Miloš Babić (1904–1968) was a Yugoslav painter, illustrator, designer, graphic artist who studied the

avant-garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

movement with his circle of ' artists whose early work

anonymity Anonymity describes situations where the acting person's identity is unknown. Anonymity may be created unintentionally through the loss of identifying information due to the passage of time or a destructive event, or intentionally if a person cho ...

was not recognizable to the public at the time when it first began in

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 ...

and

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 ...

. Babić considered himself simply a

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 ...

engaged in

graphic design Graphic design is a profession, academic discipline and applied art that involves creating visual communications intended to transmit specific messages to social groups, with specific objectives. Graphic design is an interdisciplinary branch of ...

in order to make a living and not starve while waiting for his work to sell. With the passage of time, his graphic design work became part of collections now held at the

National Museum in Belgrade The National Museum of Serbia () is the largest and oldest museum in Belgrade, Serbia. It is located in the central zone of Belgrade on a square plot between the Republic Square (Belgrade), Republic Square, formerly Theatre Square, and three stree ...

, Museum of Applied Arts in Belgrade and the Municipal Museum of

Subotica Subotica (, ; , , ) is a List of cities in Serbia, city in Central Europe and the administrative center of the North Bačka District in the autonomous province of Vojvodina, Serbia. Formerly the largest city of Vojvodina region, contemporary Sub ...

Biography

Miloš Babić was born in 1904 in

Segedin Segedin or Šegedin may refer to: * Sanjak of Segedin, an administrative territorial entity of the Ottoman Empire whose capital was Szeged * Szeged, a city in Hungary whose name in the Serbian language is Segedin * Leo Segedin Leopold Segedin ( ...

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...

, where he enrolled in the School of Applied Arts, Department of Interior Architecture, in 1918, and graduated in 1921. He decided to move to

in the same year, where he studied by drawing and other works of applied art. His career began to flourish in 1923 when he moved from

. There he became a successful illustrator of magazine covers, advertisements, decorations, signboards and film posters for movie theatres. He was also successful as a painter and portrait painter. He collaborated on commissions through brothers Oto Bihalji-Merin and Pavle Bihali-Merin who owned an advertising agency ''Futur'' in Belgrade until 1927. Babić's best work is found in his advertising poster illustrations from the

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

period of the 1930s in the collection of the Museum of Applied Arts, Belgrade, and his nine oil paintings in the

City Museum. Influenced by German art school

Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the , was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined Decorative arts, crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., ...

, colleagues

Lajos Kassák Lajos Kassák (March 21, 1887 – July 22, 1967) was a Hungarian poet, novelist, painter, essayist, editor, theoretician of the avant-garde, and translator. Self-taught, he became a writer within the socialist movement and published journa ...

, and

Ljubomir Micić Ljubomir Micić ( sr-cyr, Љубомир Мицић; 15 November 1895 – 14 June 1971) was a Serbs, Serbian poet, writer, critic, editor and actor. He was the founder of the avant-garde movement Zenitism and its magazine ''Zenit''. Both he and hi ...

, Babić's own experience in international

constructivism Constructivism may refer to: Art and architecture * Constructivism (art), an early 20th-century artistic movement that extols art as a practice for social purposes * Constructivist architecture, an architectural movement in the Soviet Union in t ...

and the understanding of

postulates An axiom, postulate, or assumption is a statement that is taken to be true, to serve as a premise or starting point for further reasoning and arguments. The word comes from the Ancient Greek word (), meaning 'that which is thought worthy or f ...

of modern advertising, were the driving force during the height of his creative period (the late 1920s to

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 ...

). His work covered all conventional forms of advertising (newspaper and cinema advertisements, promotional flyers, posters, labels for different products, and visual identity of companies such as

brands A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's goods or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create and ...

. Today Ваbić and his work are connected to the ideas of Arpad G. Balázs, an ethnic Hungarian artist who worked in Subotica at the same time as Babić. Babić's oil paintings were done in Subotica between 1927 and 1937 with the intent to be displayed at the ''

Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne The ''Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne'' (International Exposition of Art and Technology in Modern Life) was held from 25 May to 25 November 1937 in Paris, France. Both the Palais de Chaillot, housing the Mu ...

'' in

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 ...

in 1937. The collection included: Day-and-night work; The Banner of Реасе (1930); Anarchist at work; Satan's dream or а Vision of а War (1936); Warrior; Dictator (1936); Pilots; Rocketstation, also known as Metropolis, Air Earth Maneuver. In all these pictures Babić integrated content that would correspond to his poster drafts, especially in

Fritz Lang Friedrich Christian Anton Lang (; December 5, 1890 – August 2, 1976), better known as Fritz Lang (), was an Austrian-born film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in Germany and later the United States.Obituary ''Variety Obituari ...

expressionist 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 ...

film

Metropolis A metropolis () is a large city or conurbation which is a significant economic, political, and cultural area for a country or region, and an important hub for regional or international connections, commerce, and communications. A big city b ...

, that had а great influence оn him and his peers.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Babic, Milos 1904 births 1968 deaths People from Szeged Artists from Subotica Yugoslav painters Zenitism