Zoran Music

Biography

Anton Zoran Music (1909-2005) was born in 1909 in Gorizia, a town then within the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and today on the Italian border with Slovenia.The barren, dusty landscapes of the Dalmatian coast would have a profound influence on his palette throughout his career. He studied in Zagreb, and spent the years 1934-35 travelling. In Spain, he copied works by El Greco and Goya, but fled upon the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936.In 1943 Music moved to Venice, where he was subsequently arrested and tortured by the Gestapo on the basis of his known political sympathies and suspicions that his artistic activities were a cover for espionage. Despite these charges, Music was invited to join the SS. He later recalled: "The idea of becoming an SS officer seemed so comical to me, in the state I was in, that I laughed outright. So they sent me to Dachau...". During his time at the death camp Music secretly made drawings of his fellow inmates, later developing these into a series of prints entitled We Are Not the Last.

Artworks in this collection

Exhibitions featuring Zoran Music