Markus Mizne (1908 – 1994) was born in Kiev and his early influences included his uncle Trympol, a sculptor, painter and museum curator who introduced him to the work of Malevich, Kandinsky, Larianov and Gontcharova.

In 1924, while studying Political Science at the Sorbonne in Paris, Mizne discovered the Bauhaus movement and a longing to paint. He was a personal witness to the beginnings of Modern art, the abandonment of the representational, conventional subject matter, and the new approach to reality. He was part of the move towards abstraction and the spiritual.

Freedom of expression for an artist is very similar to the scientist’s deep dedication to truth, and the philosopher’s desire to liberate man from the shackles of convention. For Markus Mizne, his inner world was the real ‘tangible,’ more deserving of his attention than the outer ‘reality’ of existence.

Markus Mizne’s abstract art is real for us now. Vital and visible as a documentary of man’s unconquerable spirit, his paintings are an outward expression of an inner desire for individual freedom and a world governed by spiritual power.

Gaze on any Mizne painting and the absence of any familiar imagery or personal identification forces the view either to reject or embrace the unknown and allow the reality in the painting to reveal itself.