Quartets: Tony Magar

Laura Rathe Fine Art introduces Quartets, a solo exhibition by second generation abstract expressionist Tony Magar, on view from September 12th through October 17th. There will be an opening reception on Saturday, September 12th, from 6–9pm.

Still painting at the age of eighty, Magar is one of the last surviving artists belonging to this most important, quintessentially American art movement.

Quartets is a culmination of a long career and over half century of the inseparable link of the artist’s work to music. Inspired by the quartets of Shostakovich, Bartok, Mozart, Ravelle, Britton and Wagner, Magar describes these paintings as colorful interpretations of “the conversations of the strings”. The language of the instruments guides the paint on the canvas. The strokes of Magar’s brushes echo the strokes of the bows.

The results reflect an intimacy between art forms developed over a long and noted career.

Born in London, Tony Magar began his artistic career studying at the Royal Albert Hall School. In his early twenties, he moved to New York City and joined the legendary Martha Jackson Gallery where participated in the landmark exhibition, New Forms, with Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, John Chamberlain, and Claus Oldenburg, as well as earlier masters, Dubuffet, Schwitters, and Arp.

In 1960, with the help of Mark di Suvero, whom he apprenticed with for 7 years, Magar co-founded the Park Place Gallery and named Paula Cooper the director.

Magar moved to Taos, New Mexico in 1976 and became one of the most well respected painters in the contemporary art scene in Taos and Santa Fe.

By the mid-eighties, Magar split his time between Taos and Houston. He now lives on the bay in Portland, TX.

Images:
Tony Magar, Chalice II, oil on canvas, 48 x 36 in. (detail above, full image below).
Tony Magar, Wagner, Tristan and Isolde for All the Love, oil on canvas, 48 x 60 in.
Tony Magar, Quartet No.5, Benjamin Britten, oil on canvas, 48 x 60 in.