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Marcia Marcus

After graduating from NYU with a B.A in Fine Art I worked on my own, occasionally taking classes in sculpture and printmaking, and enrolling in Cooper Union in 1950. I also exhibited and won an award in sculpture in 1950. My first painting was exhibited in 1951 at the Roko Gallery at the recommendation of a fellow student. In 1953 I met a number of artists involved with the Artists Club and often refer to this period as my graduate school. My work, of course, was affected by what I was seeing in galleries and studios and conversations with both peers and older artist, especially Willem de Kooning. In 1954 I also studied drawing with Edwin Dickinson and that was a real turning point since he took me more seriously than I took myself.

From 1953 on I was invited to exhibit at Stable Gallery Annuals and various 10th St. galleries. In 1956 I became a charter member of the March Gallery and had my first solo show there in November of 1957. In the next year or so I was also in a few two and four person exhibits at other downtown galleries.

In 1959 I was in an exhibit at the National Arts Club, the choice of Milton Avery, of young artists chosen by older, well known artist. This, and a one person exhibit at the Delancey St. Museum, led to my inclusion in the Whitney Museum's Young American Artists, 1960. One of the paintings was acquired for its permanent collection by the Friends of the Whitney Museum.

The following year I went to Italy, partly with the help of a Walter Gutman Fund grant. I travelled quite a lot but lived and worked in Florence for most of the five months I was in Italy. A large painting I did there was purchased by Roy Neuberger and is now in the Neuberger Museum at Purchase, N.Y. A small landscape done during this time is in the Hirshhorn Museum.

In 1962 I received a Fullbright Award to France and travelled to Greece and elsewhere during the summer before it began. I also made a number of short trips during and immediately after the grant period and produced quite a lot of paintings and drawings which were shown the following year at the Alan Gallery in New York.

In 1964 I received the Rosenthal Award, given through the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and an Ingram-Merrill Grant which I also received in 1977 and 1982. In 1966 I received a Ford Foundation Grant to the Rhode Island School of Design Museum.

From 1964 to the present I have held various visits artist positions. In 1983 I received and Adolph Gottlieb Grant, in 1991 a National Endowment for the Arts Award for painting and last year a Pollock-Krasner grant.