Melvin Zabarsky, American (b. 1932)

Melvin Zabarsky is very clear on the focus of his art: “My work is narrative. The narrative is the result of the actual physical interaction of image and form. The content of narrative is 20^th century history.” Yet to look at Zabarsky’s work is to discover a depth of relationships beyond any narrative—relationships between figure and shape, figure as shape, and the figure to the ground. The forms, light, and color become the atmosphere for his figures and allow them to float and interact in surprising ways.

Zabarsky studied at the school of Worcester Art Museum, the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Arts in Oxford, the school of Fine and Applied Arts at Boston University, and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Cincinnati. He taught at the Swain School of Design, Wheaton College in Massachusetts, and the University of New Hampshire. His works are in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the DeCordova Museum in Massachusetts, and the Erin Harod Museum in Israel, among others.