Discovered in 2000 in family collection of ZK's work in Victoria.

$5500

Zeljko Kujundzic

1958

This piece, “Picking blue tulips” has been attributed to Zeljko Kujundzic (1920 – 2003) a mid- century modern Yugoslav-Canadian artist. He was known for his direct, confident, bold style of work in various media in painting, printmaking, ceramics and sculpture. His main subject matter was concerned with the human figure and condition. He had an impish sense of humour, which occasionally appeared in his work.

The founder of the Kootenay School of Art in Nelson in 1960, he lived a long and productive teaching and exhibiting life in Canada, the USA, and internationally. Among his many accomplishments were the Canadian centennial commission, “Thunderbird” sculptures at UBC, the invention of a solar kiln that fired to 2800 degrees Fahrenheit, and a 16 foot tall 135 ton sandstone Holocaust memorial, “The Gate of Life” in Pennsylvania.

This piece, “Picking blue tulips” was discovered in Victoria in 2021 among a collection of his works owned by the Kujundzic family. Estimated value $5,500.

The impetus for this work was visiting a family member in 2004 in Great Britain where I saw for the first time my father’s 1958 painting of a stylized pot with blue flowers on her wall. Its style and simplicity delighted me, and I did a quick copy of it one afternoon.

Many years later, looking at it in my studio, I found myself wanting to connect with my father as an artist. I chose to do a somewhat impish self-portrait of me picking the tulips out of his vase, using his original painting and our combined figurative styles.

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