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Why does a highly skilled and highly trained sculptor, the master of every style and technique, insist on working in the style of the Italian Renaissance? The answer is that to Dabro, every sculpture must speak to humanity, which means that it must be an element of humanity. If it does not, the sculptor has failed. Working with female models throughout his long life, he has sought to portray an essence of femininity, and therefore an essence of humanity.
Ante Dabro believes that the ability to see what other people don’t see is a real gift. He says, ‘It’s like a star wheeling round the earth, fertilising the imagination as it goes.’ This book explores the different ways he has liberated an essence of humanity by releasing the soul of a human form from its imprisoning substance, whether it be from wood, marble, stone or plaster.
The author, one of Australia’s best known historians and biographers, like Dabro, wants our imaginations to soar and rejoice in the creative spirit which has driven his sculptures for more than 60years.
"The Life and Work of Ante Dabro, Australian-Croatian Sculptor: The Midnight Sea in the Blood" is a comprehensive biography of a gifted, influential, and acclaimed sculptor who has worked at his art for more than 60 years. A very highly recommended addition to personal, professional, community, and college/university library Artist Biography/Memoir collections. -- Midwest
Comprehensive, definitively informative, thoroughly 'reader friendly' in organization and presentation. -- Midwest
Original and compelling: The work of a master biographer and storyteller. Peter Read’s biography of sculptor Ante Dabro takes us inside the artist’s life and creative process in an unforgettable way. Mark McKenna, University of Sydney, Australia
Peter Read’s story of Ante Dabro is the fascinating account of a Croatian migrant’s quest to pursue an artistic life in an era of rapid change in social values and artistic taste. It is the biography of an accomplished sculptor but much more besides – an account of the remarkable creative response of a man steeped in centuries of cultural tradition and artistic practice to living and working in what settler Australians understood as a new country. -- Frank Bongiorno AM, Professor of History, The Australian National University
With unflinching honesty, deep respect and his own questing search for integrity, Peter Read takes us into the life and work of a restless artist. “Whatever you stand for I’ll be against”, Ante Dabro declares, and Read meets that challenge head-on in this compelling portrait. You can’t but benefit from testing yourself in the exchange between this brave author and his proud, defiant subject. — Nicholas Brown, Professor of History, Australian National University
This work is a successful interdisciplinary piece of writing and the artistic and social history content only adds to the book’s relevance as a valuable addition to the fields of oral history, biography and art history, especially sculpture. It will appeal to experienced oral historians and biographers and to those with an interest or passion for art and sculpture, as well as to those new to the genres. —Studies in Oral History
The narrative is altogether engaging and informative ... [It] is a serious addition to the meagre corpus of quality monographs currently published on contemporary Australian artists.—Australian Journal of Biography and History.
Peter Read is one of Australia’s leading historians. His work encompasses Australian history, Aboriginal history, Chilean history, and place studies.
Author’s Preface; Photographer’s Preface; Acknowledgements; Introduction: Making a Mark in Stone; 1: Making the Outsider; 2: Making the Artist; 3: Making the Australian; 4: Making the Human Form; 5: Making Bronze; 6: Making Sculptors; 7: Making Commissions; 8: Making Behemoths; 9: Making Way 187; Notes; Works Consulted; Index