Biography in Pictures

 
1936-1952

Tony Magar is born in London, England. Magar joins the British Merchant Navy and travels to Africa, China, India, and Spain. Magar begins his studies at Royal Albert Hall School of Speech and Literature, London. He moves to New York and works as a hairdresser. He spends one year painting in Malaga, Spain.

1960-1962

Magar returns to New York and joins sculptor Mark di Suvero's studio as an assistant. Magar learns to cut and weld various metals. He begins to produce his own sculptures and participates in several exhibitions including the "New Forms—New Media I and II" show at the legendary Martha Jackson Gallery in New York City in the summer of 1960. Magar's piece (Untitled) receives a favorable review in Time.

Excerpted from the Time Magazine review:

The Materialists. “A 24-year-old Englishman named Anthony Magar has used burned and stained wood, stitched canvas and pounded metal to create a big picture that is as pleasing as an autumn landscape seen from the sky.”

All texts and images copyright of their respective owners.

1963-1967

Magar co-founds Park Place Gallery with Mark di Suvero and several other West Coast artists. Magar is credited with hiring influential gallerist Paula Cooper as Park Place's first director. Magar establishes his own studio and produces large painted steel sculptures. Magar also creates a series of canvas paintings, titled "The Burn Paintings," for which he uses an oxy acetylene blow-torch to scorch, singe, and discolor his canvases.

Magar participates in the Whitney Museum of American Art's Sculptural Annual in New York City. He shows at the Dwan Gallery in Los Angeles, a seminal West Coast contemporary gallery.

1968-1976

Magar leaves New York City after the closing of Park Place and the loss of two of his New York studios following accidental fires that destroy his work and studio equipment. He settles in Denver where he take a teaching position for one semester at the University of Denver.

Magar installs a monumental sculptural work in Burns Park, Denver, that he later
dedicates to Martin Luther King Jr.

Magar joins Libre, an eco-friendly, off-grid, back-to-nature commune in the mountains of Southern Colorado founded by artists Dean and Linda Flemming (Park Place alum). Magar immerses himself in Buddhism studies.

1976-1992

Magar moves to Taos, New Mexico, and establishes his new studio. He rejoins the art scene and participates in a favorably reviewed group show at Maggie Kress Gallery. He becomes one of the most well-respected painters of the contemporary art scene in Taos and Santa Fe, and enjoys studio visits from collectors and neighboring artists, including Larry Bell, and actor and photographer, Dennis Hopper. Magar participates in numerous group and solo shows and begins exhibiting with Thom Andriola at Stables Fine Art Gallery and then at Andriola's New Gallery in Taos.

Magar's work matures through his subtle, intelligent use of color and his refined knowledge of compositional structure and form. His deep understanding and surprising solutions to visual challenges are manifested through his emerging singular style and brushwork.

1994-2008

Magar moves to Pueblo, Colorado, not far from the mountains and valleys that had firstenchanted him decades earlier. 

Magar enjoys major shows including "Worlds," at the Harwood Museum, University of New Mexico,
Taos; New Gallery, Houston; "Absentee Universe," Mike Weiss Gallery, New York; 
"Buddha Sometimes," Mike Weiss Gallery, New York.

3 volume Box Set. The result of ten years of work - this book offers a complete and rigorous cartography of American abstraction through a series of monographs devoted to the following artists:

Volume 1: Clifford Still; Mark Rothko; Adolph Gottlieb; Barnett Newmann; Morris Louis; Ad Reinhardt; Leon Polk Smith; Alexander Liberman; John McLaughlin; Lorser Feitelson; Karl Benjamin; Ellsworth Kelly; Kenneth Noland; Frank Stella;

Volume 2: Paul Brach; Raymond Parker; Al Held; Jack Yougerman; Gene Davis; Thomas Downing; Howard Mehring; Paul Reed; Will Insley; Charles Hinman; Sven Lukin; Neil Williams; Richard Smith; Larry Bell; Robert Mangold; Agnès Martin; Robert Ryman; David Novros; Paul Mogensen;

Volume 3: Jules Oliski; Larry Poons; Walter Darby Bannard; Tony DeLap; John McCracken; Robert Irwin; Mark di Suvero; Peter Forakis; Robert Grosvenor;
Tony Magar; Forrest Myers; Edwin Ruda; Leo Valledor; Dean Fleming; Tamara Melcher.

Volume One

Volume Two

Volume Three