Milan Ka?anin
Ka?anin in front of the Kunsthistorisches Museum , c.  1923
Born	( 1895-02-21 ) 21 February 1895 Beli Manastir , Austria-Hungary
Died	22 November 1981 (1981-11-22) (aged 86) Belgrade , SFR Yugoslavia
Nationality	Yugoslav
Alma mater	Sorbonne University
Occupation(s)	Art historian , writer
Awards	Legion of Honour

Milan Ka?anin ( Serbian Cyrillic : Милан Кашанин ; 21 February 1895 ? 22 November 1981) was a Serbian art historian, art critic, curator and writer. He served as the head of three Belgrade based museums, the Museum of Prince Pavle (the modern-day National Museum of Serbia ), ^[1] the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Gallery of Frescoes.

Biography [ edit ]

Of humble origins, Ka?anin adopted his mother's surname because he was born out of wedlock. Granted a scholarship, he studied art history at the Sorbonne . ^[2] With the dissertation Bela crkva Karanska (The White Church of Karan), Ka?anin obtained his PhD from the University of Belgrade in 1926. He was curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art, director of the Museum of Prince Pavle (the modern-day National Museum of Serbia ) and the Gallery of Frescoes in Belgrade. ^[3] He is also known as one of the organizers of some of the first major European art exhibitions in Belgrade , The Italian Portrait Through the Ages , in 1938, and French Painting of the 19th Century one year later. Apart from organizing foreign exhibitions in Yugoslavia, he also organized exhibits of Serbian frescoes and other art in many European capitals, as well as in South America .

Ka?anin was the founder and editor of the magazine Umetni?ki pregled (Art Review), which was published between 1937 and 1941. He served as the head of the Museum of Prince Pavle between 1935 and 1944. In order to compile the art collection of the Museum of Prince Pavle, Ka?anin traveled through Europe and stayed in the Netherlands , among other places. His travel reports, first published in newspapers and later also in the anthology Pronađeni predmeti (Lost Objects) (1962), are a testimony to this. The organization of the exhibitions of both Yugoslav art in Amsterdam and Dutch art in Belgrade is also attributed to Ka?anin; for this, the Dutch Government bestowed him with a state decoration. As part of his scientific work, he researches Serbian art from the Middle Ages to the modern era. His interpretations are based on insights gained by the French research school of the interwar period and are written in a refined style and with a thorough analysis. It also brought him into the company of Serbian artists and collectors such as Milan Konjovi? and Pavle Beljanski respectively. Ka?anin also made a significant contribution to the knowledge of Serbian medieval literature. He began publishing art criticism in 1924 and was published in magazines such as Politika , Vreme and in the magazine Re? i slika . In 1927, he co-authored a book with Veljko Petrovi? on the contribution of Serbian artists to the visual arts in Vojvodina . ^[4] He was also noted for his fierce literary criticism. ^[5]

After World War II, Ka?anin fell out of favor with Yugoslavia's new communist government because of his former close ties with Prince Pavle, and struggled to get a job and publish his books. ^{[3] [6]} Ka?anin had four children, three sons and a daughter. His brother Radivoje was an accomplished mathematician and academic, while some of his friends included the fellow art historian Kenneth Clark , ^[3] and Serbian writers such as Isidora Sekuli? , Anica Savi? Rebac , and Ivo Andri? . His collected works were published in 2002 with a total of eight volumes. ^[7] Ka?anin was a recipient of the Order of St Sava (I, III and V degree), the Order of the Yugoslav Crown , ^[8] the French Legion of Honour , the Order of Orange-Nassau (III degree), the Danish Order (III degree), the Order of Polonia Restituta (III degree), and an Italian order. A street in Belgrade is named after him. ^[9]

Works [ edit ]

See also [ edit ]

• Milan Konjovi?
• Pavle Beljanski
• Isidora Sekuli?
• Svetozar Radoj?i?
• Vladimir Petkovi?

References [ edit ]

Further reading [ edit ]