Marcia Marx (1931–2005) was an American

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating the work of art. The most common usage (in both everyday speech and academic discourse) refers to a practitioner in the visual arts o ...

known for dark, satirical paintings, sculptures and lithographs.

Early life

Marx was born to a prominent family in

Newark, New Jersey Newark ( , ) is the List of municipalities in New Jersey, most populous City (New Jersey), city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, the county seat of Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County, and a principal city of the New York metropolitan area. ...

. She counted

Barbara Walters Barbara Jill Walters (September 25, 1929December 30, 2022) was an American broadcast journalist and television personality. Known for her interviewing ability and popularity with viewers, she appeared as a host of numerous television programs, ...

and Nancy Shevell as cousins, and her father ran the Clinton Milk Company. She studied painting at the

Yale School of Art The Yale School of Art is the art school of Yale University. Founded in 1869 as the first professional fine arts school in the United States, it grants Master of Fine Arts, Masters of Fine Arts degrees to students completing a two-year course in g ...

, and although her parents prevented from completing her studies, Marx moved to

Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

, where she lived and worked for more than ten years.

Style

As an artist, Marx worked in many media including

painting Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

lithograph Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the miscibility, immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by ...

printing, and screen printing. She purposely left interpretation open, stating, "No matter what I was thinking when I created it, the viewer writes his or her own script making it a far more intriguing experience."Museum to Exhibit "Lottery" -- The Works of Marcia Marx. 18 August 2004. Marx frequently painted " Felliniesque characters and impressions" in her works, evidenced as her piece
"Hop Scotch"
an
"Musical Chairs"
As a visual satirist, Marx’s works, paintings and sculptures, showed a sense of the ridiculous and an eye for the bizarre and comedic elements in the human experience.

Career

While living in Mexico City, Marx had a "smash hit" one-person show at the

Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes The Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura (INBAL, ), located in the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, is the Mexican institution in charge of coordinating artistic and cultural activities (both at the political and the educati ...

, for which she was profiled in

Time Magazine ''Time'' (stylized in all caps as ''TIME'') is an American news magazine based in New York City. It was published weekly for nearly a century. Starting in March 2020, it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York Cit ...

. She was also one of six artists featured ''

Cosmopolitan Cosmopolitan may refer to: Internationalism * World citizen, one who eschews traditional geopolitical divisions derived from national citizenship * Cosmopolitanism, the idea that all of humanity belongs to a single moral community * Cosmopolitan ...

's'' article "Women Artists Today, How Are They Doing vis a vis The Men", which also included

Georgia O'Keeffe Georgia Totto O'Keeffe (November 15, 1887 March 6, 1986) was an American Modernism, modernist painter and drafter, draftswoman whose career spanned seven decades and whose work remained largely independent of major art movements. Called the "M ...

and

Louise Nevelson Louise Nevelson (September 23, 1899 – April 17, 1988) was an American sculptor known for her monumental, monochromatic, wooden wall pieces and outdoor sculptures. Born in the Poltava Governorate of the Russian Empire (present-day Kyiv Oblast, ...

. Marx's major exhibitions included a retrospective at the Mexican Cultural Institute of New York in 2002 and in the solo show "An Interpretation of the

Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

" at the Houston Holocaust Museum from October 2004-January 2005. When it was confirmed that Marcia Marx’s works would be exhibited at the Houston Holocaust Museum, the museum’s executive director, Susan Llanes-Myers exclaimed, "We are so pleased to have Marcia Marx’s art at our museum. Her work strikingly portrays a sense of remembrance, a core of our mission."

Art critic An art critic is a person who is specialized in analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating art. Their written critiques or reviews contribute to art criticism and they are published in newspapers, magazines, books, exhibition brochures, and catalogue ...

Donald Kuspit concurred, stating that her works "have a disturbing poignancy, not only because of their imagery but because of their intense physicality. Remembrance is Marx’s theme. Her works are saturated in memory... unsettling as well as consoling." Marx died on May 3, 2005, in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, after a two-year battle with

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

. Her works continue to be exhibited around the world and are held in many private and public collections.

References

Sources

* Portfolio MARCIA MARX. Artfocus Online.com. {{DEFAULTSORT:Marx, Marcia 1931 births 2005 deaths American artists Deaths from cancer in New York (state)