About the Marvilla collection

The Marvilla collection consists of nearly 350 paintings now stored. They came into my possession as a gift from the artist’s brother Burton who has also passed away. I have had the collection in storage for five years. The artist Mark Arvilla died in 1991. Several dozen paintings, poems and other artifacts were on display as part of a regional artist series at the University of Minnesota Duluth several years ago. This was the first serious venue to show the Marvilla work. Dispute his prolific career as a painter, fame for Mark Arvilla was elusive during his life. I hope to let the world know of his work via this blog.

Notes from UMD: The Regional Projects Series, “Paintings by Mark Arvilla” was held at the Tweed Museum in Duluth, Minnesota. Mark Arvilla grew up in Tower, MN, and was a UMD Art Department student in the 1960s. Mark Arvilla, or “MARVILLA” as he signed his last works, created an astounding body of work during his lifetime. His paintings range from sensitively composed and color abstractions of the northern Minnesota landscape, to imaginatively expressionistic works reflecting a landscape of inner turmoil, as he struggled to overcome depression in his later years. The artist’s brother Burt and family friend Michelle Lee (local newscaster for KBJR) have preserved Arvilla’s paintings, drawings, and sketchbooks, as well as his unpublished manuscripts. A selection of these, most never before exhibited, will be seen in this installment of Tweed’s “Regional Projects” series.