April 21, 2017 Hello , Last month...as I was heading west up Allegheny Valley on my way to the Natrona/Brackenridge area where Fannie
Sellins was killed, I stopped off to see the Vanka murals of St. Nicholas Croatian Catholic Church localed in Millvale, Pennsylvania.
Painted at the end of the Great Depression and the beginning of WWII, the murals express a moral outrage against war and
industrial greed and as well as honor Croatian community and folk art.
A Message that Resonates Today |
Mary, Queen of Croatia is the centerpiece mural rising behind and above the alter. This is no pale, refined and serene Renaissance Mary, but a robust, dark complexioned, peasant woman with troubled eyes.
The Croatian immigrant community was ten-thousand strong in 1900 when its Catholic parish divided in two and built a second church, St. Nicholas, near burgeoning steel mills along the Allegheny
River.
A fire destroyed the sanctuary in the 1920s, and after repairs, stark new walls provided a blank canvas. Father Albert Zagar wanted murals in the church to reflect the people who worshiped there.
“When I heard of Maxo Vanka the artist—one of our people, living in New York—I sent him a wire: ‘Come Friday! Come Sunday!” and he came right away."
Vanka, a
classically-trained artist known widely in Europe had immigrated to America and was looking for work.
The following two murals flank the door at the back of the church. The first shows women in traditional mourning clothing and a World War I battlefield. It's titled Croatian Mother Raises Her Son for
War. Juxtaposed on the other hand is Immigrant Mother Gives Her Son for American Industry. Vanka spilled his passion on the walls of St. Nicholas in 25 different scenes combining traditional iconic religious images with modern social commentary.
According to the artist, “Father Zagar was one priest in one hundred thousand courageous enough to break with tradition, to have his church decorated with paintings of modern, social meaning."
The murals were painted in two brief, intense intervals in 1937 and 1941. In one, a white industrialist sits at table reading the stock report while an African American serves him a lavish meal, and a beggar nearby pleads for food. On the opposite wall a Croatian family shares a simple meal.
Vanka's Mother Croatia chained to a cross expresses the artist's grief over his native land succumbing to fascist rule, and a female image of Justice wears a gas mask instead of a blindfold, her
scales tipping...one side heavy with gold coins outweighing a loaf of bread.
Visitors to St. Nicholas Church in Millvale, Pennsylvania, can take a 60-minute guided tour on Saturdays, which I found fascinating. Though not well-known, Vanka's murals are often compared to Diego Rivera's work, and to Pablo Picasso's Guernica of 1937 which drew international attention to early fascist conquest in Europe.
The Society to Preserve the Millvale Murals of Maxo Vanka is currently undertaking an effort to conserve the murals, install museum-quality lighting to improve
the visibility of the artwork and develop a diverse audience for the murals — local, national and international.
Many thanks to the Ridge Readers in the Indian Trail neighborhood! I had a wonderful time visiting their book group this week.
These
ladies gave me a warm welcome and we had a stimulating discussion as they shared their thought after reading Irena's Children and Fannie Never Flinched.
Thanks for your support, Ridge Readers!
In honor of Earth Day...
This week I also read this really interesting article about bird brains. Apparently, that's not the insult it used to be. Birds may be smarter than we suspect. Read how Scientist Nicky Clayton uses worms and chocolate teddy bears to try and figure
out where bird and human intelligence intersect. Until next week... Have you read a great book? Tell me about it. Have a burning question? Let me know.
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