A native of Croatia’s Istria County, Gina Sinozich was seventy when she created her first painting, achieving international acclaim within a few years. Sinozich announced that several more of her works would be presented to the Maritime and History Museum of the Croatian Littoral.
Gina Sinozich, an 88-year-old self-taught Australian artist of Croatian extraction, has made a donation of twenty-four of her paintings to the Maritime and History Museum of the Croatian Littoral in Rijeka as the nucleus of the museum’s Diaspora Collection, museum staff said at a ceremony held on the 23rd of May (http://ppmhp.hr/donacija-gine-sinozich-muzeju/).
Gina Sinozich, her husband and their two children, left her native village of Paroni near Šušnjevica in Istria County, travelling first to Italy and then by sea to Australia in 1957. She created her first painting at the age of seventy and had achieved international acclaim within a few years. In 2003 she completed a series of fourteen paintings that depict her voyage from Istria County to Australia for the Australian National Maritime Museum. Her paintings are included in the permanent exhibitions of the National Gallery in Canberra, the Liverpool Museum in Sydney, the Casula Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, the National Maritime Museum in Sydney and numerous private collections in Australia, New Zealand, the United States of America and Europe.
Sinozich paints in the naïve style with motifs that include—apart from her intimate memories—life in Australia, landscapes, flowers and vivid abstract themes.
The director of the Maritime and History Museum of the Croatian Littoral in Rijeka Tea Perinčić noted that Sinozich had first exhibited her work in Rijeka several years ago, when her first contact with the museum was established. Gina Sinozich expressed her thanks for the hospitality of her hosts and added that several more of her works would be presented to the Maritime and History Museum of the Croatian Littoral. Elizabeth Petrovic, the Australian ambassador to Croatia, noted that Gina Sinozich was an exemplary example of the people that have immigrated to Australia and that are the cultural wealth of that country. She has fully adapted to her new homeland but has not forgotten where she came from, Petrovic said. (Hina)
Australian Painter Donates Her Paintings to Rijeka Museum
