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MARCIA MARCUS 80 NATHANIEL MOORE STREET New York, N.Y 10013 . (212)964-9478

After graduating from N.Y.U. in 1947, I worked on my own, occasionally taking sculpture and printmaking courses and then attending Cooper Union. I exhibited in group shows and won an award for sculpture in 1950, and while primarily painting, until fairly recently I also did sculpture.

Usually I date my professional career from 1951 when a painting was included in a group show at the Roko Gallery in Greenwich Village. This was the result of a recommendation by a fellow student at Cooper Union.

In 1953 I met several artists involved with the Artists' Club and found the center of what was happening at that time. My work, of course, was affected by what I was seeing in galleries and studios and talking about with my peers and older, more advanced artists. At about the same time I studied with Edwin Dickinson at the League and it was a true turning point since he took me more seriously than I took myself.

Although I did not feel ready to call myself an artist until around the time of my first one person exhibit, I met many artists in the early fifties and started going to The Club and the Cedar Bar. In slide lectures I often refer to this as my graduate school and indeed it functioned in that capacity for me.

From 1951 I exhibited in group shows including a few Stable Annuals from 1953 and coop galleries like the Tanager. In 1957 I had my first solo show at the March Gallery, of which I was a charter member. During this period I earned money as a secretary, working part time or on a temporary basis. It was difficult financially but interfered less with painting. Both time and money were in short supply.

X My lasting debt to abstract expressionism, I believe, is in a willingness to be open to intuitive use of paint and subject matter that goes far beyond the superficial attraction of a freer brush stroke.