# Mirka Mora artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/mirka-mora/
Profile generated: 2026-05-09T22:10:30.000Z
Quality: high confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Birth date: 1928-03-18
- Death date: 2018-08-27
- Nationality: French, Australian
- Movements: Melbourne Contemporary Art scene; Contemporary Art Society (co-re-established 1953)
- Common media: painting, drawing, sculpture, mosaic, embroidery and soft sculpture, doll making

## About Mirka Mora

Mirka Mora (1928–2018) was a French-born Australian visual artist and cultural figure whose career spanned seven decades. Born Mirka Madeleine Zelik in Paris, she immigrated to Melbourne with her husband Georges Mora in 1951 and became central to the city's postwar cultural renaissance. Alongside figures such as John and Sunday Reed, Charles Blackman, Arthur Boyd, and Albert Tucker, the Moras helped re-establish the Contemporary Art Society in Melbourne in 1953. Her practice encompassed drawing, painting, sculpture, mosaic, embroidery, soft sculpture, and doll making, drawing on classical Greek mythology and a deeply humanist outlook. Major public commissions include the Flinders Street Station mural and the St Kilda pier mosaics. In 1978 she became the first artist to paint a Melbourne Art Tram. She held approximately 80 solo exhibitions, including shows at Heide Museum of Modern Art, and published two autobiographical books with Penguin.

## Common works and media

Common work types include paintings in oil and acrylic on canvas or board, ink and pastel works on paper, soft sculpture dolls, embroidered textile pieces, mosaic panels, and prints. Recurring subjects include mythological creatures, angels, birds, cats, and female figures. Her public mosaic installations at Flinders Street Station and St Kilda pier, and the 1978 Art Tram commission, are well documented. Smaller works on paper and soft sculptures appear frequently at auction, while larger paintings and mosaics are less common.

## Market and appraisal context

Mirka Mora's works appear regularly in Australian auction catalogs. Collectors most frequently encounter her paintings on board and canvas, ink and pastel drawings, soft sculptures, embroidered textiles, and mosaic pieces. Subjects typically include mythological figures, angels, animals, and female forms rendered in a distinctive whimsical style. Provenance is an important valuation factor: works with documented exhibition history or gallery provenance tend to achieve stronger results. Medium, scale, date of execution, and condition all affect appraised value. Her extensive exhibition record provides useful comparables. Auction records from Australian houses offer the most relevant market data for appraisal purposes.

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine identity research from library authority files and institutional sources with auction records, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lot data when those records are available.

## Sources

- Library of Congress: https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n81088817
- Mirka Mora: http://www.moragalleries.com.au/mirka.html
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500356308
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/8598353/
- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q15459592
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirka_Mora