MIRANA ŽUGER

Writing about the artist’s role in society, Herbert Read noted: “... (his) basic psychological activity is to merge, to search the balance between spirit, psyche and the external world”.

The art as a form of stylization of life dictates to its follower a life of consciousness and freedom. I believe that 25 year old Mirana Zuger, who is still largely unknown to Croatian audience, has choosen this path. Being part of the North American continent has also significantly defined the morphological qualities of Zuger’s painting, which has emerged from the lyrical abstract tradition. Mirana Zuger was raised in the art class of Françoise Sullivan, a renowned member of the momentous Montréal group of artists known as “Les Automatistes” founded in the 1940s. Alongside her likeminded colleagues Paul-Ëmile Borduas, Jean-Paul Riopelle and Fernand Leduc, Sullivan was a pioneer of a movement that can be described by Hans Hartung’s words as „the act born out of inner necessity”.

The starting point of this radical movement was the idea that an individual has a moral obligation to live “authentically”, in other words - to be free. The art of Mirana Zuger reflect the same belief. It should be stressed out that the “authenticity” and the aforementioned “emancipated” expression of this young artist rises above the conventional understanding of these concepts. Her biomorphic shapes are akin to that of Wols, her witty forms are suggestive of Miró, her impasto has a Rothko-type diaphanous quality with soft edges, her colour dynamics evoke Kandinsky’s art and the fluctuation between abstract and figurative is on the same path as Helen Frankenthaler or Nicholas de Stael, while her primitive pictograms remind us of Bazoties… Such a post-modern mannerism reveals a huge knowledge of art history and the ability to transform familiar patterns.

I would say that painting comes to Mirana Zuger as naturally as breathing. Mirana's statement: “I was painting so much that I could not tell what time of year it was” points to shamanistic nature of an artist who knows how to bring closer the mystery of life to us.

Leila Mehulić