Biography from Levis Fine Art:
| Marguerite Zorach is credited as being one of the few American modernist painters who introduced the European artistic theories and styles of Fauvism and Cubism, to the United States during the early 1900’s.
After beginning her academic training at Stanford University, Zorach moved to Paris in 1908 to further her artistic training and career. She was immediately impressed by the work of the non-academic painters including Matisse and Derain and soon enrolled at La Palette, an avant-garde art school where she studied under the Scottish Fauvist John Duncan Fergusson. During this time period Zorach exhibited in the Salon d’Autumne and at the Societe des Artistes Independents and her works express heavy influences of both the color and expressive nature of the French Fauvists and German Expressionists, with her use of bold unconventional color and startling distortions of shape and line.
After returning to the United States, Zorach returned to California in 1912 and executed a number of powerful paintings in the Sierra Mountains and began to produce pen-and-ink drawings that reflected her observation of Oriental art. Her first solo exhibition was held in 1912 in Los Angeles, concurrent with her marriage to sculptor/painter William Zorach, whom she had met while in Paris. Both Marguerite and William exhibited at the Armory Show in 1913, a landmark event in the history of American art.
Influenced by Max Weber at the beginning of 1915, Marguerite lightly experimented with the techniques and theories associated with cubism. By 1920 she had begun to concentrate on large, intricate tapestries, generally featuring Arcadian scenes executed in brilliantly-colored silk and wool. She regarded these “sticheries” as her primary artistic work, although she returned to oils after 1930. Marguerite also collaborated with her husband in many of his sculptural commissions, providing original designs and sketches for his final works.
In the 1940’s, she continued to do a small number of oil paintings and water colors. One of those works, Night Still Life, is one of her strongest and most colorful still life paintings and has been considered a favorite of the Zorach family, according to Peggy Zorach.
Marguerite also served as Director of the Society of Independent Artists and the first President of the New York Society of Women Artists. Her paintings have been exhibited extensively since 1908 including such venues as: Salon d’Automne, Society of Independent Artists, the Pan Pacific Exposition of 1915, Forum Exchange, NY, 1916(the only woman to exhibit), Corcoran Gallery biennials, 1930-45, Whitney Museum of American Art, 1932, 1940, 1951-52, Bates College, 1964, Worcester Art Museum, the Pennsylvania Academy of Arts and numerous other museums, shows and exhibitions.
© 2008 Levis Fine Art, Inc.
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Biography from Cornish Colony Museum:
| Born in Fresno, CA. Studied in Paris and was a good friend of
Gertrude Stein. Met her husband William Zorach in Paris. She was
an accomplished painter and craftswoman who specialized in textile
design. She was a member of the New York Society of Women
Artists, and also the American Society of Painters, Sculptors and
Gravers. She received awards in the Pan.-Pacific Exposition in
1915; and a gold medal in the Art Institute of Chicago Exposition in
1920. Marguerite and William were considered to be in the
vanguard of modern art. Among their friends the Zorachs counted many of
the Modern Art giants greats like Picasso, Matisse, Léger and Braque.
Both Marguerite and William were intrigued with German Expressionism and Cubism.
They were the first and perhaps the only modern artists of the Cornish Colony.
Marguerite's work is in the collection of twenty-two museums: Colorado
Springs Fine Arts Center, Yale University Art Gallery, National Gallery
of Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, The Corcoran Gallery of Art,
the Allen R. Hite Art Institute, the Addison Gallery of American Art,
the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Portland Museum of Art, the
Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum, the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, the
Newark Museum the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of
American Art, the Columbus Museum of Art in Ohio, La Salle University
Art Museum, the Jack B. Blanton Museum of Art in Austin, TX, the Tacoma
Art Museum, and our own Cornish Colony Museum. |
Biography from AskART:
| A native of Fresno, California, Marguerite Zorach arrived in Paris in
the fall of 1908, an experience that placed her in the first generation
of American painters to be influenced by and to espouse the Fauves,
artists whose work was based on color and rhythm.
She studied at
the progressive school, La Palette, and shortly after met fellow
student, William Zorach, a Lithuanian born lithographer from
Cleveland. They returned to the United States and married in
1912, and then worked together closely, especially as painters in
oil.
Many critics regard her early years as a painter, 1908-1920, as her
most productive when she was experimenting with both Fauvism and Cubism
and actively promoting the work of these painters in America.
She
was not fully recognized for her role as a modern American artist until
1970, two years after she died, when some of her early canvases were
rediscovered. She had destroyed many of them, having changed her
medium after the birth of her children to work in brilliantly colored
wools rather than oils to express her love of color. In her
large-scale needleworks, she explored wide ranges of color and a
variety of stitches. In fact, her needlework skills were a key
factor in the Marguerite and William and their two children having some
stability during the Depression of the 1930s. Because of an
arrangement made by their New York dealer, Edith Halpert, Marguerite
had a commission for a tapestry with Abby Rockefeller for the family
home at Seal Harbor, Maine. The Zorach family visited the
Rockefellers, and Marguerite was then given a commission for a tapestry
that earned her $18,000.00, "a sum that allowed the Zorachs to continue
their work as artists and also provided for their two young children."
(Pollock, 129)
She and her husband both exhibited in the
1913 Armory Show in New York, and she served as Director of the Society
of Independent Artists and the first President of the New York Society
of Women Artists.
Sources include:
Charlotte Streifer Rubinstein, American Women Artists
Lindsay Pollock, The Girl with the Gallery
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Biography from AskART:
| Born in Santa Rosa, CA on Sept. 25, 1887, Marguerite Thompson Zorach
was raised in Fresno and showed artistic promise at age three. A
brilliant student, she was one of the first women admitted to Stanford
University in 1908. Shortly after her enrollment, she was lured
to Paris by an aunt who was living there. She studied art for
four years in Paris and, while there, met her future husband William
Zorach.
Returning to Fresno in 1912, she camped with her family in the Sierra
Madre and did a series of paintings of that area. The following
year, she returned to NYC, married Zorach, and lived in Brooklyn for
her remaining years.
A pioneer in modern art, she was one of the few young artists to
introduce Fauvist and Cubist styles to the U.S. between 1910-20. The
Zorachs made another trip to Yosemite in 1920.
She died in Brooklyn on June 27, 1968.
Exhibitions:
Paris Salon, 1911; Royer Gallery (LA), 1912; Armory Show, 1913; PPIE,
1915; AIC, 1920 (medal); Century of Progess (Chicago), 1933.
Collections:
MM; Fresno Federal Bldg; NMAA; MOMA; Whitney Museum; Newark Museum; Brooklyn Museum; Speed Museum (Louisville). | Source:
Edan Hughes, "Artists in California, 1786-1940"
American Art Annual 1915-33; Who's Who in American Art 1936-66; Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs, et Graveurs (Bénézit, E); American Women Artists (Rubenstein); Women Artists in America (Collins & Opitz); Artists of the American West (Samuels); NY Times, 6-29-1968 (obituary). | | Nearly 20,000 biographies can be found in Artists in California 1786-1940 by Edan Hughes and is available for sale ($150). For a full book description and order information please click here. |
| ** If you discover credit omissions or have additional information to add, please let us know at registrar@AskART.com. |
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Marguerite Zorach is also mentioned in these AskART essays:
New York Armory Show of 1913
Cornish Colony
Fauves/Fauvism
Women Artists
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