ZORAN MUSIC (1909-2005)
Crete Senesi (200 m- 646 ft)
Italy (Tuscany)
In Colline Senesi, 1969, tempera on board
The mountains
The Crete Senesi (200 m- 646 ft) are the area south-east of the city of Siena, which includes the municipal territories of Asciano, Buonconvento, Monteroni d'Arbia, Rapolano Terme, Montalcino and Trequanda, all in the province of Siena. The name derives from the clay, present in the ground, which gives the landscape the characteristic gray-blue color and an appearance often described as lunar. This characteristic clay, mixed with rock salt and gypsum, called mattaione, represents the sediments of the Pliocene sea that covered the area between 2.5 and 4.5 million years ago. The landscape is characterized by barren and gently rolling hills, solitary oaks and cypresses, isolated farms on top of the hills, stretches of forest in the valleys, the fountains that collect rainwater. Typical shapes of the ground are the calanques, the flounces and the biancane. The area is known for the production of the white truffle of the Crete and houses a festival and a museum dedicated to the so-called diamond of the Crete.
The painter
Zoran Mušič, baptised as Anton Zoran Mušič, was a Slovene painter, printmaker and draughtsman from the area of the Kras Plateau near the Adriatic Sea. He was the only painter of Slovene descent who managed to establish himself in the elite cultural circles of Italy and France, particularly Paris, where he lived for the larger part of his later life. He painted landscapes, still lifes, portraits and self-portraits, but also scenes of horror from the Dachau concentration camp and the vedutes of Venice. In early October 1944, he was arrested by theNazi German forces because he was in a group of Slovene anti-fascists. His drawing and painting in Venice raised suspicions that he was a spy, and a month later he was sent to Dachau concentration camp, where he made more than 100 sketches of life in the camp, some under extremely difficult circumstances.
In 1981 Mušič was appointed Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres in Paris. Mušič's work has been honoured in numerous international exhibitions, such as the large retrospective exhibition at the Grand Palais in Paris in 1995.
2017 - A Still Life Collection
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