This abstraction by NY based artist Margo Margolis has a very sophisticated/playful sensibility with brilliant, intense color (pink, bright green, dark green, red, yellow, turquoise, pale gray, black and white) - the significant attribute of the artist's flashe medium, a water based French paint. Consisting of multiple layers of underpainting and glazing, and the frequent contrasts between hard and soft edges, these paintings not only have occasional associations with Henri Matisse's palette and Alexander Calder's sculptural forms, but also share in these artists' complexities after initial relatively straightforward first takes. Fresh and intelligent exploration into the possibilities for abstraction are Margolis's focus, and these works achieve that rare quality of making abstraction feel new.
Margo Margolis
"Mapping the Day"
2022
Flashe on Canvas
40 x 32 x 1.25 Inches
This painting is unframed and framing is not necessary as the sides are painted white. To achieve accuracy for color some of the detail photographs shown below cause the background to appear slightly too gray.
It is currently on view in an exhibition of the artist's work in Wellesley, MA where it is featured in a group of works of varying sizes, small, medium, and large: 24 x 20 inches, 40 x 32 inches, 72 x 60 inches, and works on paper measuring 30 x 22 inches. Also available are a series of earlier small canvases measuring 14 x 11 inches each which also work well as groupings.
Margolis’s continuing commitment to abstract painting dates back to the early 1970s when she began exhibiting with the Brooke Alexander Gallery in New York where she had several shows. In addition her work has been exhibited throughout the country at numerous galleries and institutions including The Pennsylvania Academy of Art, The Renaissance Society, The Munson-Williams Proctor Institute and Halls Walls, among others.
In reviewing the artist’s 1993 exhibition in the Beth Urdang gallery for 'The Boston Globe' then chief art critic Nancy Stapen stated:
“…eccentric, quasi-geometric forms and initial
impression of simplicity belie this artist’s highly
sophisticated grasp of paintings. These are multi-
layered works concerned with the discipline’s core
issues – transluscency and opacity, flatness and
illusioinism, line and form, figure and ground, pattern
and surface, structure and weightless pictorial space…
these paintings may be analyzed up to a point. In
the end, their process remains mysterious. Their
appeal lies in their engagement with an inventive
form language intrinsic to painting, as well as in their
deft synthesis of quietude and quirkiness.”
June 3, 1993
Current Chief Art Critic for 'The Boston Globe, ' Cate McQuaid, wrote of Margolis’
2017 exhibition in the gallery:
“Her marks grab at you as insistently as a
toddler demanding attention. They’re like a
language made purely of punctuation,
rhythmic and emphatic, let out of the duty
of modifying sentences, freed at last to express
itself alone.”
January 6, 2017
Works are included in numerous public collections including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, Chase Manhattan Bank, Amerata-Hess Corporation, General Mills, Best Products, IBM, Estee Lauder, Miami-Dade College, Chemical Bank, and Wellington Management. She is the recipient of many awards including 2 grants from The National Endowment for the Arts, a New York State Council on the Arts Grant, and Yaddo and MacDowell Residency Grants. Margolis received a BS degree from Skidmore College and an MFA from Indiana University. She lives and works in New York.
The artist recently retired as Chairman of the Tyler School of Art's (Philadelphia) Department of Painting.
Statement by Margo Margolis:
"While text and image combine to tell the story, it is the drawing around the narrative, the space between text and image that I find compelling. In my work, it is the space between, on the periphery, in the margins that has become the foreground. It is the charged environment that has become the subject.
Equally significant and transformative have been innovations in process that have evolved. Discrete marks are de-contextualized, reassembled and photocopied. They are further manipulated by exaggerations in scale, repetition and excessive layering. I have introduced 'printerly' processes (carbon tracking and stencils) that combine with marks that are hand-drawn, hand-painted. These are layered over and under transparent veils of paint. The incorporation of printing methods has been critical both formally and conceptually. These processes underline the fact that this is a system based on a 'ready-made' language. They create an identity distinctly different from action painting, gestural painting or any notion that the artists' stroke is assumed to reveal his/her psyche. These are distanced marks and frozen gestures. In combination with what is handmade, they reveal an alternate translation. Importantly, these processes, in allowing direct reproduction point to the semantic mutability of the language. However, most important is the process of building, excessive layering, and the continual dissolution and re-materialization of form. The paintings have a physicality and material presence that affirms the medium and is in contrast to their graphic impact."
MARGO MARGOLIS
EDUCATION
B.S. Degree 1970, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York
MFA Degree 1972, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2022 Beth Urdang Gallery, Wellesley, Massachusetts
2019 Beth Urdang Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts
2016 Beth Urdang Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts
2007 Beth Urdang Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts
2001 Beth Urdang Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts
1997 Esso Gallery, New York, New York
1993 Beth Urdang Gallery, Boston, Mass.
1991 Beth Urdang Gallery, Chicago, IL.
1989 Beth Urdang Gallery, Boston, Mass
1987 Richard Green Gallery, New York
1980 Brooke Alexander Gallery, New York
1979 University of Southern Florida, Tampa, Florida
1979 Miami-Dade College, Miami, Florida
1978 Brooke Alexander Gallery, New York
1977 Connecticut College, New London, Ct.
1977 Brooke Alexander Gallery, New York
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2016 Fabulous You, Tiger Stikes Asteroid, Brooklyn, New York
2011 Twin, Twin, Pierogi Gallery, Brooklyn, New York
2010 Spring Editions, Pelavin Editions, New York
2010 Group Exhibition, Beth Urdang Gallery, Wellesley, Massachusetts
2004 Analog Click-Click, Temple Gallery, Philadelphia, Pa.
2002 Snapshots, Arcadia University Gallery, Glenside, PA, Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, CT
1999 Tenth Anniversary Exhibition, Beth Urdang Gallery, Boston, MA
1998 Accrochage in the Gallery, Esso Gallery, New York
1998 Brad Kalhammer, Nicholas Rule, Margo Margolis, Solo Voices, North Dakota Museum of Art, Grand Forks, ND
1998 Art Exchange Show, New York
1998 Works on Paper, Galeria Martano, Turin, Italy
1998 Paintings and Monoprints, Cheryl Pelavin Gallery, New York
1997 Esso Gallery in Torino, Villa Buttino, Torino, Italy
1997 Art Exchange Show, New York
1996 Objects by Some Artists and Architects, Beth Urdang Gallery, Boston, MA
1996 The Art Exchange Show, New York
1994 Abstract Painting, Carolyn Roy Gallery, New York
1995 Wayne C. Brown DePonton d”Amecourt Collection, Colby College, Waterville, ME
1994 Contemporary Prints, Quartet Gallery, New York
1992 Mentors, Vox Populi Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
1991 Presenze, Artisti Stranieri in Italia Oggi, Rocca Paolina, Perugia, Italy
1990 Contemporary Painting, Langman Gallery, Philadelphia, Pa.
1989 Very Special Arts Benefit, Christies, New York
1989 Ground Work, Valencia College, Valencia, FL
1989 Group Show, Shea Beker Gallery, New York
1989 Drawings, Lorence Monk Gallery, New York
1989 Monoprints, University of Maine, Orono M
1989 Inadmissible Evidence, SUNY Purchase, New York
1988 Group Show, Bernard Jacobsen Gallery, New York
1986 Mutual Respect, Vanguard Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
1984 Nature As Image, OIA, New York
1983 Works on Paper, Bucknell University, A
1982 Group Show, Brooke Alexander Gallery, New York
1981 Abstract Painting, Womens Caucus of the CAA, New York
1981 Ten Years Later, Skdmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York
1981 Exchanges III, Louis Abrons Center, New York
1981 Group Show, Brooke Alexander Gallery, New York
1981 Sign and Symbol, Jeffrey Fuller Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
1981 Five Abstract Painters, Brooke Alexander Gallery, New York
1981 Group Show, Marion Locks Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
1980 New York, New, Work,”Delahunty Gallery, Dallas, Texas
1979 Group Show, Brooke Alexander Gallery, New York
1978 Diamond, Margolis, and Ripps, Brooke Alexander Gallery, New York
1978 Contemporary Drawings, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts,
Philadelphia, PA
1978 Drawings, Pratt Graphics Center, New York
1978 Thick Paint, Curated by Carter Ratcliffe, Renaissance Society, University Of Chicago, Chicago, IL
1978 New Editions, Brooke Alexander Gallery, New York
1978 Three New York Painters,” Alice Simsar Gallery, Ann Arbor, MI
1978 Six Contemporary Painters,”curated by Marcia Tucker, Kirkland College
Clinton York
1977 Works on Paper, Alice Simsar Gallery, Ann Arbor, MI
1977 Critics Choice,” Joe and Emily Lowe Gallery, Syracuse University,
Syracuse, New York, Munson-Williams Proctor Institute, Utica, New York
1977 New Abstract Objects,” Halls Walls, Buffalo, New York
1977 Diamond, Jacquette, Margolis and Ripps-New Work, Brooke Alexander Gallery, New York
1977 Painting ’75,’76,’77, Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, New York;
American Federation for the Arts, Miami, FL; Contemporary Art Center, Cincinnati, O
1977 Works on Paper, Vick, Klaus, and Rosen Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
1976 Group Exhibition, Towson State College, Towson, MD
1976 “Contemporary Approaches to Painting,” University Museum, University of California at Santa Barbara
1976 “Four Young Artists,” Bykert Gallery, New York
1976 Invitational, OK Harris Gallery, New York
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA
Brooklyn Museum, New York
IBM Corporation, New York
Fidelity Investments, Boston, MA
Prudential, New York
Rosenthal and Rosenthal, New York
Chase Manhattan Bank Collection, New York
Ivan Chermayeff, New York
Lehman Brothers, New York
Miami-Dade College, Miami, FL
Amerada-Hess Corporation, New York
American Can Company, Greenwich, CT
Estee Lauder Corporation, New York
General Mills, Minneapolis, MN
Freed, Frank, Shriver, New York
Chemical Bank, New York
Delahunty Gallery, Dallas, TX
Best Products, Richmond, VA
Skadden, Arps, New York
Stephen Paine, Boston, MA
Davis, Polk, Wardwell, New York
Roger Sonnabend, Boston, MA
Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, PA
Zimmerli Archives, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
GRANTS AND AWARDS
Temple University Study leave, 1980, 1987,1994, 2002
Visual Arts Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts, 1987
Visual Arts Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts, 1980
New York State Council for the Arts, 1977
Yaddo Residency Grant, 1976
MacDowell Residency Grant, 1976
Indiana University Fellowship, 1970
CATALOGUES
Painting ’75,’76,’77
Critic’s Choice
Contemporary Drawing, Philadelphia
Thick Paint
Margo Margolis, Miami Dade College
Exchange III
Nature as Image
Ground Work
Presenze
Chemical Bank: An Art Collection in Perspective
Margo Margolis, Esso Gallery
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Richard Lorber, Arts Magazine, September 1976
Art Week, October 23, 1976
Henry J. Seldis, Los Angles Times
David Rush, "Paintings with a Sculptural Character," Art Week, October 30, 1976
Allen Ellensweig, Arts Magazine, April 1977
Richard Brugin, New York Arts Journal, September 1977
Mary Delahoyd, "Painting '75, '76, '77" (catalogue essay) 1977
Hayden Herrera, "Critics' Choice," Joe and Emily Lowe Art Gallery, Syracuse, New York
and Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, New York (catalogue essay) 1977
John Russell, New York Times, June 1978
Carter Ratcliffe, "Thick Paint" University of Chicago, IL (catalogue essay) 1978
Ann Percy, "Contemporary Drawings, Philadelphia," Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (catalogue essay) 1978
Alexandra Anderson, Village Voice, March 26, 1979
Peter Frank, "In One Medium, Out the Other," Village Voice, April 9, 1979
Thomas Lawson, Art in America, October 1979
Karen Valdes, Margo Margolis, Miami-Dade Community College, (catalogue essay) 1979
Print Collector's Newsletter, Spring 1979
Lee Edwards...