Milan Mrkusich Works on Paper 1961 & 1962

Exhibitions Gallery of Fine Art is proud to announce the opening of an exhibition by one of New Zealand’s most senior iconic artists, Milan Mrkusich, on Tuesday 20 May at 6pm.

The exhibition, ‘Works on Paper 1961 & 1962’, will allow guests the privilege of considering Milan Mrkusich (now aged 89) at a time when he was exploring his talent to its fullest potential, engaged in different approaches and techniques, in the third and fourth years of his career as a full time artist.

This collection presents nine works which have not been publicly exhibited as a body of work before and individually have not been shown for more than 50 years. In 1961 and 1962, The Gallery at 64 Symonds Street was the only gallery outlet for artists in Auckland.

A strong early influence for Mrkusich was Herbert Read’s book Art Now. He was impressed with Read’s understanding of the artist’s relationship with the materials of painting and his belief that ‘art developed from the play of a native sensibility with the materials of [the artist’s] craft’ and was a ‘continuous process of exploration and discovery’.

Four of the exhibited works from 1961 include gouache, monotype, watercolour and oil painting. In the abstract expressionist works from the same year paint is applied as an adventure and retains the appearance of unveiled paint.

The monotypes of 1962 stimulate the imagination and depict how the artist’s process of exploration, in order to determine the future direction of his work, involved the ‘far out’ as well as the ‘here and now’.

Works on Paper 1961 & 1962 opens Tuesday 20 May 2014, 6pm-8pm
Concludes 14 June
Exhibitions Gallery of Fine Art, 19A Osborne Street, Newmarket 1023, Auckland
Hours 10.30am – 4.30pm