THE STAMP OF TIME: THE GRAPHIC COMMUNICATIONS OF ANDREJA MILENKOVIĆ

6 November – 13 December 2023

THE CELEBRATION OF MUSEUM DAY AND THE OPENING CEREMONY OF THE STUDY EXHIBITION:
MONDAY, 6 NOVEMBER 2023 AT 7 PM

– Biljana Jotić, the director of the Museum of Applied Art, who will address the audience with welcoming words and present the Museum team and the activities realized during 2023.
– Ljuba Todić, engineer and associate of Andreja Milenković will also speak to the audience, revealing stories from the life and work of Andreja Milenković and will open the exhibition.
– Slobodan Jovanović, a MAA senior curator and the exhibition author, who will speak about the conception of the exhibition and parts of the exhibition setting.

Cocktails will be available

Exhibition author: Slobodan Jovanović, MAA senior curator

Organizer: the Museum of Applied Art

 

The retrospective exhibition The Stamp of Time: the Graphic Communications of Andreja Milenković presents the most comprehensive overview of the work of Andreja Milenković (1923-2005), the most famous creator of postage stamps in the SFRY. The exhibition marks the centenary of the artist’s birth, and is being organized on the occasion of the Day of the Museum of Applied Art.

Some 220 different postage stamps are being displayed at the exhibition, as well as 80 sketches, blueprints, concept projects and graphics by Andreja Milenković used for the artistic design of postage stamps and envelopes, as well as several logos, pictograms and graphic identification projects of various manifestations and jubilees of educational institutions in Serbia.

The Stamp of Time exhibition is divided into ten thematic units, according to the grounds or reason for issuing the postage stamps. In the text of the catalog, the curator of the exhibition, Slobodan Jovanović, emphasizes the following: “From the mid-sixties to the mid-eighties of the last century, Andreja Milenković has covered almost all the topics that are shown on the regular and commemorative issues of Yugoslav postage stamps: post and traffic, art and archaeology, sport, culture and humanitarian actions, flora and fauna, tourism, commemoration of famous people and events from the history of the Yugoslav nations, etc. It was precisely the series of commemorative stamps that had a great success in the economic and cultural sense among philatelists all over the world. As a skilled miniaturist and connoisseur of graphic and printing techniques, he performed subtle design compositions on the minuscule surface of a few square centimeters, based on his own designs or photographic templates. On postage stamps with various subjects matters and types of printing, we can see how Andreja Milenković was involved in all aspects of creating postage stamps and how he became one of the most important artists of graphic, visual and social communication in Yugoslavia at the time.”

The works displayed at The Stamp of Time: the Graphic Communications of Andreja Milenković exhibition are part of the legacy that Ms Ružica Arsenijević-Milenković has donated to the Museum over the past four years. In addition, a part of Vladan Čelebonović’s stamp collection is also displayed.

Andreja Milenković (Leskovac, 1923 – Belgrade, 2005), graduated at the Academy of Applied Arts (today the Faculty of Applied Arts) in Belgrade, from the graphics department in the class of Professor Mihailo Petrov in 1954. He was the chief officer for the production of stamps and values and worked as creator of design for postage stamps in 1966 at the Bureau for Postage Stamps (later Jugomarka, today Srbijamarka) at the Union of Yugoslav Postal, Telegraph and Telephone Services. From 1976 to 1984, he was head of the Service for the Production and Distribution of Stamps and Valuables in the Bureau. He also designed the 1,000 dinar banknote, which was printed at the Institute for Manufacturing Banknote and Coins and put into circulation on 28 November 1975. Milenković is actually the author of all three degrees of the highest Serbian Orthodox church recognition, the Order of Saint Sava, in 1987.

In the Association of Applied Arts Artists and Designers of Serbia (ULUPUS), whose member he became in 1955, he was the chief editor of the Art and Industry newspaper, as well as its president from 1960 to 1964. In the same period, he was also a member of the Council for Culture of the SR of Serbia and a member of the commission of the SR of Serbia for establishing a seven-year plan for fine arts development. He had exhibited in Belgrade (Museum of Applied Art, 1982 and Auto Museum (posthumous), 2006), Pirot (City Gallery, 1982 and Museum of Ponišavlje, 1986), Novi Sad (The Gallery of Matica Srpska, 1982), Sarajevo (Yugoslav People’s Army House, 1984), and galleries in Skopje, Herceg-Novi, Ljubljana, Split, Sofia, Vienna, Milan, Lugano, Paris, Prague, Thessaloniki, Amsterdam and New York City.

Milenković is the recipient of a large number of awards, certificates of appreciation and diplomas, among which we highlight the following: the Seventh of July Award, Belgrade, 1959; Plaques of the The Applied Artists (and Designers) Association of Serbia (ULUPU(D)S) 1962, 1973, 1978, 1979, 1982; Gold plaque Form 64, Novi Sad, 1966; The Most Beautiful Stamp in the World Award, the 8^th World Exhibition of Postage Stamps ‘Europe’ (Gran Premio Napoli dell’ Arte Filatelica, the 8^th Mostra del francobollo ‘EUROPA 68’), Naples, Italy; Third, Fourth and Eighth prize of the International Salon CEPT 69, Paris, 1969; the Memorial Plaque of the City of Belgrade, 1974; the Grand Prize, the 16^th World Exhibition of Postage Stamps ‘Europe’, Naples, Italy, 1976; Charter, on the occasion of the 40^th anniversary of the existence of ULUPUDS, as president from 1960 to 1964, 1994, and the ‘Golden Sign’ Award for exceptional contribution to the development of philately, Union of Philatelists of Serbia, 1998.

Author: Andreja Milenković

Author of the photographs: Dragana Udovičić