Milan Mrkusich was born in Dargaville in 1925 and moved to Auckland in 1927 with his Yugoslav immigrant parents.
Mrkusich is generally regarded as New Zealand’s pioneer of abstract modernism and is considered one of our most important figures in abstract painting. He was particularly concerned with shape, colour and the treatment of the surfaces of his paintings. His work is geometric and minimalist and his hallmark was perfect proportion.
He received a number of commissions for churches and prominent public buildings including a series of windows for Te Papa in Wellington.
He made an officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 1997 and was one of ten New Zealanders named in 2003 as “icons” for a lifetime’s service to the Arts.
Milan Mrkusich passed away in 2018.
