Celebrating
a life of creativity

Markus Mizne was born in Kiev, in 1908, to a family with artistic and musical and leaning. In the early 1920s, his family escaped the pogroms to Warsaw, and sent Markus to boarding school in Germany, where he became acquainted with modern art during visits to workshops and lectures at the Bauhaus; he began painting aged 15.

In 1935, aged 27, he arrived in Paris and studied Political Science and Economy at the Sorbonne. He continued painting, and befriended many artists (including Foujita, van Dongen, Braque, Larionov, Goncharova, Pevsner and Fautrier). In 1939, with the rise of the Nazi terror, he escaped Europe to Brazil. He lived in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo with his wife, pianist Felicja Blumental (1908-1991) and his daughter Annette. Unable to pursue his artistic career as a painter, he became a music producer and musicologist. He also learned stage direction with Austrian-born American stage and film actor and director Max Reinhardt.

In 1962 the Mizne family returned to Europe living in Paris, Milan, Rome and London. In 1991 Markus Mizne moved with his daughter Annette Celine to New York, where he passed away in 1994.

AN ARTIST

The paintings of painter Markus Mizne are calligraphic, a kind of automatic writing in which the planar surface invites the touch of the artist’s hand, activated by an internal force of a private, intimate memory. These sketches, seemingly vague and indecipherable, seemingly rustles devoid of end and purpose – are charged with the tension created between the sublime and the trivial. These quick sketches, apparently made inadvertently, convey a sense of emotional turmoil and accumulate to a kind of personal diary.

Most paintings are dedicated to the artist’s wife, internationally acclaimed pianist Felicja Blumental; others are jointly dedicated to “my darling, beloved” wife and daughter Annette. They remain a mystery, a secret of primeval layers, ranging from melancholy to hedonism. A winding line leads the pictorial rhythm- flinging the viewer in a filed rich with situations, some of ecstasy, some of sorrow. Markus Mizne is seemingly focused around the investigation of some fact, gesture, or movement, and each painting is the product of opening horizons into a new pictorial-photographic space.

Markus Mizne’s paintings touch upon the vision of central artists of his lifetime, in whose work he was involved as a perceptive viewer: among them Kandinsky, Klee, Miro, Pollock, De Kooning, Twombly, as well as Aboriginal painters.

It is a delight to appreciate the paintings of painter Markus Mizne, this calligraphy scribbled with magical, and colorful abundance.

Photo Gallery

An insight to the man behind the art

My father was before all a generous and very humanitarian person, always concerned with his next wellbeing. He used to offer help to young artists and musicians to find not only giving them support, but also most of the times advises, and inspiration.

I remember, at many occasions that he would personally engage himself to assist and accommodate artists dare situations.

Lately, my father would be frequently asked to offer his extraordinary knowledge in arts in general, by friends interested in acquiring works of art, for their private collections.

Finally, my family was most fortunate to have all those exponent painters pay tributes, homages, and praises to my father’s own artwork.

Annette Celine, September 2015

THE PAINTINGS OF MARKUS MIZNE

A selection of paintings by the artist Markus Mizne.

Accompanying music: Cantiagas – Alberto Nepomuceno
Annette Celine (soprano) and Christopher Gould (piano). Recording available from Brana Records.

MARKUS MIZNE – LOVE LETTERS

Markus Mizne “Love Letters” exhibition at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, October 29th 2009. Introduced by Professor Mordechai Omer, Director and Chief Curator of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art.

Music provided by Felicja Blumental & Innsbruck Symphony Orchestra: “Piano Concerto In F Minor, Op. 21 – Larghetto” by Robert Wagner

A CREATIVE FAMILY

Primarily my whole family breathed and lived art at its core, already starting at home. Once out in the world, my family was always busy doing art themselves. My mother, Felicja Blumental, as it is widely known, became an accomplished pianist. What is less know, is that my Mother, was also a painter, a composer and a poet. My father, Markus Mizne, was a highly talented Photograph, before becoming the creative painter. As for myself, I was honored and delighted being a Soprano interpreter, but also was always filled with emotion whenever I was painting, and sculpturing.

DISCOVER MORE