Milić Stanković (1934 – 2000), known by his artistic name Milić of

Mačva Mačva ( sr-Cyrl, Мачва, ; hu, Macsó) is a geographical and historical region in the northwest of Central Serbia, on a fertile plain between the Sava and Drina rivers. The chief town is Šabac. The modern Mačva District of Serbia is nam ...

( sr, Милић од Мачве, Milić od Mačve; 30 October 1934 – 8 December 2000), was a

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hungar ...

n painter and artist often named Balkan's Dalí for his figurative

surrealist Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to ...

paintings.

Biography

Stanković was born in 1934 in Belotić,

Kingdom of Yugoslavia The Kingdom of Yugoslavia ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Kraljevina Jugoslavija, Краљевина Југославија; sl, Kraljevina Jugoslavija) was a state in Southeast and Central Europe that existed from 1918 until 1941. From 1918 ...

. When he was in the second year of high school in the town of Šabac, a professor of drawing, Đorđe Kostić came to

Šabac Šabac (Serbian Cyrillic: Шабац, ) is a city and the administrative centre of the Mačva District in western Serbia. The traditional centre of the fertile Mačva region, Šabac is located on the right banks of the river Sava. , the city ...

from Belgrade, demolished after the Nazi bombardment. Kostić founded the art section in the basement of the high school. The professor had a special ability of perceiving children gifted in painting, including Milić. As a high school student, Milić participated at painting exhibitions in the town. Because of poverty, his parents decided that he should attend the

Military Academy A military academy or service academy is an educational institution which prepares candidates for service in the officer corps. It normally provides education in a military environment, the exact definition depending on the country concerned. ...

in Belgrade. Milić was accepted, but at the last moment, managed to convince his parents that architecture would be better for him and more promising for the future. Young Milić had talent and good will, and now it became important for him to remain in Belgrade. At the School of Architecture, he was taught by an extraordinary draughtsman - Pivo Karamatijević. The first year, he lived in the Students' City,

New Belgrade New Belgrade ( sr, / , ) is a municipality of the city of Belgrade. It is a planned city, built since 1948 in a previously uninhabited area on the left bank of the Sava river, opposite old Belgrade. In recent years, it has become the central bu ...

. In the fall of 1953 Milić began socializing with the family of Đorđe Kadijević. Milić and Đorđe were constantly fantasizing about painting. The next year, Milić passed the entrance exam to the

Academy of Fine Arts The following is a list of notable art schools. Accredited non-profit art and design colleges * Adelaide Central School of Art * Alberta College of Art and Design * Art Academy of Cincinnati * Art Center College of Design * The Art Institute ...

, in contrast to Kadijević, who did not pass it. Milić received support from his mother Desanka for admission to the Academy, and he was especially encouraged by his high school classmate Vlada Lalicki, from Šabac. Later, as a specially gifted student, he received a scholarship. At the Academy of Fine Arts, he studied in the class of professor Kosta Hakman, and after Hakman's death, with professor

Ljubica Sokić Ljubica "Cuca" Sokić (9 December 1914 – 8 January 2009) was a prominent Serbian and Yugoslav painter of the twentieth century. Biography She was born in Bitola, North Macedonia, where her mother Ruža was refugee during the World War I. H ...

. Milić graduated from the Academy in 1959 On Milić's first solo exhibition, Herbert Beck, a famous collector from

Geneva , neighboring_municipalities= Carouge, Chêne-Bougeries, Cologny, Lancy, Grand-Saconnex, Pregny-Chambésy, Vernier, Veyrier , website = https://www.geneve.ch/ Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevr ...

bought seven of his paintings for 770,000

dinars The dinar () is the principal currency unit in several countries near the Mediterranean Sea, and its historical use is even more widespread. The modern dinar's historical antecedents are the gold dinar and the silver dirham, the main coin o ...

, a significant amount at the time. Milić was a very prolific painter. As of February 2000, he had painted around 7,500 paintings, more than 13,000 graphics and hundreds of icons and frescoes. By his works he defended the Serbian tradition from oblivion and distortion. He died on December 8, 2000 in Belgrade,

Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Serbia and Montenegro ( sr, Cрбија и Црна Гора, translit=Srbija i Crna Gora) was a country in Southeast Europe located in the Balkans that existed from 1992 to 2006, following the breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yu ...

References

20th-century Serbian people Mačva Artists from Šabac 1934 births 2000 deaths 20th-century Serbian painters Burials at Belgrade New Cemetery Serbian male painters 20th-century Serbian male artists {{Serbia-painter-stub