Born	11 October 1889(1889-10-11) Zagreb, Austria-Hungary
Died	2 February 1963(1963-02-02) (aged 73) Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
Nationality	Croatian
Field	Painting

Maksimilijan Vanka (October 11, 1889 – February 2, 1963), also known as Maxo Vanka, was a Croatian-American artist.

Maxo Vanka was born in Croatia in 1889. It is believed that he may have been the illegitimate child of Habsburg nobility. He was sent to live with peasants, but at the age of eight was discovered by his maternal grandfather and sent to live in a castle. He studied art in Zagreb, Croatia and Brussels, Belgium. During World War I he served with the Belgian Red Cross because he was a pacifist and would not serve in the regular army.

He taught art in Zagreb, but went to America in the 1930s with his wife Margaret Stetten Vanka and his young daughter Peggy.

His most important works are his Millvale Murals in the St. Nicholas Croatian Catholic Church, the first Croatian Catholic parish in the United States, in Millvale, Pennsylvania, a borough of the city of Pittsburgh in Allegheny County. They depict Christ and Mary in images of war and offer social commentary on world events like fascism, war, and poverty. View the murals online: The Murals of Maxo Vanka.

He is memorialized in a play called "Gift to America", written in 1981 by Carnegie Mellon University Professor David P. Demarest.

This one hour play tells the story of how Vanka was commissioned by the church to paint the murals by Father Albert Zagar, the church pastor, and it provides insight into each of the murals' meanings as expressed by the artist. The murals, there are 20 in all, cover the walls and ceiling of the church. They were painted in two sessions, one in 1939 and the other in 1941. The differences in the murals before and after the war are quite stark and strikingly vivid.

Murals painted before the war depict Croatian immigrants coming to America to seek a better life, grateful to have escaped the slaughter taking place in their homeland. Their strong sense of pride in their heritage comes through and blends well with their entrance into the Pittsburgh labor-intensive industry of the time. This was Vanka's [sic]"Mothers offer up their sons for labor" theme, a tribute to all those who worked diligently in the mills and mines in and around Pittsburgh. One mural depicts the fire and collapse of one of the coal burning mills and as a Croatian mother cradles her dead son, her other three sons rush into the mill to save their fellow workers. The mother ends up losing all four of her sons, sacrificed for the good of others.

Murals painted after the war are much more striking and vivid, with very dark and haunting themes. This was Vanka's [sic] "Mothers offer up their sons for war" theme. He was a committed pacifist and the intensity of his beliefs are depicted clearly in these murals. One mural is of the Virgin Mary coming between two warring soldiers. Another depicts two soldiers battling each other, yet this time it is Jesus who attempts to intercede and one of the soldiers accidentally thrusts his bayonet into Jesus' heart, causing a look of such utter surprise and pain on Jesus' face. Another mural depicts a woman, dressed in black, with a gas mask over her face, depicting the horrors of war and the evilness of those who would send men into war. To Vanka, there were no justifiable reasons for war.

The Society to Preserve the Millvale Murals of Maxo Vanka, founded in 1991 with the mission to preserve and maintain the murals, is leading a campaign to clean, restore and light the murals. For more information about the Campaign and/or to make a gift to save these unique art treasures: Campaign to Preserve the Millvale Murals of Maxo Vanka. SPMMMV also manages a docent program. Docent-led tours are available at St. Nicholas Croatian Catholic Church on Saturday and Sunday from 1:00pm – 4:00 pm. Special tour requests may be accommodated outside of these hours. For more information about the tours: Visit the Murals.

He taught art at a community college in Bucks County, Pennsylvania at the end of his life.

He died swimming off the coast of Puerto Vallarta in 1963.

External links

• Rome Away from Home: Masterpiece in Pennsylvania by Elizabeth Lev
• Off the Wall: The Murals of St. Nicholas -- Pittsburgh Quarterly
• The Murals of Maxo Vanka
• Pittsburgh Center for the Arts-Paintings and Works on Paper, Maxo Vanka
• The Society to Preserve the Millvale Murals of Maxo Vanka
• Murals for the Ages -- Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 4/25/2010
• Pittsburgh Post-Gazette multi-media view of the Millvale Murals of Maxo Vanka
• The Gift of Sympathy: the Art of Maxo Vanka
• St Nicholas Croatian Catholic Church in Millvale

Persondata
Name	Vanka, Maxo
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	October 11, 1889
Place of birth	Zagreb, Austria-Hungary
Date of death	February 2, 1963
Place of death	Puerto Vallarta, Mexico