Awards

• Short-listed for New Zealand Post Book Awards: Illustrated Non-Fiction 2010
• Shortlisted for New Zealand Post Book Awards: Illustrated Non-Fiction 2010.

Overview

Mrkusich: The Art of Transformation is the first substantial survey of the work of New Zealand’s leading abstract painter, Milan Mrkusich. At the beginning of his career in the 1940s, Mrkusich faced widespread antagonism towards abstraction and relied on his work for the innovative design firm Brenner Associates in order to make a living. But by the early 1970s, he had established himself at the forefront of modernist developments in New Zealand art, held in the highest esteem by critics and artists alike for his resonant, mesmerising fields of colour. Mrkusich drew on ideas from art theory, alchemy and phenomenology as well as the work of international artists like Kandinsky, Mondrian and Nicholson, and later Poons, Kelly and Mangold, to create his own unique style. This sumptuously produced book traces Mrkusich’s career over 60 years, from the early gouaches on paper, through the acclaimed ‘Emblems’ and ‘Corner’ series, to his most recent work where he approaches colour as an open field of discovery. Mrkusich: The Art of Transformation illuminates the subtle, painterly power and rich meanings in the work of one of New Zealand’s most significant living artists.

Full Product Details

9781869404376

Table of Contents

Reviews

‘This splendid book reveals the inventiveness of Mrkusich’s art over six decades: his patient, probing investigation of the infinite possibilities of line, shape, surface, space, and above all colour.’ – Jill Trevelyan, NZ Listener

Author Information

Alan Wright is a senior lecturer in the art history department at the University of Auckland. Ed Hanfling also teaches in the art history department and works as a freelance writer, curator and critic. Together they wrote the catalogue Vuletic and his Circle to accompany the exhibition of the same name in 2003 at the Gus Fisher Gallery.

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