DEA MURK AS ARTIST

The beginnings of the son of a civil servant in Müstair, Switzerland, born in May 1932, ran through numerous major and minor detours to art painting. Even in school, drawing was more exciting than writing with a fountain pen.

The best way for Dea Murk to express himself was through drawing and painting. So it is not surprising that he started at the School of Arts and Crafts in St. Gallen at the age of 19. There he was able to meet people who taught him important skills.

After finishing the school, he finally returned to Chur and joined a graphics studio there as a trainee. After only a short time, it became increasingly clear that his strengths were not in using the ruler and compass, but rather freehand drawing.

In his younger years, he came around the world a lot to learn and discover new things. During one of his travels he met Helen Dahm, a highly interesting painter, in person.

The art-painting shows for Dea Murk’s imagination the almost classical objects: jug (replaceable by the bottles or the jug), candle and book (bible, hymnal). The main interest is the volume of the bulbous, three-legged copper pot. Dea Murk does everything he can to reinforce this impression. Where it requires to create even more plasticity, the artist uses applied highlight. Colors are determined by the subject.

Even in his last works, the figurative form of representation has not completely disappeared from his artistic work. Despite all this, it is not painting that is representational in the true sense of the word, through which the artist attempts to communicate. Relatively early he found an independent expression / style, which was to prove quite typical for him in time.

In 1970 Dea Murk was engaged in the design of the 14 Stations of the Cross in the Heiligkreuz Church in Chur. Eight years later, there are similar basic considerations of his executed mural on the building of the civil defense facility Meiersboden in Chur. The problem of danger, of destruction is presented in a many-limbed composition accentuated by two ribbon elements running down slightly diagonally and colorfully stark.

Numerous lithographs, reproductions and original works by Dea Murk are today the memory of the great artist in the Rhine Valley of Chur.

Through a large number of exhibitions in the Chur area, he was able to win over many art enthusiasts.

Today his house in Chur represents the modern art gallery, where his greatest works decorate the walls.