MARCIA HAFIF

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Marcia Woods was born in 1929 in Pomona, California. After graduating from Pomona College in 1951 and marrying Herbert Hafif, she planned a year-long trip to Florence in 1961. Hafif settled, however, in Rome, where she remained for almost eight years, painting and exhibiting work she called “Pop-Minimal.” These works were shown for the first time in the United States in, Marcia Hafif: The Italian Paintings 1961–1969 at Fergus McCaffrey, New York, 2016. Returning to California in 1969, and leaving painting for a time to experiment with film, photography and sound installation, she completed an MFA degree at the University of California at Irvine.

In 1971, Hafif moved to New York City to search out a return to painting at a time when the validity of painting was in doubt and not finding a satisfactory path, she woke on the morning of January 1, 1972, to make her first Pencil on Paper drawing. Using short vertical marks, Hafif covered from top to bottom a 24 x 18 inch sheet of drawing paper. This method was later used in the development of her “color study” paintings. In An Extended Gray Scale, 1972-73, a work that occupied her for nearly a year, she painted gradations from black to white. Painting as many gradations she could distinguish, she completed a total of one hundred and six 22 x 22 inch oil paintings on standard cotton canvases, exhibited at Art Basel Unlimited in 2015.

Exhibiting for more than eight years with Sonnabend Gallery in Soho and Paris from 1974 to 1981, she developed series of paintings that would become the basis of what came to be called The Inventory: 1974, Mass Tone Paintings; 1975, Wall Paintings; 1976, Pencil Drawings; 1978, Neutral Mix Paintings; 1979, Broken Color Paintings presented at The Clocktower with Alanna Heiss; and 1981, Black Paintings.

In the 1980s and 1990s she developed new series, along with relationships with galleries in Europe, first in Munich, then Dusseldorf, and eventually Vienna, London, Paris, and elsewhere. Hafif’s work has been exhibited extensively in museums worldwide including MoMA PS 1, 1990; Haus für Konstruktive und Konkrete Kunst, Zurich, 1995; FRAC Bourgogne, Dijon, 2000; MAMCO, Geneva, 2001; Laguna Art Museum, 2015; Kunsthaus Baselland, Switzerland, 2017; Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Switzerland, 2017; Lenbachhaus, Munich, 2018; Pomona College Museum, Claremont, California, USA, 2018; and MAMCO (Musée d’art modern et contemporain), Genève, 2019. Hafif passed away in Laguna Beach, California in 2018.

A current solo exhibition of works by Marcia Hafif is on-view online at Galerie Hubert Winter, through June 6, 2020. Click here to view.

Video: Discussion & Q&A with Alanna Heiss & Jarl Mohn on An Extended Gray Scale

Your Questions, Answered:
Marcia Hafif’s An Extended Gray Scale

Read the questions and answers, from our virtual Live Q&A with Alanna Heiss and Jarl Mohn as they discussed Marcia Hafif’s “An Extended Gray Scale” and more.

Beginning Againby Marcia Hafif

This article was originally published in the September, 1978 issue of Artforum. The options open to painting in the recent past appeared to be extremely limited. It was not that everything had been done, but rather that the impulses to create which had functioned in the past were no longer urgent or even meaningful.

ビギニング・アゲインマーシャ・ハフィフ

最近の絵画における選択肢は非常に限られている。全てがすでに試されたからではなく、過去において機能していたものを再び作ることへの衝動はなくなり、その意義も薄れているからだ。魔術的なイメージを辿ったり、ストーリーを伝えたり、現状を報告したり、絵画上で風景や人物像を一対一の関係で表すこと。

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《重新开始》玛西亚•哈希弗著

最近，留给绘画的选择是相当的限制。这并不是因为所有事情已经做过了，而是以往激发创造的动力现在并不显得紧要或者有意义。描绘神奇的图像、叙述故事、报道、和表现在颜料中的一段景或者一个人物在一种一对一的关系里，这些都不在拥有它们曾经享受过的可信度。

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Marcia Hafif’s Last Interview (2018)

Editorial

The Paintings of Marcia Hafifby Fergus McCaffrey

In examining the work of Marcia Hafif, it has struck me again how arbitrary recognition can be in the art world. Factors such as gender, age, being in the right place at the right time, one’s name, the credibility of one’s dealer, and pure luck often appear to have greater…