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Marcia Marcus
80 Nathaniel Moore Street
32 B
New York NY 10013
212 964 9478

After graduating from NYU with a B.A. in Fine Art in 1949 I worked on my own, occasionally taking classes in sculpture and printmaking. I also enrolled 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 the recommendation of a fellow student. My work, of course, was affected by what I was seeing in galleries and studios and conversations with both peers and older artists, 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. at that time.

I usually date my professional career around this time when I was invited to be in The Stable Gallery Annuals of 1953 and 54 and various Tenth Street Galleries. My work was also included in two and four person exhibits in 1956 and I became a charter member of The March Gallery, a cooperative, in 1957. In November of that year I had my first one person show

During this time I earned money as a secretary, working on a part time or temporary basis to interfere as little as possible with painting. Both time and money were in short supply but I exhibited fairly regularly. In 1958 I was able to spend the summer in Provincetown, where I renewed an acquaintance with Sally and Milton Avery. A sculpture on exhibit at a Spring Exhibit at St. Mark's Church had caught their attention on an afternoon when I was sitting and we talked for a while. The following year Milton chose me as one of the young artists in an exhibit at the National Arts Club chosen by twelve well known artists. This, together with a solo show at the Delancey Street Museum, led to my inclusion in "Young American Artists:1960" at the Whitney Museum, curated by John I.H. Baur.

My work received a great deal of attention and one of the paintings entered the Whitney permanent collection. I was also recommended to the Charles Alan Gallery by Joseph Hirshhorn and had my first exhibit there in 1961. A trip to Europe ensued and I lived and painted in Florence for five months. Two of the paintings I did there entered the Hirshhorn and Neuberger collections.

In 1962-63 I received a Fullbright grant to France and travelled extensively in Greece the summer before it started and lived and painted in Delphi for a month. During the period of the grant I painted a great deal and took short trips as well to Spain, Holland, Greece, Italy, etc. Paintings I did during this time were exhibited at the Alan Gallery the following year. While Charles Alan was impeccably honest, he did not believe in publicity, and I was too stupid to realize it was my responsibility as well, so the neat package of attention I had arrived with was pretty well dissipated by 1966 and sales were pretty non existent. Although I went to other galleries and tried to do what I could for myself my finances have always been borderline. From 1964 to the present I have been a visiting artist for varying periods of time.

In 1975 I had a one person exhibit at the Everson Museum in Syracuse, N.Y. which included five years of work. In 1984 there was a twenty five year retrospective at