Milet Andrejević (28 September 1925 – 21 October 1989) was a Yugoslav-born American painter in the realist tradition. A classically trained artist who went through a series of different artistic periods, including

post-Impressionism Post-Impressionism (also spelled Postimpressionism) was a predominantly French art movement that developed roughly between 1886 and 1905, from the last Impressionist exhibition to the birth of Fauvism. Post-Impressionism emerged as a reaction a ...

Expressionism Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

, and Pop Art, Andrejević was best known for his allegorical landscapes set in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

Central Park Central Park is an urban park between the Upper West Side and Upper East Side neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City, and the first landscaped park in the United States. It is the List of parks in New York City, sixth-largest park in the ...

Early life

Born Mileta Andrejević in

Zrenjanin Zrenjanin ( sr-Cyrl, Зрењанин, ; ; ; ; ) is a List of cities in Serbia, city and the administrative center of the Central Banat District in the autonomous province of Vojvodina, Serbia. The city urban area has a population of 67,129 inh ...

, Yugoslavia, Andrejević studied painting at the

Belgrade Belgrade is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin, Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. T ...

Academy of Fine Arts. His brother, Krsta Andrejević, also become a well-known painter in the former Yugoslavia. As a teen, he lived through the

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

occupation of Yugoslavia and was eventually conscripted into

Tito Josip Broz ( sh-Cyrl, Јосип Броз, ; 7 May 1892 – 4 May 1980), commonly known as Tito ( ; , ), was a Yugoslav communist revolutionary and politician who served in various positions of national leadership from 1943 until his death ...

's army at the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Andrejević studied under

Ivan Tabaković Ivan Tabaković (10 December 1898, Arad – 27 June 1977, Belgrade) was an Austro-Hungarian-born Serbian painter. Biography Tabaković was born in Arad, then part of the Habsburg Empire, in 1898, a son of noted Serbian architect Milan T ...

at the Academy of Fine Arts in Belgrade, where he joined several of the artists who would form the Zadar Group, including

Mića Popović Miodrag "Mića" Popović (12 June 1923 – 22 December 1996) was a Serbian painter, experimental filmmaker and one of the major figures of the Yugoslav Black Wave. Life and work Popović was born on 12 June 1923 in Loznica. He finished grammar s ...

, Bata Mihajlović, Petar Omčikus, Ljubinka Jovanović,

Kosara Bokšan Kossa Bokchan ( sr-Cyrl, Косара Бокшан, January 1, 1925 in Berlin – November 21, 2009 in Belgrade) was a Serbian painter who lived in Paris. She married Petar Omčikus (Pierre Omcikous). Education In 1928, when Bokchan was th ...

, and Vera Božičković. In 1952, Andrejević relocated to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

to study art and did not return to Yugoslavia for twenty years. He married the former Helen Bardeen in Paris in 1956 and came to live with her in New York City in 1958.

Critical success

Andrejević's work turned toward Pop Art during the late 1950s and his work was exhibited in the

Green Gallery The Green Gallery was an art gallery that operated between 1960 and 1965 at 15 West 57th Street in Manhattan, New York City. The gallery's director was Richard Bellamy, and its financial backer was the art collector Robert Scull. Green Gallery ...

then run by Richard Bellamy. In the 1960s, he adopted a more realist style that featured allegories of Greek myths set in Central Park. He received positive reviews from then

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

art critic

Hilton Kramer Hilton Kramer (March 25, 1928 – March 27, 2012) was an American art critic and essayist. Biography Early life Kramer was born in Gloucester, Massachusetts into a Jewish immigrant family, and was educated at Syracuse University, receiving a b ...

who called Andrejević, "clearly one of the most gifted painters of the contemporary Realist school." Kramer went on to write that, "He brings to his art an unusual sense of refinement - an eye calmly and exquisitely attuned to pictorial nuance. His best pictures achieve a purity of tone and a gravity of feeling unusual in the Realist painting of any period and very different, certainly, from some of the more clamorous Realist styles of our own day." Andrejević showed his work at the Robert Schoelkopf gallery and in the collections of the

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is an art museum beside the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. The museum was initially endowed during the 1960s with the permanent art collection of Joseph H. Hirshhorn. It was designed ...

Washington D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

and the

Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is a Modern art, modern and Contemporary art, contemporary American art museum located in the Meatpacking District, Manhattan, Meatpacking District and West Village neighbor ...

in New York City. In 1988, he was elected member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. Andrejević died of

lung cancer Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma, is a malignant tumor that begins in the lung. Lung cancer is caused by genetic damage to the DNA of cells in the airways, often caused by cigarette smoking or inhaling damaging chemicals. Damaged ...

in 1989.

References

External links

*Art View; ANDREJEVIC- N ALLEGORICAL REALIS

by Hilton Kramer, New York Times, January 11, 1981. {{DEFAULTSORT:Andrejevic, Milet 1925 births 1989 deaths University of Arts in Belgrade alumni Painters from New York City Yugoslav Partisans members Deaths from lung cancer in New York (state) Yugoslav emigrants to the United States People from Zrenjanin