Milko Bambič (26 April 1905 – 20 May 1991) also known by the nicknames Cvetanov and Banetov, was a prolific

illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicate ...

cartoonist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comics illustrators/artists in that they produce both the litera ...

caricaturist A caricaturist is an artist who specializes in drawing caricatures. List of caricaturists * Abed Abdi (born 1942) * Abril Lamarque (1904–1999) * Al Hirschfeld (1903–2003) * Alex Gard (1900–1948) * Alexander Saroukhan (1898–1977) * Alfre ...

, inventor,

children's writer Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. In addition to conventional literary genres, modern children's literature is classified by the intended age of the reade ...

publicist A publicist is a person whose job is to generate and manage publicity for a company, a brand, or public figure – especially a celebrity – or for work or a project such as a book, film, or album. Publicists are public relations specialists wh ...

, and

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

from the Slovene minority in Italy (1920-1947). He is regarded as one of the most versatile Slovene artists and a prominent Italian

Futurist Futurists (also known as futurologists, prospectivists, foresight practitioners and horizon scanners) are people whose specialty or interest is futures studies or futurology or the attempt to systematically explore predictions and possibilities ...

painter. He published in both

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

and Slovene. He is known for the first Slovene

comic strip A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics terminology#Captio ...

Little Negro Bu-ci-bu ''Little Negro Bu-ci-bu'' (), also mentioned as ''Buci-Bu'', was the first Slovene comic strip. It was created by Milko Bambič and published in 1927 in the children's column of the monthly '' Naš glas'' (Our Voice) in Trieste. It is a story ab ...

'', an allegory of

Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who, upon assuming office as Prime Minister, became the dictator of Fascist Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his overthrow in 194 ...

's career, and as the creator of the ''Three Hearts'' () brand, still used today by

Radenska Radenska is a Slovenia-based worldwide known brand of mineral water, trademark of Radenska d.o.o. company. It is one of the oldest Slovenian brands. Brand history Development of the mineral water company started at Radenci in 1869, when Karl ...

Life

Bambič was born in

Trieste Trieste ( , ; ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital and largest city of the Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, as well as of the Province of Trieste, ...

, where he attended the elementary Cyril and Methodius School with Slovene language as language of instruction, located in Sveti Ivan, Trieste. Then, he was a pupil at the one-year

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

preparatory school and in the first class of the German technical high school in Trieste. In 1919, he attended the brothers Rendićs's private school, and then the Idrija Technical High School, where he got acquainted with

modern art Modern art includes artistic work produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the styles and philosophies of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the tradit ...

movements by the

Lojze Spazzapan Luis Spazzapan, (, ) ( Gradisca d'Isonzo, 18 April 1889 - Turin, 18 February 1958) was a Slovenian painter from the Slovene community in Italy, considered one of the most important postwar Italian exponents of Abstract Art. He was born as the th ...

, a Slovene-Italian modernist painter, who at the time served in

Idrija Idrija (, in older sources ''Zgornja Idrija''; , ) is a town in western Slovenia. It is the seat of the Municipality of Idrija. Located in the traditional region of the Slovene Littoral and in the Gorizia Statistical Region, it is notable for it ...

as a math and drawing teacher. Babič became the leading illustrator of Slovene press in Trieste. He was prevented by the

fascists Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social h ...

to enter the

Accademia di Belle Arti This is a list of the tertiary-level schools or academies of fine art in Italy that are recognised by the Ministero dell'Istruzione, dell'Università e della Ricerca, the Italian ministry of higher education. Accademie di Belle Arti The of ...

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

in late 1920s. In 1927, he participated in an underground exhibition of Slovene Trieste artists, forbidden by the Italian Fascist government. Bambič published his children's story on Buci-Bu, a black king who with his false wisdom leads his people to ruin. Because the

Italian Fascist Italian fascism (), also called classical fascism and Fascism, is the original fascist ideology, which Giovanni Gentile and Benito Mussolini developed in Italy. The ideology of Italian fascism is associated with a series of political parties le ...

authorities recognised the message as politically motivated, Bambič had to leave Trieste for Yugoslavia to avoid arrest. In that year, he moved to

Ljubljana {{Infobox settlement , name = Ljubljana , official_name = , settlement_type = Capital city , image_skyline = {{multiple image , border = infobox , perrow = 1/2/2/1 , total_widt ...

, where he undertook the study of architecture, but did not finish it. In 1929, he moved to

Zagreb Zagreb ( ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, north of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the ...

, where he ran a graphics company and published an art review. In 1931, he designed the ''Three Hearts'' () brand for Radenska. In 1932, he attended

art history Art history is the study of Work of art, artistic works made throughout human history. Among other topics, it studies art’s formal qualities, its impact on societies and cultures, and how artistic styles have changed throughout history. Tradit ...

courses in Ljubljana. In 1935, the Mladinska matica publishing house awarded his youth picture book ''King Honolulu'' (Slovene: ). He returned to Trieste in 1943, after the

capitulation of Italy The Armistice of Cassibile ( Italian: ''Armistizio di Cassibile'') was an armistice that was signed on 3 September 1943 by Italy and the Allies, marking the end of hostilities between Italy and the Allies during World War II. It was made public ...

, and lived there until his death. Only in 1959 did he create his second comic. He was bestowed with the Marcello Mascherini Award in 1975, and in 1978 held an exhibition in the

Sežana Sežana (; ) is a town in the Slovenian Littoral region of Slovenia, near the border with Italy. It is the seat of the Municipality of Sežana. Sežana is located on the Karst Plateau, from Trieste, Italy, and from Ljubljana, the capital city ...

library that raised interest in him in Slovene circles. In 1980, he had a retrospective exhibition in

Villa Opicina Opicina (), formerly Poggioreale del Carso in Italian, is a town in northeastern Italy, close to the Slovenian border at Fernetti (). Opicina is a ''frazione'' of the ''comune'' of Trieste, the provincial and regional capital. The town has a large ...

, and a large exhibition in Trieste in 1985.

Work

Overall, Bambič illustrated over 70 books, among them the poem collection ''Tičistan'' by

Aleš Debeljak Aleš Debeljak (25 December 1961 – 28 January 2016) was a Slovenian cultural critic, poet, and essayist. Biography Debeljak was born in the Slovenian capital Ljubljana, then part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, to a family wi ...

. In addition to his comic strips and caricatures, he also produced the first Slovene youth book in colour

lithography Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the miscibility, immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by ...

, ''St. Nicholas's Night'', written by

Josip Ribičič Josip Ribičič (3 November 1886 – 7 June 1969) was a Slovenes, Slovene writer, known as an author of popular children's literature. Life He was born as Josip Ribičić in Baška, Croatia, Baška on the island of Krk (now in Croatia, then par ...

. He spoke nine languages and translated poems, for example by Russian poet

Alexander Blok Alexander Alexandrovich Blok ( rus, Алекса́ндр Алекса́ндрович Бло́к, p=ɐlʲɪˈksandr ɐlʲɪˈksandrəvʲɪtɕ ˈblok, a=Ru-Alyeksandr Alyeksandrovich Blok.oga; 7 August 1921) was a Russian lyrical poet, writer, publ ...

and Italian poet Michelle Chaunier, with some work published. He held seven

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...

s in different European countries. For the major part of his life, he was very connected with his home town of Trieste, where he was the leading Slovene illustrator. He also wrote and illustrated children's literature. His painting was based on

Vienna Secession The Vienna Secession (; also known as the Union of Austrian Artists or ) is an art movement, closely related to Art Nouveau, that was formed in 1897 by a group of Austrian painters, graphic artists, sculptors and architects, including Josef Ho ...

and Slovene Impressionism. His caricatures and illustrations have been described as light, innovative, humorous and anecdotal. In the Italian press, he was a valued

art critic An art critic is a person who is specialized in analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating art. Their written critiques or reviews contribute to art criticism and they are published in newspapers, magazines, books, exhibition brochures, and catalogue ...

and also published articles about art, education, technology, national issues and other topics. On the hundredth anniversary of his birth, a conference and three exhibitions of his work were organised.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bambic, Milko 1905 births 1991 deaths Slovenian printmakers 20th-century Slovenian illustrators Slovenian inventors Slovenian art critics Slovenian journalists Slovenian children's writers Slovenian children's book illustrators Italian children's writers Italian children's book illustrators Artists from Trieste Italian Slovenes Italian art critics 20th-century Italian inventors 20th-century Italian lithographers Lithographers Italian male journalists Italian Futurist painters 20th-century Slovenian painters Slovenian male painters Slovenian translators 20th-century translators 20th-century Italian journalists 20th-century Italian male writers Slovenian comics artists Italian comics artists Slovenian caricaturists Italian caricaturists Slovenian magazine illustrators Italian magazine illustrators