Mihael Milunović (born July 2, 1967) is a Montenegrin, French and Croatian painter. His work encompasses a wide range of artistic disciplines, from painting, drawing and photography through large-scale sculptures,

installation Installation may refer to: * Installation (computer programs) * Installation, work of installation art * Installation, military base * Installation, into an office, especially a religious (Installation (Christianity) Installation is a Christian l ...

s, to sound, video and

object Object may refer to: General meanings * Object (philosophy), a thing, being, or concept ** Object (abstract), an object which does not exist at any particular time or place ** Physical object, an identifiable collection of matter * Goal, an ai ...

s. His main interests focus on social and political issues. By decontextualizing everyday objects,

symbol A symbol is a mark, sign, or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, object, or relationship. Symbols allow people to go beyond what is known or seen by creating linkages between otherwise very different conc ...

s or situations, Milunović provokes unease in the observer, a blend of alienation and

curiosity Curiosity (from Latin '' cūriōsitās'', from ''cūriōsus'' "careful, diligent, curious", akin to ''cura'' "care") is a quality related to inquisitive thinking such as exploration, investigation, and learning, evident by observation in humans ...

. In 2018, he obtained the prestigious Award from the French

Académie des Beaux-Arts An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, ...

for his painting work. His works are featured in prestigious museum

collection Collection or Collections may refer to: * Cash collection, the function of an accounts receivable department * Collection (church), money donated by the congregation during a church service * Collection agency, agency to collect cash * Collectio ...

s including MUMOK, Vienna;

Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade The Museum of Contemporary Art ( sr, Музеј савремене уметности, Muzej savremene umetnosti) is an art museum located in Belgrade, Serbia. It was founded in 1958 as the Modern Gallery, making if one the first museums of this ty ...

; Palazzo Forti, Verona; and Musée d’Art et d’Industrie,

Saint-Étienne Saint-Étienne (; frp, Sant-Etiève; oc, Sant Estève, ) is a city and the prefecture of the Loire department in eastern-central France, in the Massif Central, southwest of Lyon in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. Saint-Étienne is the t ...

, France. He has participated in numerous individual and group exhibitions, among others: MUMOK Ludwig Museum Vienna;

Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume Jeu de Paume ( en, Real Tennis Court) is an arts centre for modern and postmodern photography and media. It is located in the north corner (west side) of the Tuileries Gardens next to the Place de la Concorde in Paris. In 2004, Galerie Nationale ...

, Paris;

Musée d'art moderne (Saint-Étienne) The Musée d'art moderne et contemporain (Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art), or MAMC, is an art museum in Saint-Étienne, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France. It was inaugurated as a separate museum in 1987. It has one of the largest collections of ...

;

; The Stedelijk Museum, Aalst, Belgium; Esterhazy Foundation

Schloss Esterházy Schloss Esterházy ( hu, Esterházy-kastély) is a palace in Eisenstadt, Austria, the capital of the Burgenland state. It was constructed in the late 13th century, and came under ownership of the Hungarian Esterházy family in 1622. Under Paul ...

, Eisenstaedt; Musee d'Art Modeste, Sete; PAN Naples; The Kunsthalle

Fridericianum The Fridericianum is a museum in Kassel, Germany. Built in 1779, it is one of the oldest public museums in Europe.

, Kassel; The Biennials in Poznan and

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, Valencia and the Municipalities of Spain, third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is ...

; Wiener Secessionsgebäude, in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, and others. In June 2017, Milunović's work "Vision/Blue Mountain" covered the highest building in Vienna over , the

Ringturm Ringturm (Ring Tower) is a prominent skyscraper in Vienna, Austria, and is the headquarters of the Vienna Insurance Group. It was built from 1953 to 1955 after a design by Erich Boltenstern at the Schottenring. The tower is tall, with of office ...

, seat of

Vienna Insurance Group Vienna Insurance Group AG Wiener Versicherung Gruppe (VIG) with its registered office in Vienna, Austria, is one of the largest international insurance groups in Central and Eastern Europe with approximately 25,000 employees. History History ...

, marking the ten-year

jubilee A jubilee is a particular anniversary of an event, usually denoting the 25th, 40th, 50th, 60th, and the 70th anniversary. The term is often now used to denote the celebrations associated with the reign of a monarch after a milestone number of y ...

of this company's art

project A project is any undertaking, carried out individually or collaboratively and possibly involving research or design, that is carefully planned to achieve a particular goal. An alternative view sees a project managerially as a sequence of even ...

"Wrapping of Ringturm". The ceremony was opened with a speech of

Sebastian Kurz Sebastian Kurz (; born 27 August 1986) is a former Austrian politician who twice served as chancellor of Austria, initially from December 2017 to May 2019 and then a second time from January 2020 to October 2021. Kurz was born and raised in Me ...

Minister of Foreign Affairs A foreign affairs minister or minister of foreign affairs (less commonly minister for foreign affairs) is generally a cabinet minister in charge of a state's foreign policy and relations. The formal title of the top official varies between cou ...

Republic of Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine States of Austria, states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, th ...

Early life and education

Milunović was born in Belgrade, to Nikola Kolja Milunović and Ana Viđen. His father is a well known Serbian sculptor and first son of

Milo Milunović Milo Milunović (6 August 1897 in Cetinje, Principality of Montenegro – 11 February 1967 in Belgrade, SR Serbia, SFRY) was a distinguished Yugoslav and Montenegrin painter. He dabbled in both Impressionism and Cubism. Biography Milunović ...

(1897–1967), a Montenegrin painter that dabbled in both

Impressionism Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating ...

and

Cubism Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassemble ...

and was one of the founders of

Academy of Arts, Belgrade The Academy of Arts ( sr, Академија уметности / hr, Akademija umetnosti) is a private higher education institution in Belgrade, Serbia. It was founded in 1994, by Aleksandar Pantelić, Velimir Abramović and Milan Đoković ...

in 1937. His mother Ana Viđen was a sculptor of Croatian origin. Milunović studied painting at the

University of Arts in Belgrade The University of Arts in Belgrade ( sr-cyr, Универзитет уметности у Београду, Univerzitet umetnosti u Beogradu) is a public university in Serbia. It was founded in 1957 as the Academy of Arts to unite four academies. ...

and at the

École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts The Beaux-Arts de Paris is a French ''grande école'' whose primary mission is to provide high-level arts education and training. This is classical and historical School of Fine Arts in France. The art school, which is part of the Paris Science ...

in Paris, France. In 1996 he was awarded

Laureate In English, the word laureate has come to signify eminence or association with literary awards or military glory. It is also used for recipients of the Nobel Prize, the Gandhi Peace Award, the Student Peace Prize, and for former music direc ...

of the prestigious Prix de la Fondation Renoir.

Period 1999–2009

Soon after his return to Paris, in 2000 he exposed his works in

, within the exhibition "L'autre moitié de l'Europe", in a part curated by dr. Lorand Hegyi. Milunović met Lorand Hegyi during the show, and the long term collaboration was born. Milunović artworks were included the next year (2001) in MUMOK Museum Ludwig in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

and consequently in Collection

Siemens Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational conglomerate corporation and the largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe headquartered in Munich with branch offices abroad. The principal divisions of the corporation are ''Industry'', '' ...

AG in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. He debuted with the Galerie

Ernst Hilger Ernst Hilger a curator as well as the owner and founder of Hilger modern/contemporary and Hilger BrotKunsthalle. A gallery owner and a philanthropist mediator, Hilger travels the world in search of new art while also providing a platform for est ...

, and continued working with him until 2004. Between 2001 and 2003, Milunović participated in the Biennale of Valencia in 2003, together with

Roman Opalka Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

Dennis Oppenheim Dennis Oppenheim (September 6, 1938 – January 21, 2011) was an American conceptual artist, performance artist, earth artist, sculptor and photographer. Dennis Oppenheim's early artistic practice is an epistemological questioning about the nat ...

and

Ilya Kabakov Ilya Iosifovich Kabakov (Russian: Илья́ Ио́сифович Кабако́в; born September 30, 1933), is a Russian–American conceptual artist, born in Dnipropetrovsk in what was then the Ukrainian SSR of the Soviet Union. He worked ...

. During this period Milunović also collaborated on number of exhibition projects with Cité des Sciences in Paris. Milunović moved from Paris to Saint-Etienne in France's, central region, where he developed projects with the École supérieure d'art et design Saint-Étienne, where he held an

experimental An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs when ...

class, and also many artistic and exhibition projects; he participated in several museum shows in

in 2004 (Passage d’Europe together with

Anri Sala Anri Sala (born 1974) is an Albanian contemporary artist whose primary medium is video. Life and career Sala studied art at the Albanian Academy of Arts from 1992 to 1996. He also studied video at the Ecole Nationale des Arts Décoratifs, Pari ...

Dan Perjovschi Dan Perjovschi is an artist, writer and cartoonist born on 29 October 1961 in Sibiu, Romania. Perjovschi has over the past decade created drawings in museum spaces, most recently in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in which he created ...

, Simon Hantai) and 2005 (Domicile, with

Jan Fabre Jan Fabre (born 14 December 1958) is a Belgian multidisciplinary artist, playwright, stage director, choreographer and designer. Conviction for sexual assault and harassment In September 2018, twenty former members of Fabre's performing ar ...

and others). He traveled and exhibited in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

(2006) and Italy, notably in Palazzo d'Arte di Napoli (PAN), and started working with Gallery Changing Role in

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

, Italy and Galerie Georges

Verney-Carron Verney-Carron S.A. is a French firearm manufacturing company based in Saint-Etienne, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. The company makes a wide range of hunting shotguns and rifles. In 2004, Verney-Carron purchased the traditional artisan gun making compa ...

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...

, France. In 2006 he founded NGO ProArtOrg that organised the first Belgrade show of an important American artist since the war in Yugoslavia 1991–1995. It was the show of Dennis Oppenheim followed by a series of lectures given by Thommas Messer, director emeritus of Guggenheim Foundation and dr. Lorand Hegyi, then director of

. In 2007 he opened a show "Uncomfortable Realities" in Galerie Piece Unique in Paris, France, showing new

sculptural Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

works and works on paper. The show gained great

attention Attention is the behavioral and cognitive process of selectively concentrating on a discrete aspect of information, whether considered subjective or objective, while ignoring other perceivable information. William James (1890) wrote that "Atte ...

. In 2008 he started a collaboration with Galerie Guy Baertschi from

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...

. In 2009 he moved again to Paris, only to complete a large sculptural work entitled "

Mothership A mother ship, mothership or mother-ship is a large vehicle that leads, serves, or carries other smaller vehicles. A mother ship may be a maritime ship, aircraft, or spacecraft. Examples include bombers converted to carry experimental airc ...

", realised with a group of de-scolarised children in Saint-Etienne and with a help of NGO Paria and city of Saint-Etienne.

Period 2009–2017

At the end of 2009 Milunović moved to

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

. He started to paint large scale paintings that were shown in Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade in 2014, and consequently became part of important art collections (Collecion Solo, Wiener städtische, Esterhazy). In 2015 he returns to Paris, where he lives and works since.

Education

1987–1995

(Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts in

Fine Arts In European academic traditions, fine art is developed primarily for aesthetics or creative expression, distinguishing it from decorative art or applied art, which also has to serve some practical function, such as pottery or most metalwork ...

).
1995–1996 Specialized Studies at

(ENSBA), Paris, France, class of professor

Vladimir Veličković Vladimir Veličković ( sr-cyr, Владимир Величковић; 11 August 1935 – 29 August 2019) was a Serbian painter who spent much of his adult life in Paris. Biography Veličković graduated from the Faculty of Architecture at Bel ...

Exhibitions

Group shows: MUMOK Ludwig Museum Vienna;

, Paris, France;

, France;

, Serbia; Stedelijk Museum, Aalst, Belgium; Esterhazy Foundation, Eisenstaedt, Austria; Musee d'Art Modeste, Sete, France; PAN Naples, Italy; The Kunsthalle

Fridericianum The Fridericianum is a museum in Kassel, Germany. Built in 1779, it is one of the oldest public museums in Europe.

Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2020 ...

, Germany; The Biennials in Poznan, Poland and Valencia, Spain; Wiener Secessionsgebäude, in Vienna, Austria and others. Individual exhibitions:

, Serbia, Fondazione Mudima, Milan, Italy; Gallery Piece Unique, Paris, France; Galerie Art Baertschi & Co, Geneva, Switzerland; Georges Verney Carron, Lyon, France; Voice Gallery, Marrakech, Morocco and others.

Collections

His works are present in the permanent collections of the MUMOK – Museum Ludwig in Vienna; Musee d'Art et d'Industrie, Saint-Etienne, France; Collection

Moët & Chandon Moët & Chandon (), also known simply as Moët, is a French fine winery and co-owner of the luxury goods company LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE. Moët et Chandon is one of the world's largest champagne producers and a prominent champag ...

LVMH LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton (), commonly known as LVMH, is a French holding multinational corporation and conglomerate specializing in luxury goods, headquartered in Paris. The company was formed in 1987 through the merger of fashion house ...

, France; Collection

Siemens AG Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational conglomerate corporation and the largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe headquartered in Munich with branch offices abroad. The principal divisions of the corporation are ''Industry'', '' ...

, Vienna, Austria; Sammlung Esterhazy, Eisenstadt, Austria;

, Serbia; Collecion Solo, Madrid; Collection Telenor, Belgrade, Serbia; Collection Renoir, France; Collection Maya Picasso, France; Collection Leube, Salzburg; Collection Palazzo Forti, Verona, Italy; Collection Azraq – foundation Alliances, Marrakech, Morocco; Collection Barzai-Hollander, Brussels; Collection Wiener Städtische, Austria and Serbia; as well as in many other private and public art collections around the world.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Milunovic, Mihael 1967 births Living people Serbian painters Contemporary painters