KUBBOS, EVA (1928-)

"Coastal Scene" (c.1980)
watercolour
100 x 73cm
signed lower left
*private collection, Sydney
 
Kubbos is a pioneering, award-winning Lithuanian-born Australian Abstract Painter. She studied at the Hochschule für angewandte Kunst, Berlin, from 1946 to 1951, having been trained in the German expressionist tradition, and later at the Royal Melbourne Technical College and Swinburne Technical College, Melbourne. Her early career was in commercial graphics until 1960, when she moved to Sydney and met compatriot Lithuanian artist, Henry Salkauskas, whose influence led her to abstract expressionist watercolours. Kubbos has been awarded a considerable number of watercolour prizes, including the Art Gallery of New South Wales Trustees’ Prize for Watercolour (1963, 1970, 1971, 1981) and the John and Elisabeth Newham Pring Memorial Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, which she won ten times between 1970 and 1989. Her work is held in many public, corporate and private collections, including the Australian National Gallery, Canberra; all State galleries; the former Mertz collection, United States; National Art Gallery, Vilnius, Lithuania; National Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Ciurlionis National Art Museum, Kaunas, Lithuania and Chicago, United States. A member of the Australian Watercolour Institute since 1965, Eva Kubbos is a former member of the Contemporary Art Society (New South Wales Branch), a Foundation Member of the Sydney Printmakers Society and a member of the Painters’ and Sculptors’ Association of Australia. 
 
This stunning work was a finalist in the Wynne Prize 1983, winning the Pring Prize; awarded to the best watercolour by a woman artist. Kubbos won this award 10 times between 1970-1989, making her the most prolific award-winning female artist in the Wynne Prize history!!