Artist Information
Artist
Ernest Marza (1923-2019)Role
PainterDate made
n.d.Notes
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Born in Transylvania and trained as a nautical engineer, Ernest Marza was a Canadian artist known for genre painting, murals, sculpture and teaching. Before immigrating to Canada in 1956 after imprisonment in a German labour camp, he had spent most of his working life as a painter and sculptor in Eastern Europe.
Once in Canada, he further studied at the Kootenay School of Art. He then studied art restoration and conservation in San Miguel de Allende in Mexico, and later in Sonoma, California. He had a long association with Victoria’s “Little Gallery” and undertook restoration work with Leslie Agghazy, Restoration Studio in Sidney. He was very active in the local arts community and enjoyed varied artistic passions. He painted a wide variety of subject matter from European fin de siècle café/bistro life, interior shop scenes, village vistas, swirling dancers and prairie landscapes with horses.
Marza had a deep love for Art Nouveau, the international style of art, architecture and applied art especially the decorative arts that flourished from the late 1900s to the outbreak of World War I. Characterized by natural forms such as the flowing curves of plants and flowers and feminine representation, it was a reaction to the academicism and rigidity of the arts and architecture of the previous century. Marza’s own Victoria apartment was a showcase for his beloved and extensive collection of Art Nouveau paintings, sculptures, furniture and lighting. He made almost all his own frames to display his collection.
Of note, Marza had a long-term friendship with Mel Bolen and family, owner-operators of the largest single-location independent bookstore in Western Canada. Marza did all the sign design and more for Victoria’s Bolen Books inspired by Art Nouveau, creating and painting all the wooden signs and pillars and also designed the stained glass for all the ceiling lights, as well as a number of terracotta sculptured heads. Rogers Chocolates used his paintings to decorate their chocolate boxes, and in 1984, he painted a 32 m.-long mural called “Chinese Bull Gang” in Chemainus, depicting 23 men moving an enormous log through a lumberyard to a sailing vessel.
Marza was also a lover of tango, traveling to Buenos Aires to dance and enjoy the art. Barcelona was his favourite city, where he enjoyed the art of the famed Catalan architect and designer, Antoni Gaudi (1852-1926). Marza's paintings can be found in private collections across Canada, the U.S. and Germany, as well as in a number of corporations such as Gulf Oil and BC Hydro.
