Marion Wagschal’s Artists and Children (1988) | Photo courtesy: Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
The wait was long — but worth it.
The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts is exhibiting “Marion Wagschal: Portraits, Memories, Fables” from April 9 through August 9, 2015. It’s the first solo-museum show for Wagschal, BA 73, whose career has spanned over 50 years.
The show’s official description states: “This exhibition constitutes an overview of the career of Montreal painter Marion Wagschal, whose oeuvre focuses on family portraits against a background of historical afflictions — Nazism, deportation and flight.”
Wagschal was born in Port-au-Spain, Trinidad, in 1943, and her family immigrated to Montreal when she was a child. Her early paintings explored Biblical themes, including portraits of Abraham and Isaac. Later on, her paintings subtly depicted major Jewish historical moments, including the Holocaust.
Two of her prominent works include the black and white painting Medussa (1978), which depicts a faceless woman with tangled hair, and The Birthday Party (1974), which features two young men quarrelling in their home, with a third man sleeping on the bed behind them.
Wagschal currently teaches painting and drawing at Concordia.