The Life and Work of Ante Dabro, Australian-Croatian Sculptor (The Midnight Sea in the Blood)

For so long Ante Dabro hasbeen called a sculptural dinosaur that he now rejoices in the title. So 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.

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 tried to liberate an essence of humankind, releasing the soul of a human form from its imprisoning substance, whether it be from wood, marble, stone or plaster.

The forces that have driven women and men together for eons are reflected here in breathtaking diversity in many different sculptures, from a loving kiss in one to the moment of orgasm in another, from an exquisite sculpture of his daughter to an extraordinarily brutal depiction of sexual assault. The mysterious subtitle – to still the midnight sea in the blood – is reflected as a driving principle of his work. His art reveals that we humans, even those forming the form of the tight-knit crew of a battleship, are each one ultimately alone. Even those of the same family struggle towards a solitary and private goal. Never will they reach it. They perhaps never share it and may not even be aware of what it is. Yet the struggle must continue because that is the nature of our humanity. That is the complexity revealed in Dabro’s sculptures.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. Read’s purpose is not so much to celebrate Dabro’s every work but to magnify the creative act, that leap into the abyss, that sustains Dabro’s vision and that of every artist since humans first walked upon the earth.