Samuel margolies biography

Samuel L. Margolies was a master of intaglio printmaking who specialized in quiet, unpeopled landscapes and images of New York City's skyscrapers seen from dizzying heights. A native of Brooklyn, Margolies studied in New York at the Cooper Union Art School and the venerable National Academy of Design, and privately with illustrator, painter, and printmaker Victor Semon Perard (–).

Samuel margolies biography wikipedia Working in a range of intaglio techniques, he became a master of the tonal medium of aquatint. While his views of cities command high prices, his countryside renditions remain ridiculously affordable. Working in a range of intaglio techniques, he became a master of the tonal medium of aquatint. Margolies exhibited in numerous venues, mostly in New York, and reached a broad public through Associated American Artists and the Miniature Print Club.

He also attended the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design, a New York academy that attracted numerous immigrant and first-generation Americans aspiring to work in construction design trades. He began exhibiting his paintings there around and soon established a reputation for images of urban architecture and rural scenes in both oils and watercolors.

During the Great Depression of the s, when many artists made prints in an effort to reach a wider audience through low-priced multiple artworks, Margolies turned seriously to etching.

Working in a range of intaglio techniques, he became a master of the tonal medium of aquatint. His lonely images of the countryside and views of Manhattan's vast canyons from the daring viewpoint of high-rise construction workers captured the populist mood of the era. Margolies exhibited in numerous venues, mostly in New York, and reached a broad public through Associated American Artists, a gallery that published and marketed small editions of inexpensive prints, and the Miniature Print Club, which offered small collectibles.

In Margolies joined the Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a Depression-era government relief program, and he served as an instructor in its Art Teaching Division.

Samuel margolies biography As most artists of this time, he began by exhibiting paintings. Follow us Find us on Facebook Find us on Instagram. Metadata Embedded, Search for: Search.

He was active in a number of artists' organizations, including the Society of American Etchers and the Queensboro Society of Allied Arts and Crafts in his native Brooklyn. His etchings were displayed in the New York World's Fair in That year, he left the WPA to work as a circuit designer for the Bundy Corporation, but he continued to work as an etcher into the early s.

In the s, he conducted classes in etching, although by that date he appears to have ceased making original prints. Margolies is remembered today as one of a host of talented depression-era American artists whose representational prints record the realities of contemporary life.