1919, Novi Banovci – 2014, Beograd

Mira Brtka was a multimedia artist who worked in film and theater directing, painting, sculpture, and fashion design. She was born in 1930 in Novi Banovci near Stara Pazova. She graduated with a degree in directing from the Academy of Theatre and Film Arts in Belgrade, under professors Vjekoslav Afrić, Josip Kulundžić, and Slavko Vorkapić. As a scholarship recipient of the Czechoslovak Republic, she served as an assistant director on Otakar Vávra’s feature film Proti všem (Against All). In 1959, she enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts (Accademia di Belle Arti) in Rome, where she graduated in 1963. She held her first solo exhibition in 1964 at the Artflex Gallery. In 1965, she represented Yugoslavia at the international symposium of artists, critics, and art historians in San Marino and Rimini. In Rome, she became a member of the Illumination group, founded by the Japanese artist Nobuya Abe. Alongside Abe and Brtka, the group’s members included artists Marcia Hafif, Aldo Schmid, Milena Čubraković and Paolo Patelli.

Her most extensive and longest-lasting artistic explorations were in the field of painting.

She also engaged in fashion design, creating collections inspired by traditional Slovak folk costumes. Additionally, she was a dedicated collector of Slovak folk costumes and antiques.