Lot 237
De Hirsch Margules (American, born in Romania, 1899-1965). Watercolor/gouache on paper, 1959. Signed and dated in pencil on lower left. A fascinating abstract cityscape in which De Hirsch Margules captures the magic of living in New York City. This composition features multi-story buildings with views to sailboats in a harbor, a plane flying overhead, as well as intriguing orbs and other geometric shapes - all delineated in brilliant saturated color and a palpable kinetic energy. Margules' avant-garde works were called "time perspective" paintings, and his intention was to recreate "the psychological impact of the time of day in tandem with expressing the tangibility of the objects represented" (FADA). In addition to being an impactful abstract realist painter, De Hirsch Margules was a larger-than-life personality of the bohemian art world known as the "Baron" of Greenwich Village. Size: 23.5" L x 18.875" W (59.7 cm x 47.9 cm) Size of frame: 31.75" L x 26.2" W (80.6 cm x 66.5 cm)
De Hirsch Margules was well-received in the art world as the following words demonstrate, "So animate and vivacious a presence in American art
..we accede to his delight in boats, streets, piers, and flowers: all spinning about in a kinetic riot of sharp primary sensations. His paintings express the experience of living in New York City" (ArtNews, May 1961). The Abstract Expressionist Elaine de Kooning was greatly inspired by De Hirsch Margules' art and said he was "widely recognized as one of the most gifted and erudite watercolorists in the country." New York Times critic Howard Devree called Margules "one of our most daring experimentalists in the medium" and stated that "Margules uses color in a breath-taking manner. A keen observer, he eliminates scrupulously without distortion of his material."
Born in the Romanian city of Lasi, De Hirsch Margules immigrated with his family to New York City when he was just 10 weeks old. As a boy, at about age 10, Margules took art classes at the Boys Club on East Tenth Street, and presented in the club's student art show. The next year he won a city-wide contest at the children's art show and was awarded a box camera by the department store Wanamakers. Later in his teenage years, Margules studied with Edwin Randby, a follower of Frederic Remington, for a couple of months in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Following this, Margules enrolled in a two-year program in architecture, design and decoration at the New York Evening School of Art and Design, while working at Stern's Department Store during the daytime. All the while, Margules' neighbor, the painter Benno Greenstein (later known as Benjamin Benno) encouraged his pursuit of a career in art.
In time, Margules participated in group art shows with Stuart Davis, Jan Matulka, and Buckminster Fuller in a gallery run by Romany Marie, an art-lover and restaurateur, on the floor above her cafe. In 1927, Margules went to Paris and worked in a studio in a shabby hotel called Monmartre's Palace du Terte that had neither heat nor hot water. Still, he continued to pursue his art, studying at the Louvre and painting en plein aire in both provincial France and North Africa.
After returning to New York in 1929, John Stieglitz became an important friend and patron to Margules. Stieglitz introduced Margules to John Marin who in turn became a great artistic influence on Margules. Their fondness was mutual, and Marin described Margules as "an art lover with abounding faith and sincerity, with much intelligence and quick seeing." Elaine de Kooning later noted that Margules was "[i]ndebted to Marin and through Marin to Cezanne for his initial conceptual approach - for his constructions of scenes with no negative elements, for skies that loom with the impact of mountains." Stieglitz also encouraged Margules to open a gallery at 43 West 8th Street which Margules called "Another Place" in 1936. The gallery was well received by the New York art world. That same year the Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston purchased paintings by Margules for their collections. Today Margules' art has also been collected by many esteemed public collections such as the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, Provincetown Art Association and Museum, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Provenance: private Boulder, Colorado, USA collection
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#171224
- Condition: Painting has not been examined outside the frame. It is signed and dated in pencil by the artist at the lower left. Tears to gallery paper on verso.
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