De Hirsh Margules

American (1899-1965)

De Hirsh Margules was a Romanian-born American “abstract realist” painter. Known as the “Baron of Greenwich Village,” Margules crossed paths with major American intellectuals and artists of the first half of the 20th century.

In 1927, Margules traveled to France to study and paint.  While there he joined the “Noctambulist” movement (painting in the dark).  He also developed “time painting,” which showed a progression of time by dividing a painting into sections and colors to emphasize the different times of day. Elaine De Kooning remarked that studying the works of the Noctambulists confirmed Margules’ “direction toward the use of primary colors for perverse effects of heavy shadow.”

In 1929 Margules returned to New York and met Alfred Stieglitz who introduced him to John Marin.  Marin quickly became the most important artistic influence upon Margules.  With Stieglitz’s encouragement, Margules opened a gallery called “Another Place” in 1936. That same year he was recognized by major art museums when the Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of Fine Arts of Boston purchased his work. Margules’ work is also in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum of Art, The National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institute, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art.