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NSK hosts presentation of BANE, art book spotlighting the oeuvre of painter Bane Milenković

Copies of BANE, a 2023 art book spotlighting the work of painter Bane Milenković published by Hamper Studio.

On 1 February 2024, the National and University Library in Zagreb (NSK) hosted the presentation of a unique, bilingual art book spotlighting the oeuvre of Bane Milenković, a Zagreb-based and Novi Sad-born contemporary painter and a well-known name on the Croatian art scene since the 1980s, published in 2023 by Hamper Studio, the Zagreb award-winning branding and design consulting studio.

With text in Croatian and English, this one-of-a-kind two-volume monograph, entitled BANE, was published with the support of the Croatian Ministry of Culture and Media. Outstandingly designed by the Hamper Studio’s Tom Jura Kaćunić and Ivana Vučić, BANE’s almost 600 pages feature photographs by Goran Vranić, Lidija Šeler, Kaćunić, Vučić and Milenković himself, as well as stories by prominent contemporary Croatian writers Miljenko Jergović, Monika Herceg, Ante Tomić and Zoran Ferić, each illustrating one of the four cycles into which Milenković’s oeuvre has been divided – Animals, Plants, Mediterranean, Boats. Owing to its original design, BANE was among the winning titles selected for the 2024 Best Book Design from all over the World competition as part of the 2023 Croatian best book design competition (Hrvatska lijepa knjiga), which NSK organises every year.

Head of the NSK Print Collection Tamara Ilić Olujić at the presentation of BANE, an art book spotlighting the work of painter Bane Milenković published in 2023 by Hamper Studio.
Photo by: Goran Vranić.
Monika Herceg, Miljenko Jergović, Ivana Vučić, Vanja Babić, Zoran Ferić and Radovan Marčić at the presentation of BANE, an art book spotlighting the work of painter Bane Milenković published in 2023 by Hamper Studio.
Photo by: Goran Vranić.

The visitors at the presentation were welcomed by the Head of the NSK Print Collection Tamara Ilić Olujić, after whose address the preparation of the monograph was presented by one of its designers Ivana Vučić. The central part of the presentation programme, moderated by art historian and author of the monograph’s introduction Vanja Babić, was a panel discussion in which Herceg, Jergović and Ferić provided their perspective on Milenković’s work and presented their part in the monograph’s creation, which also included the participation of Croatian writer, theatre and film director Radovan Marčić, who also took part in the presentation.

First and foremost, Milenković never sought to follow trends; this painter’s poetic uniqueness and authenticity are a product of his creative nerve and innate jovial mentality. (…) In its essence, Milenković’s art is unpretentious, humorous (sometimes infused with irony), and spontaneous, and all of this comes out of the truly remarkable ease of the work invested into his paintings, as well as drawings or collages.

(BANE (Zagreb: Hamper studio, 2023), introduction by Vanja Babić, English translation by Tomislav Kuzmanović)

Painter Bane Milenković at the presentation of BANE, an art book spotlighting his work published in 2023 by Hamper Studio.
Photo by: Goran Vranić.
Painter Bane Milenković at the presentation of BANE, an art book spotlighting his work published in 2023 by Hamper Studio.
Photo by: Goran Vranić.