KMIT, MICHAEL (1910-1981)

“Still Life” (1958)
ink on paper
53 x 61.5cm
Signed lower right
*private collection, Sydney
 
Kmit was award-winning, Mid Century Ukrainian artist who found considerable success and fame in Australia. Having studied at the Academy Of Arts in Krakow, Kmit was forced to leave his homeland during WWII, living as a displaced person in Austria. Despite his circumstances, he still managed to train under the influential Fernand Leger and Carlo Carra. He emigrated to Sydney in 1949, fast becoming one of Australia's most decorated and prominent painters of this era, winning the Blake and Sulman Prizes multiple times. He was associated with the Merioola Group, including close friends Russell Drysdale and Donald Friend. This interesting figure study, inspired by his early years in Austria studying Secessionist masters, Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele, was completed in his most celebrated period in the early 1950s.