Draft:Jose Majzner

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  • Comment: The sources here remain problematic, many of them do not work, and others are incorrectly formatted. Facebook can't usually be used as a source either. We really need something like an obituary of the subject, in any language, to see get over the notability requirements here. I hope this can be resolved since I can see a lot of work has gone into the article. ChrysGalley (talk) 18:44, 21 October 2025 (UTC)
  • Comment: Quote: "Many of his pupils became well-known in their right, particularly Alexandra Marko and Serbian-American seascape artist Alexander Dzigurski (1911-1995)". And there's a link for Dzigurski. I clicked on this. The page that's linked to doesn't mention Majzner. You need to show that Dzigurski became well known and that he was a pupil of Majzner's.
    A number of the other (mostly misformatted) references also look dubious; please check that each says what it's presented as saying. Hoary (talk) 00:08, 20 April 2025 (UTC)


Josif Majzner also known as José Majzner and José Meissner (Serbian Cyrillic: Јосиф Мајзнер; Kraljevo, Kingdom of Serbia, 1916 - Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 14 July 1999) was a Serbian-Canadian academic painter, sculptor, and master restorer of international repute.[1] A prolific painter and sculptor[2], he also taught art students in Montreal[3] where he lived most of his adult life.

Biography

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His ancestors came from Sudetenland, now the Czech Republic, to Serbia at the end of the 18th or early 19th century. Jose Majzner was the grandson of Josip Majzner, who lived in the Principality of Serbia and taught French at the Serbian Military Academy in Belgrade in the 1860s.[4] Later, he was Stojan Novaković's collaborator and deputy librarian.[5] of the National Library of Serbia in Belgrade.

Early life

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Josif Majzner was born in Kraljevo after his family temporarily fled Belgrade during World War I. He attended the best art academies in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in the 1930s. Just before the World War II he joined the Yugoslav National Movement and during the war, he bequeathed his father's archives to the National Library of Serbia.[6][7]

From 1933 to 1937, he was a student at the sculpture department of an Art School under Professor Petar Pallavicini (1886-1958).  In 1937, he enrolled at the Belgrade school of Fine Arts but was expelled after completing his second year. It was at the time when he became a cause célèbre after winning first prize in a state-wide competition for a series of war monuments in Valjevo. Established, well-known Yugoslav sculptors and professors who entered the competition took second, third, and consolation prizes. That "embarrassment" for Belgrade for sponsoring the competition, and for Valjevo, the location, caused Majzner's expulsion, also contributing to his lasting fame as a leading sculptor and painter of his generation.[8]. Unable to pursue his studies, Majzner trained in the private studios of various sculptors, primarily Vladimir Zagorodnjuk (1889-1976).[9]

During the war, a proscription of cultural workers was initiated in 1943 by a former surrealist, commissar of the Kosmaj Partisan Detachment Đorđe Jovanović[10], with a text denouncing writers (Svetislav Stefanovic,Vladimir Velmar-Janković, Dragiša Vasić, Stanislav Krakov), philosophers (Vladimir Vojić, Miloš Đurić), musician Svetomir Nastasijević, and artist Josif Majzner. Thankfully, Majzner had already left Serbia by then, having received a scholarship to study painting at the renowned Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.[11]

Post-War years

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After the war, Majzner resolved not to return to a usurped country, then under communist dictatorship, decided to emigrate first to Argentina via Italy, where he restored old monuments and gave art lessons to aspiring artists in his spare time. Many of his pupils became well-known, namely Alexandra Marko[12]. In 1947 he left Rome for Buenos Aires, Argentina. In the late 1950s, he moved to New York City, where he worked for a museum restoring old paintings before moving in 1960 to Montreal, where he opened an atelier.  There, under the nickname "José", he enjoyed a great reputation as an artist among Montrealers and the Serbian diaspora at large. He painted icons for iconostases in churches in Canada and the USA and had a studio turned into a painting school. His Clark Street atelier was a hub for art students who gathered after evenings in cafés. Students from the École des beaux-arts de Montréal would seek art lessons from him. He was always ready to share his knowledge with young people. A few of his Montreal students became renowned painters like Armand Tatossian[13], his older sister Rose Tatossian[14], and Dubravko Raos[15]

He was commissioned by Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches. The bronze bust of Brother André at the St. Joseph's Oratory at the top of Mount Royal is the work of Majzner, signed José Meissner. The rich icon paintings in the iconostasis of the Holy Trinity Serbian Orthodox Church in Montreal are Majzner's work.

When a historically important Latin American portrait of the Bishop of Chiapas -- Bartolomé de Las Casas -- appeared on the North American auction block José Majzner purchased it with two other friends (Nemanja Čvorkov and Gary Slimon of the Canadian Academy of Wilderness Artists).[16][17] He originally had restored the long-missing painting after World War II and identified the Roman Catholic bishop of the Americas even though the original painter of the turn of the 16th century remains anonymous.

Some of Majzner's work in Latin and North America was sent to Belgrade, his hometown, after the breakup of Yugoslavia. His paintings and sculptures are on display in the Belgrade museums.

Jose Majzner died on 14 July 1999 of smoke inhalation after a fire gutted his studio. He was 83.

Works

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Sources

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  • Zoran D. Nenezić: Masoni u Jugoslaviji (1764–1980): pregled istorije slobodnog zidara u Jugoslaviji: prilozi i građa, 1984, pages 196 & 1999 cites Josif Majzner as deputy librarian of the National Library of Serbia in Belgrade.
  • Value Statement: Holy Trinity Serbian Orthodox Church in Montreal cites José Majzner as the painter of the icons on the iconostasis in the Montreal church.
  • "New local galleries emphasize young artists" by Virginia Nixon and Sarah McCutcheon. The Gazette, Montreal, Saturday, June 5, 1971, page 49

References

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  1. ^ Umetnički život. Umetnička akademija. 1973.
  2. ^ Los Dominicos en la evangelización del Nuevo Mundo (in Spanish). Institutos Pontificios de Filosofía y Teología. 1992. ISBN 978-84-600-8190-6.
  3. ^ "Armand Tatossian".
  4. ^ name="auto1">cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RroWAQAAMAAJ&q=Josip+Majzner | isbn=978-953-6979-39-4 | title=Stjepan Verković: život i djelo (1821-1894) | date=2007 | publisher=Srednja Europa
  5. ^ name="auto">{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8N0hAAAAMAAJ&q=Josif+Majzner | title=Masoni u Jugoslaviji (1764-1980): Pregled istorije slobodnog zidarstva u Jugoslaviji : Prilozi i građa | date=1984 | publisher=Narodna knjiga
  6. ^ Bulletin des acquisitions étrangères de la Bibliothèque nationale: Et des principales bibliothèques de Paris. Librairie C. Klincksieck. 1890.
  7. ^ Arhivski almanah. Društvo arhivista NR Srbije. 1958.
  8. ^ Krivošejev, Vladimir (January 2021). "Владимир Кривошејев ТРАГОМ ЈЕДНЕ ЗАБОРАВЉЕНЕ ИДЕЈЕ У ПОТРАЗИ ЗА ИДЕНТИТЕТОМ ГРАДА". ResearchGate (in Serbian): 14–26. doi:10.13140/RG.2.2.18083.68642. Archived from the original on 2025-04-17. Retrieved 2025-07-26.
  9. ^ "TRAGOM JEDNE ZABORAVLJENE IDEJE, U POTRAZI ZA IDENTITETOM GRADA: od obeležja Seče knezova, preko Spomenika znamenitim Valjevcima, borcima stradalim u ratovima od 1804. do 1918, do Spomenika borcima revolucije". p. 26.
  10. ^ cite web | url=https://zurnal.me/goran-miloradovic-revolucija-i-kultura-u-jugoslaviji-1944-1947-godine/ | title=Горан Милорадовић: Револуција и култура у Југославији 1944-1947. године | date=28 June 2023|language=sr
  11. ^ name="rg348541345">cite web|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/348541345%7Ctitle=Владимир Кривошејев ТРАГОМ ЈЕДНЕ ЗАБОРАВЉЕНЕ ИДЕЈЕ У ПОТРАЗИ ЗА ИДЕНТИТЕТОМ ГРАДА|website=ResearchGate|pages= 20–22
  12. ^ Срби у свету--ко је ко 1996/99: биографски лексикон. Милена Милановић. 1999.
  13. ^ "Armand Tatossian (1948-2012)".
  14. ^ "Rose Tatossian".
  15. ^ {{cite web | url=https://www.fleetwoodmac.net/vintage/Female-Quebec-Artist-Dubravko-Raos-Portrait-Painting-Woman-Art-Rare-_313459001008.html | title=Female Quebec Artist Dubravko Raos Portrait Painting Woman Art Rare
  16. ^ Los Dominicos en la evangelización del Nuevo Mundo. Institutos Pontificios de Filosofía y Teología. 1992. ISBN 978-84-600-8190-6.
  17. ^ Approaches to Teaching the Writings of Bartolomé de las Casas. Modern Language Association of America. 2008. ISBN 978-0-87352-944-0.
  18. ^ "Galerie Q - Armand's books, and Bust by Serbian Sculptor, Jose Majzner | Facebook". www.facebook.com.
  19. ^ "Majzner, Jose (1916 1999) Serbian Canadian, House and River (1964)". LiveAuctioneers.com.
  20. ^ "Majzner, Jose (1916 1999) Serbian Canadian, Winter Scene (1964)".
  21. ^ "Holy-Trinity-Serbian-The-Value-Statement-3.pdf" (PDF). westmount.org. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2025-04-10. Retrieved 2025-04-09.
  22. ^ "JOSIF MAJZNER Muški akt | Madl'Art".
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