Friday, April 20, 2018

MARCIA

I was shocked to come upon news, as I was surfing around online this afternoon, of the death of our friend, the painter Marcia Hafif. Ellie and I were both particularly saddened to have missed visiting her on our last stay at our Laguna Beach cottage, just a stone's throw from where Marcia also lived. Last time we saw her, leaving the the Laguna Beach Farmer's Market one recent Saturday, she seemed in good health and spirits. We are surprised and greatly saddened by her loss.

Marcia was a meticulous and dedicated artist. The monochrome paintings that form the bulk of her work require close looking to engage in their understated, infinitely subtle presence. They often work in a progression of shifting color patterns, asking to be seen not only individually but in the context of the series of which they form a part. Painted with meditative diligence--her brushwork is as insistently repetitive and compelling as the music of Philip Glass--they invite the meditative gaze, and reward it with a sense of passionate serenity.



As happens all too often with artists who choose not to engage in the jostling of art world competition, Marcia's work was for many years better known and respected in Europe than here in the United States. Thankfully, that had begun to change in her later years: the restive American art world needs something of the steady, thoughtful, seemingly imperturbable vision of a Marcia Hafif.


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