MAURICE MARGULIES

About the Artist

Margulies was born and raised in New York City. He moved to the Washington-Baltimore area in the late fifties. He received a B.A. in Biology-Chemistry from Brooklyn College, and the Ph.D. in Microbiology-Biochemistry from Yale University. He studied additionally at Johns Hopkins University, Harvard and the Weizmann Institute, and worked for twenty-seven years at the Smithsonian Institution. . Margulies has been drawing and painting since childhood, with a hiatus of thirty years when he pursued a career in Biochemistry. As a youth he attended Pratt Institute Saturday morning classes in drawing, painting and commercial art. After retiring as a research scientist Margulies restarted work in the visual arts. He pursued pursued academic training in studio art and in art history at Montgomery College, Rockville, MD.

Artist's Statement

I work in the classical triumverate - painting (mostly oils but also some watercolor), drawing (charcoal, graphite, ink) and printmaking (mostly intaglio (etching and dry point) but also some lithography and woodcut. My visual subject matter is quite varied. My strongest interest is in the human figure, and in natural and industrial landscape. However other things that catch my eye, such as dead birds or other animals both alive and dead may be used as a source. I draw and paint from life, and interact strongly with my subject matter, yielding representational work with strong expressivity. My processp is a back and forth conversation between me, my medium and subject. However I also will sometimes use photographs and the computer as aids. I have wide interest in the visual arts and art techniques.