Flowers are with us in the best and worst of times. They commemorate a milestone, console a loss, betray the changing of seasons and wilt, a harbinger of disease. In his series of flowers, acclaimed Jewish-Australian artist Victor Majzner considers this brevity of this symbolism. He reflects that “Flowers play a significant part in every human rite of passage”.

In ‘Dawn’, a European flower coils above the Australian landscape, an anonymous hand reaching from its core. This is a metaphor for the European colonisation of Aboriginal peoples: “Even the gift of flowers can be treacherous”, says Majzner. There is also a warning here to heed the threat humans pose against the environment.

‘Dawn’ however, is not only an image of warning and loss. Like the flower itself, it gives sweetness with sadness. Majzner is urging the viewer to heal the wounds inflicted by colonisation, to acknowledge the passage of time and choose now. He says that work’s allusion to time is a “call for reconciliation with the Aboriginal people and this ancient land”.

Majzner is an accomplished artist. He is represented in numerous public collections, including at the National Gallery of Australia, the National of Victoria and the Art Gallery of New South Wales. ‘Dawn’, which recalls a tarot card, is a foretelling of good or bad tidings. There is something spiritual here, cast against a starry sky that witnessed centuries of conflict, loss and rebirth. For collectors of surrealist and socially conscious art, let ‘Dawn’ open your collection’s horizons.
 

Victor MAJZNER (1945 - )
'Dawn' 1990
screenprint on paper
Edition of 40
Image Size: 69 x 48 cm
Dimensions: 76 x 56 cm
Signed: Signed, dated, titled and numbered in pencil in margin below image: 12/40 Dawn V. Majzner 1990
Comes with Letter of Provenance

Condition: excellent 
© The Artist or Assignee