MUSE Film and TV

Enigmatic Marvin Israel (1924-1984), artist, designer, art director and teacher, influenced many of the important photographers and designers of the 20th century. Who Is Marvin Israel is a short documentary that explores his life and work through the words of those who knew him. Unseen and unrecognized by all but a small group of people, Marvin Israel became friend and provocateur to many of the photographers who defined the medium in the last half of the 20th-Century. Richard Avedon, Diane Arbus, Lee Friedlander, Garry Winnogrand, and many others honed their aesthetic on the unforgiving whetstone of Marvin Israel’s unpredictable intuitions.

As a designer, Marvin Israel also reinvented the nature of photography exhibition, transforming it into a dramatic visual adventure that has set the standard ever since. In his brief tenure as Harper’s Bazaar’s art director, he helped trigger interest in fine photography by publishing, in the unlikely context of a fashion magazine, Walker Evans’ subway photographs, Bill Brandt’s commissioned portraits and architectural photography, and offbeat projects by Arbus and Friedlander. He also designed several books for his friends, many of which stand as icons.

Incredibly, for one so well connected, Israel lived the life of a reclusive artist with his Cuban born wife, the legendary artist and ceramicist  Margaret Ponce Israel. Although his paintings were described in the New York Times as “utterly astonishing” and “the work of a master”, his work never achieved broad recognition or financial success.  Robert Frank, when approached to be interviewed for this documentary about Marvin Israel, could only respond “what took you so long?”

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