Mirka Mora (1928–2018), French-born artist and restaurateur, was loved as much for her contributions to contemporary art as for her generous and outrageous nature. Having narrowly escaped Auschwitz as a girl, Mora trained in drama in Paris. By 1951, when she came to Melbourne with her husband, Georges, she was committed to painting. Soon the couple became friends with the city's leading artists and collectors, and were instrumental in the re-formation of the Contemporary Art Society. Over the 1950s and 1960s they opened the European-style Mirka Café in Exhibition Street, Balzac in East Melbourne and the Tolarno in St Kilda. While Georges established himself as an art dealer, opening Tolarno Galleries in 1967, Mirka became a bohemian icon of the city. She worked prolifically for six decades across a range of media and is represented in many state and regional collections.
Painted in 2000, when she was in her early seventies, this self-portrait depicts Mora with the youthful looks for which she was known so well. Despite this, there is a sense of age and quiet to the portrait; the palette of subdued earth tones, and the treatment of the eyes particularly, give the sense that Mora approached this work from a point of introspection. Created in the year she left her beloved little cottage in St Kilda and moved into a new flat her son William built for her at his gallery in Richmond, this work may acknowledge unsurprising feelings of sadness, time passing and the end of an era.
Purchased with funds provided by the Sid and Fiona Myer Family Foundation 2021
© Mirka Mora/Copyright Agency, 2024
Mirka Mora (age 72 in 2000)
On one level The Companion talks about the most famous and frontline Australians, but on another it tells us about ourselves.
9 November 2022
Faith Stellmaker shares pioneering artist and restaurateur Mirka Mora’s lasting legacy on Melbourne’s art, dining and culture.
Select extracts from Mirka Mora's autobiography, Wicked but Virtuous, provide rich accompaniment to recent Gallery acquisitions.
