During my studies, I understood all the necessities and ruptures of the historical development of modern art from Cezanne onward and tried to integrate them in my works; not in the usual modernist way of radically breaking with the long tradition of Western, Christian art; but, in the way which is much more demanding, trying to make a possible synthesis of these two greatness, said Ante Milas in an interview I conducted with him on January 30, 2025 in Cologne, in the nice Boesner Kunstbedarf Bistro.”

He is known for the monumental work of the History of Salvation (2004), an altar painting in oil on canvas, 14 and 8.40 meters in length, set at the Holy Cross Church in Fulda – Maberzell in Germany.

Ante Milas has continuously exhibited in Germany and other countries (Duesseldorf, Koeln, Paris, Rome, Zagreb, Rijeka, Madrid, Venice, New York, Dubrovnik). Many of his works are in public and private collections.

Born in 1953 in Croatia (Ivanovac), he studied theology at Đakovo (Croatian) and Bochum (Germany), as well as painting and graphics at the Duesseldorf Academy of Arts (Germany) obtaining master’s degree.

At an early age, aware of his talent, he decided to pursue art. He says that when asked why he chose art, he used to jokingly quote Ovid: “As a boy, I liked the song of heaven, and even then, secretly, the Muse was drawing me to her work.”

His early childhood experiences and impressions shaped his personality as well as the vision of his art. It also helped him maintain his independence and create his own way. The talent of Ante Milas is manifested in his sense for colors, balance, expression, and especially in an extremely precise and perfect drawing, which is unattainable to many painters. In his works one can recognise elements of past epochs in art, but only in the sense that he has mastered them. He uses them in a new, kind of way, thus bringing completely other emotions and thoughts.

The “blurriness” and dark tones on some Milas’ paintings might be compared to the most beautiful pianissimo in music composition when silence tons enhances attention and frees thought and emotions. Sometimes by “blurriness” he achieves spirituality.

His paintings reflect intellectuality, knowledge and spirituality. They encourage thought and attract the viewer to immerse deeper and deeper into the image, and they could always be viewed again.

Two monographs of Ante Milas have been published: Ante Milas-In Zikkurat (Firmenich 2002) and Ante Milas-Selected Works, ISBN 978-3-7319-1472-3

Milas’ works of sacral content were included in the monograph Ante Milas-Selected Works; The History of Salvation, the Apostles (Disciples of Jesus), studies for the altar image of the Holy Spirit as well as several representative works from other cycles.
The altar painting History of Salvation with a rich and suggestive depiction, encompassing key moments of the mystery of salvation of the Christian faith from the fall of the angel, accompanied by the flash of lightning, the expulsion of Paradise, the Babylonian tower, the general flood, Noah’s Ark, Abraham with Isaac, Sinai, Golgotha to the Resurrection.

The cycle of paintings of the 14 Apostles is interesting and attracting attention with its different depiction, both in the unusual shape of the triangle on the rhombus and in the inspiredly chosen iconology of the painting, different from what has been the case in the long history of Christian art. The Monograph presents seven paintings of the apostles, and Ante Milas is currently working on the remaining seven.
The monograph Ante Milas – In the Zikkurat brings together several cycles, created during his studies at the Academy, whose titles suggest that Ante Milas depicts the world around him in a certain space and time. This is true, but Milas’s way of depicting it has made that world timeless, whether it be Memory of the Old Town, Asphodel Meadows – Flowers for Vukovar, University Cafe Duesseldorf or paintings of landscapes and cities ( Old Townt, plaster and pigment for paints on reeds, 180 x140cm).

Jasna Lovrincevic: If you could please tell a little more about your works from your student days, published in the monograph Ante Milas – In the Zikkurat.”

Ante Milas: “The main themes that I have been developing in series over many years and to which I always return cyclically after a shorter or longer period of time date from that time; University Cafe Duesseldorf, Asphodel Meadows – Flowers for Vukovar and Memories of the Old Town. The series of works begin with a drawing and oil on canvas in the manner of the old masters, so that the motifs in the next drawing or oil on canvas gradually develop, so to say, from drawing to drawing, from painting to painting, in the direction of abstraction until the edge of figurativeness. Parallel to this it is the process of realizing motifs in other techniques and materials, such as works in plaster, mortar, concrete or in collages of motifs in plywood of different thicknesses and colors, includig luminous panels that act like stained glass windows in a church.”

Jasna Lovrinčević: “In the Zikkurat there are several works from the Memory of the Old Town series. It is amazing how many characters you have depicted in these paintings, each character is different in appearance, clothing, position, movement and facial expression, each is fully crafted, but the painting leads the viewer to view it as a whole rather than individual characters.”

Ante Milas: “These are early works. If you look at the first drawings in the series University Cafe Düsseldorf or Memory of the Old City, all that multitude of faces and figures squeezed into the space of a cramped cafe or the multitude of geometric shapes that create the illusion of the interior of a modern room; the theme here is the relationship between parts and the whole. The relationships must be perfect, not a single part of the picture must jump out of the “circle”, it must not be profiled at the expense of the whole picture or its neighboring shape, neither in color, nor in shape, nor in the arrangement on the surface of the picture format. This is the essence of the art that my professor Klapheck has been engaged in all his life; the absolute harmony of the relationship between the elements of the picture and its whole. It cannot be identified in any place in the drawing or painting, but is constituted in the consciousness of the observer and created in the act of observation.
That is why, in front of Professor Klapheck’s work Bicycle, my acquaintance and Croatian poet Boro Lukšić once said; “What we see in his paintings is agonizing geometry, but Klapcheck transforms it into great poetry!”
I think that in the University Café I managed to satisfy all the requirements of such an aesthetic, while additionally lending a touch of atmosphere and thus spatiality with my colors!?

Jasna Lovrinčević: “Among your early works is Hiroshima – Christ (pencil and oil on canvas, 90 x 220 cm) from the Rise of the Titans cycle, originally called Prometeus. How did the name Hiroshima – Christ come about?”

Ante Milas:“I was inspired for this work by a picture in the news of Pope John Paul II stepping out of a plane onto the ground in Hiroshima, bending down and kissing the ground. A very moving picture, full of symbolism.

If in the aforementioned series Memory of the Old Town and University Cafe the construction of the picture played the main role, in the series Rise of the Titans and Fields of Asphodel it was colour; grey paint and pencil drawing on canvas. The task was to achieve, following the example of Leonardo’s “sfumato”, a deep spatiality of colour. Leonardo succeeded in this by applying extremely thin glazes on glaze; like dew, layer upon layer, until the colour achieved, not its consistency but its appearance.
I tried to achieve this transcendentality, this spirituality of color, if I may call it that, by washing off the semi-dry paint with turpentine and a cloth, layer upon layer, until the illusion of color appeared as a membrane on the surface of the canvas, that is, on the border between this world and the next.

This is also the case with the painting Hiroshima Christ. I painted it during my academic studies as a summary of the spiritual life of my past and at the beginning of a new period of life that I wanted to devote entirely to art. I dedicated the painting to my mother.

I wanted to give the painting to Pope Benedict XVI. I got an appointment and came to Rome with the painting. The date for the painting’s delivery was postponed until further notice because the Pope suddenly had to attend another meeting. The painting remained in the Vatican with Monsignor Held (the German ambassador to the Holy See), who on the same day forwarded it (the painting) to the Secretary of State, Monsignor Genswein, in charge of the Pope’s gifts. Unfortunately, I did not get another appointment and to this day I do not know where the painting ended up.”

Jasna Lovrinčević: In Svjetlana Lipanović’s book The Splendor of Croatian Art, (ISBN 978-88-6864-213-6) in the text entitled “Ante Milas – Symbolic Realism” it is stated that you explained your art by quoting Franz Kafka that the art of a man will always contain the light of the church of his childhood. ”

Ante Milas: “Kafka probably wanted to say that a child in church experiences the world as holy, in terms as a liberated, saved world. The beautiful and most important Croatian words for this are: everything, universe, light, holy…, which are deeply connected. They are the beginning of metaphysics!? Is it any wonder that all monotheistic religions begin in the desert?! A negative landscape, as they say, only heaven and earth and the Spirit of the Lord hovering over the abysses?! And the wonder, or rather the admiration that Aristotle puts at the beginning of thought!? He puts wonder at the beginning of philosophy. Or in Kant the starry sky above us and the moral the law within us!?

Let’s go back to Kafka and the light of the church from childhood.

Until the Independent War, we Croats lived in a state that was not ours, in a regime that was imposed on us and in political misalliance with neighbors who were not kind to us as a people. That is why in church, during Midnight Mass of the Christmas Eve, for example, we got a feeling of liberation of the people *who walked in darkness and saw great light* (Isaiah, 9:1), we experienced mutual unity, harmony, reconciliation of heaven and earth because the Savior was born. I remember well how it snowed on Christmas Eve, how sleighs with horses came to our parish church at midnight from afar with lamps and the singing of people and children, wrapped in thick woolen blankets and fur coats, fragrant shade…

When I arrived in Germany, the world changed fundamentally. Duesseldorf, a rich and beautiful liberal city on the Rhine, a colorful society, crowded with people, the Old Town until late at night…Professor Dr. Frank Guenter Zehnder would later speak in his monograph Ante Milas in the Zikkurat about the “culture shock” that I experienced in the face of civilization. He was primarily referring to the encounter with art that I saw at the Academy (in Duesseldorf).

Unlike the city and German society, the Academy really shocked me. But not in a positive sense, as the professor’s text suggests, but in the sense of the famous scene from Tarkovsky’s film about Andrei Rublev, the famous icon painter, when the painter comes to a village that has just been devastated by the Tatars and to a devastated church…

The last priestesses of the Pythias in the ruined temple of Apollo in Delphi sent a message to Emperor Hadrian in Rome through an envoy
-Tell him that the hall of Daedalus has been destroyed, the source of the holy waters has dried up and the mouth of the prophet has become silent forever…

During my studies, I understood all the necessities and ruptures of the historical development of modern art from Cezanne onward and tried to integrate them in my works; not in the usual modernist way of radically breaking with the long tradition of Western, Christian art; but, in the way which is much more demanding, trying to make a possible synthesis of these two greatness.

Here I see my place in the wide range of what is being tried to encompass today with the “futile” word art!?”