Climbing to the the top of Maxo Vanka's Murals

Описание: Location: St. Nicholas Croatian Church in Millvale

Featured guests: Anna Doering, Executive Director, The Society to Preserve the Millvale Murals of Maxo Vanka, and Naomi Ruiz, Conservator

3 things that surprised me:

1. Anna explained that Maxo Vanka emigrated to New York from Croatia in 1934 with his American wife. A trip to the industrial centers of America brought him to Pittsburgh for two weeks in 1935. He walked the streets and sketched the city. Some of those sketches ended up in a gallery show in Oakland. The priest and members of St. Nicholas Croatian Church saw the work of this Croatian artist and felt that he should created the murals in their church.

2. Vanka painted all the murals with his own hand. He painted the first set in 1931 and the second set in 1941. Altogether, he painted for 24 weeks. He'd work six days a week from 9AM to around 2 or 3AM. He sent letters back to his family in which he'd doodle illustrations of himself rigged up on a series of boards and ropes in order to paint the hard-to-reach corners of the walls and ceiling.

3. An all-woman Avengers-like team is in the midst of a major conservation of the murals. They recently received a Save America's Treasures Grant which has allowed them to buy scaffolding and pay the team as they work on nine of the remaining murals. In a few months, they'll be 90% done with their conservation efforts.