Art Critic
Dejan Đorić
About the Painter
Belgrade, 2024. god
Immanuel Kant considered architecture the supreme and most important art the one that integrates and surpasses all others. In the cycle “Pillars of Time,” the old European architecture becomes Mirjana Milovanović’s point of departure for aesthetic phenomena that go far beyond simply illustrating the appearance and location of a building, its proportions, decoration, or urban belonging. Her painting opens toward representations of frontal and lateral views of structures, although this is not the urban, perspectival depiction that developed in Renaissance Italy.
These melancholic and philosophical paintings speak about transience, decay, and the wearing down of even the most durable and monumental creations of humankind — from the pyramids to the Hoover Dam, the structure in which the most concrete was poured and which would, in theory, last the longest among works of modern civilization. Yet this is ultimately a story about time — a tale of the beauty of impermanence, of humanity and imperfection, of the trace of the hand on the painting and on the building, traces that do not belong to a machine-robotic world because they bear an individual imprint, warm and personal, expressed in the language of Orthodox theology.
Well-versed in design and contemporary media, Mirjana Milovanović, instead of contributing to the current pictorial overflow, the inflation of images brought by the post-postmodern era — instead of yet another cold gaze and another step toward a possible digital apocalypse, creates powerful paintings. She explores what is deepest and most precious: emotions, which still shape us and define our relationship to the world. The architecture she paints, marked by time and impermanence, can be as we see in her work among other things a colossal reservoir of intuitions, dreams, and hopes, a trigger for imagination and an emotional experience of space and time, something that is increasingly disappearing from art.
Ludovica Dagna
About the Painter
Rome, 2024. god
“Pilastri del Tempo” di Mira Milovanovic cattura un maestoso edificio storicoche si erge imponente in un’atmosfera drammatica e turbolenta. Le pennellate acriliche creano un suggestivo gioco di luci e ombre, evocando un senso di eternità e grandezza. L’edificio, ricco di dettagli architettonici, sembra emergere da una luce dorata che contrasta con il cielo scuro e tempestoso. Le pennellate audaci e testurizzate donano all’opera un’energia fluida, come se l’edificio fosse allo stesso tempo radicato nel passato e in transizione attraverso il fluire del tempo. Questo pezzo invita lo spettatore a riflettere sulla resistenza dell’architettura e della storia, che si ergono come pilastri nel continuo cambiamento della vita.
“Pillars of Time” by Mira Milovanovic captures a majestic, historical building standing tall amidst a dramatic, swirling atmosphere. The acrylic brushstrokes create a moody interplay be-tween light and shadow, evoking a sense of timelessness and grandeur.
The building, rich with architectural details, seems to emerge from a golden light that contrasts with the darkened, stormy sky. The bold, textured strokes give the composition a fluid energy, as though the building itself is both rooted in the past and transitioning through the passage of time. This piece invites the viewer to reflect on the endurance of architecture and history, standing as a pillar amid the everchanging flow of life.