Marcia Marcus

Marcia Marcus (January 11, 1928 – March 27, 2025) was an American figurative painter of portraits, self-portraits, still lifes, and landscape.

Background Marcus was born on January 11, 1928, in New York City. She earned her B.F.A. at New York University in 1949, followed by studies at Cooper Union in 1950–1952, and with Edwin Dickinson at the Art Students League in 1954. In the 1950s, she was working in the intersection of performance art (through happenings) and portraiture.

On March 27, 2025, Marcus died at the age of 97.

Work

Marcus's "Happening," entitled In the Garden: A Ballet, was performed by Red Grooms and Bob Thompson at the Delancey Street Museum in 1960.

She taught at many institutions, including Purdue University, Moore College of Art and Design, Rhode Island School of Design, Cooper Union, Louisiana State University, New York University, Vassar College, Cornell University, The University of Iowa, and Northern Arizona University.

Although known for self-portraits, Among those Marcus depicted in her paintings were Jill Johnston, Red Grooms, Lucas Samaras, Willem de Kooning, Sari Dienes, Henry Geldzahler, Myron Stout, Bob Thompson, and Roy Neuberger. Many of her works visually address issues like female desire, race, and motherhood.

Her work is held in various public museum collections including the Whitney Museum of American Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Philadelphia Museum of Art, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Williams College Museum of Art, the University of Colorado at Boulder Museum, and the Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College.

Awards 1961 – Walter Gutman Fund 1962–1963 – Fulbright Fellowship to France 1964, 1977, 1982 – Ingram-Merrill Award 1964 – Rosenthal Award 1964, 1971 – Childe Hassam Fund Purchase 1966 – Ford Foundation, Artist in Residence Grant to the Rhode Island School of Design Museum 1991–1992 – National Endowment for the Arts, Painting 1993 – Pollock-Krasner