Tobias Musicant

Tobias Musicant, Gates to the City

1946

A new discovery in the art world is something always searched for and rarely found. Surely there was no shortage of artists during the 20th century, but to find someone of immense talent and individuality that has seemingly slipped under the radar of galleries, critics and collectors is rare. An instance where this might occur is when an artist may have been his or her own harshest critic and, for fear of rejection or criticism, such an artist might choose to never show their work in major venues. Somewhere along the way in the promising career of Tobias “Ted” Musicant, his personal insecurity kept his artistic genius from the field of his peers. After participating in numerous prestigious exhibitions early in his career, Musicant became reclusive and kept his art from the public eye. Since the relatively recent death of this artist, a small but powerful body of Modernist paintings has been discovered. These works range in date from 1940 to 1965 and begin in a representational modernist style, evolving into a very interesting and appealing semi-representational hard-edged geometric series that incorporate a flavor of Native American influence. The latest of his paintings are of a surrealist style where the artist includes elements such as birds, fruit, a myriad of unusual objects and architecture into his compositions. His work bears similarities to that of Marsden Hartley, Stuart Davis, Louis Stone and Salvador Dali.

Tobias Musicant was the son of a carpenter and born in Philadelphia in 1921. An artist since childhood, after high school, Musicant attended the Pratt Institute in New York from 1939–41. However, his art studies would be interrupted by World War II as he served his country in the United States Army Air Force, seeing action in England. After the war, Musicant continued his studies at the Art Students League from 1945–48. He lived in Brooklyn in the 1940s and 1950s, eventually moving to Plainsboro, New Jersey, with his sister Alice Musicant, also an artist, where they would both remain throughout their lives. His paintings were exhibited in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Philadelphia Print Club, the Newark Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, the Butler Institute, and the Princeton Art Council, among other venues. He also had one-man shows at Heffers Gallery in Cambridge, England and the Contemporary Arts Gallery in New York City. In addition to his paintings, Musicant worked in enamels and made silver jewelry.