Marius Sznajderman

Born in Paris in 1926, Sznajderman's Jewish parents had migrated to France from Poland in 1923. In November 1942 the family fled Nazi-occupied France for Spain before settling in Caracas, Venezuela. Sznajderman briefly studied medicine at the Universidad Central de Venezuela in Caracas but did not complete a medical degree. More interested in art than medicine, he attended the School of Fine Arts in Caracas where he studied painting, printmaking and scenic design. His teachers included illustrator Ramon Martin Durban, scenic designer Charles Ventrillon-Horber and painter Rafael Monasterios. He helped found the Taller Libre de Arte, an experimental workshop for the visual arts, sponsored by the Ministry of Education. The Taller Libre de Arte was a center for young artists to work and to meet with critics and intellectuals to discuss avant-garde ideas and artistic trends from Europe and Latin America. Among the notable artists who participated in the Taller Libre de Arte were Ramón Vásquez Brito, Carlos González Bogen, Luis Guevara Moreno, Mateo Manaure, Virgilio Trómpiz, Alirio Oramas, Dora Hersen, Alejandro Otero, Jesús Rafael Soto, Pascual Navarro, Aimée Battistini, José Fernández Díaz, Narciso Debourg, Oswaldo Vigas and Perán Erminy. Sznajderman’s early works as a student and young artist showed the influence of Cubism and Expressionism with subject matter ranging from figures to still life to Venezuelan landscapes. His work often explored Latin American themes, art and architecture. In 1948 Sznajderman was awarded the art student’s prize for a watercolor in the annual National Gallery exhibit. In 1949 Sznajderman had a solo exhibition at the Taller Libre de Arte. The exhibit catalogue was written by Sergio Antillano, a prominent Venezuelan writer and critic. That same year, Sznajderman immigrated to the United States to attend Columbia University, where he studied with scenic designer J. Woodman Thompson and printmaker Hans Alexander Mueller. He received a Bachelor of Science degree with a major in scenic design in 1953, after which he was drafted into the U.S. Army. In the military he worked as an artist-illustrator, completing his service in 1955. He returned to Columbia on the G.I Bill to attend Teachers College, where he received a Master of Fine Arts in art education. During the 1950s Sznajderman created set designs for Circle in the Square Theatre, the French Art Theatre and the Felix Fibish Dance Company, all in New York. By the late 1950s, however, his focus was shifting to fine arts and teaching. In 1956 he married journalist Suzanne Messing. They settled in Hackensack, New Jersey, where the couple reared three children. In 1960 Sznajderman was among the three founders, along with painters Sam Weinik and Ben Wilson, of the Modern Artists Guild (MAG), an association of modern artists working in northern New Jersey. MAG remained active in the New York metropolitan area into the mid-1980s, with members exhibiting individually and as a group. Among the artists who were early members of MAG were Esther Rosen, Alexandra Merker, Erna Weill, Jerry Goldman, Lillian Marzell and Evelyn Wilson. In the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, in addition to painting and printmaking, Sznajderman taught art, art history and design at a number of institutions, including New York University, the School of Visual Arts, Fairleigh Dickinson University and the Ridgewood (N.J.) School of Art. He also taught art in New Jersey public schools under federal and stat