Four Elements

Mrkusich was born in Dargaville in 1925 and educated in Auckland. He took up an apprenticeship in writing and pictorial arts in 1942, took life drawing classes and attended night school. He returned to the commercial art studio after painting full time for two years, those two years having laid the groundwork for his geometric/expressionist painting style. By 1963 emblems were featuring in Mrkusich's work which were again eliminated in the late 1960?s. By the mid 1980?s he was paying attention to the subjectivity of colour and its openness to the possibilities of interpretation. Milan won the commission in 1994 to create the large plates of coloured enamel windows on the Te Papa Museum in Wellington. He was awarded a New Zealand Order of Merit for Services to Painting in 1997.