Born Maximilian Vanka in 1889, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, later becoming a professor. Though he found success in Croatia, the growing threat to his Jewish family fueled his immigration to America in 1934. At the behest of Father Zagar, he arrived in Millvale in 1937 and again in 1941 to create the Vanka Murals at St. Nicholas Church. On his philosophy of painting, he declared:
“I painted so that Divinity in becoming human, would make humanity divine.”
Charlie McCollester’s fascinating essay paints a portrait of the man, artist and activist.
“Maxo Vanka’s amazing murals in industrial Millvale derive from a providential conjunction of three factors: an immigrant Croatian community willing to provide a venue, an artist with a most extraordinary experience of both poverty and privilege, and a dramatic time of conflict and social upheaval.”
Born the illegitimate son of Austrian nobility, Maximillian Vanka spent his first eight years working as part of a peasant family. When his maternal grandmother discovered his existence, she elevated him poverty to an aristocratic life, including artistic education and opportunity. His humble beginnings inspired his life’s work.
Maxo studied at the art academy in Zagreb and then the Academie Royale des Beaux Arts in Brussels. As a 25-year-old student, he won the gold medal of King Albert. Bolstered by the recognition, the artist continued to exhibit throughout Europe, winning many honors.
He won the heart of the daughter of an American doctor, Margaret Stetten, married, and migrated to the U.S. in 1934, where his life in New York City provided rich new inspiration for his work.
During Maxo’s first visit to Pittsburgh, in 1935, he fell in love with steel town. And at his one-man show in Oakland, not only was his passion on display on the gallery walls, he made a fortuitous friendship with Father Albert Zagar.
In 1937, St. Nicholas Croatian Catholic Church was a small parish in the immigrant community of Millvale, set atop the hillside across the Allegheny River from the bustling city of Pittsburgh.
Albert Zagar, the parish priest, longed for color on his church’s plain walls – and specifically “not average Church murals”– so, he invited Maxo Vanka to come and paint inside the small Romanesque church, which had recently been rebuilt after a destructive fire.
Vanka accepted and came to Millvale, collaborating with the priest to create one of the most spectacular collections of murals in the world. The artist painted a portion of the murals in 1937 and, in 1941, returned to the church to paint the remainder of the scenes.
His Millvale murals fueled Vanka to continue his work shining a light on the story of immigrants in America, social justice, and the quietude of rural life. Now living in Eastern Pennsylvania, he founded the art department at Delaware Valley College of Science and Agriculture in New Britain and continued to create art.
Maxo Vanka died in 1963 in Mexico. Today, the Michener Museum in Doylestown, PA, holds a collection of Vanka’s works. His family also retains possession of much of the body of his work and, in 2019, donated many works to the Vanka Murals organization, creating the Vanka Collection.
Vanka’s work has inspired scholars around the world.
Adamic, Louis. Cradle of Life. New York, NY: Harper & Brothers, 1936.
Demarest, David. “The Millvale Murals,” Carnegie Magazine (March 1981), p. 7-8.
Domencic, Richard J. The Murals of Maxo Vanka: St. Nicholas Church, Millvale, PA, March 2000.
Maxo Vanka: Millvale Murals at St. Nicholas Croatian Catholic Church. Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh Center for the Arts/Pittsburgh Filmmakers, 2010.
Maxo Vanka’s Masterpiece: The Murals at St. Nicholas Church. Dir. Ken Love., 2012. DVD.
“Millvale Murals.” Time Magazine. July 19, 1937, p. 23.
The Murals of Maxo Vanka. The Society to Preserve the Millvale Murals of Maxo Vanka. St. Nicholas Croatian Catholic Church, Millvale, PA, June 2018.
“The Murals of Maxo Vanka.” The Society to Preserve the Millvale Murals of Maxo Vanka. vankamurals.org, 2020.