Mario Dubsky
Mario Dubsky (1939 - 1985) was an artist born in London to Viennese Jewish parents who had converted to Christianity.[1]
Accepted at the Slade School of Fine Art at the unusually young age of 17, Dubsky's early work was influenced by the work of the Anglo-Jewish artist David Bomberg, a Slade School alumnus of 40 years earlier.[2] Dubsky was included in the New Generation show at the Whitechapel Gallery in 1966 and 1968. Awarded a Harkness Fellowship, he traveled to New York, where he lived from 1969 until 1971 In New York, Dubsky and John Button co-created a large mural[3] in paint and collage at the then headquarters of the Gay Activists Alliance. The mural was lost in the arson attack that destroyed the building.
In the late 1960s, Dubsky developed a more abstract colour field manner of painting with figuration, as in the large-scale Laocconese[4] of 1968 at University College London, named after the classical sculpture, the Laocoon.
From the 1970s, Dubsky liked to sketched prehistoric bone and skeleton forms at the Natural History Museum[1][5] and returned to expressionist figuration. His last solo exhibition X Factor at South London Gallery in 1983 contained Cabaret Valhalla[6] now held by the Tate Galler. His poems and illustrations in Tom Pilgrim's Progress Among The Consequences of Christianity, London, 1981.[7] with an introduction by Edward Lucie-Smith, was claimed by the artist as his angry response to the 1977 Blasphemy Trial of Gay News.[8]
Dubsky died on 4 August 1985 following a period of illness caused by HIV infection[1] and is buried in the eastern section of Highgate Cemetery alongside the main west path.
Dubsky's work is held in a number of public collections.[9]
References
Based on a Wikipedia article.
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 http://www.oxforddnb.com/index/101064268/Mario-Dubsky "Mario Dubsky", Oxford DDNB
- ↑ Patrick Proctor; Self-Portrait, London, 1991, pp.34-35 ISBN 0297811665
- ↑ Rich Wandel, Photo of Agit-Prop Photo Montage Mural by Mario Dubsky and John Button, 1971, 2.4m x 10m, National Archives of Lesbian and Gay History, New York.
- ↑ http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/your_paintings/paintings/laocoonese-42053 (dead link|date=November 2013)
- ↑ X Factor, Exhibition Catalogue, intro by Peter de Francia, South London Art Gallery, London, May 1984, p.20
- ↑ http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/dubsky-cabaret-valhalla-t04908 "Cabaret Valhalla", Mario Dubsky, Tate
- ↑ Gay Men's Press London 1981, ISN 0907040098
- ↑ X Factor, Exhibition Catalogue, South London Art Gallery, London, May 1984 pp.26-30
- ↑ http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/artists/mario-dubsky "Watch a slideshow of 12 paintings by Mario Dubsky". BBC
