Gotkinarts The Fine Art of Jerry and Marjorie Gotkin

About the Artist: Marjorie Gotkin

Marjorie was born in Atlantic City on March 10, 1925. Her talent for the violin was discovered when she was 8 years old. At the age of 14 she had a string trio that was playing at the finest hotels in Atlantic City, a radio show, and when she was 16 she joined the Atlantic City Symphony Orchestra. In a competition of over 30,000 young musicians throughout the United States, she was chosen as Concertmaster/first violinist with Leopold Stokowski’s All-American Youth Orchestra in 1941. There is a recording of a concert from July 10, 1941. She turned down full four-year scholarships to major music universities including Marymount.

At the age of 22 she began painting. After briefly attending some classes of Hans Hofmann at his studio in the Village, she started developing her own techniques. Using underpaint and palette knives to create texture, her oil paintings ranged from large Abstract Expressionism to still life, abstract floral, nudes and paintings based on her metaphysical studies.

Having reviewed her paintings at an exhibit on Cape Cod, the Cape Cod Standard Times wrote, “Her modern-type works have great strength of color and rugged individuality, are very versatile, ranging from bright autumn hues to soft pastels and delicate nudes with color backdrops.”

Art News called her oils of floral and still life, “Bright, heavily textured canvases that radiate swirls of color and emotion.” In 1989, having seen her watercolors at a Manhattan restaurant, Julia, a Garden Restaurant, the owner of The Art Connoisseur Gallery, Suzanne Borelli wrote to her asking if she would exhibit in a group show of contemporary American artists and felt that her work was uniquely representative of American Impressionism. She had several major floral watercolors in the exhibit during the summer of 1989 in Rhinebeck, N.Y. at The Art Connoisseur Gallery.

Artloop a dynamic, but short-lived website in 2000 reviewed her work and used it as representing several genres including, seascapes, ships, flowers and vases. They listed her with the great 19th and 20th Centuries impressionists. The New York Times and CNN had given Artloop great exposure as an artistic evaluator of American art.

Two portfolios now have a permanent place in the Smithsonian Institution American Art/Portrait Gallery Libraries in Washington, D.C. under the title: “Marjorie and Jerry Gotkin Collection 1965-2007”. The portfolios contain many reproductions of their work, exhibits, biographies, reviews contracts, correspondence and sales.

For many years Marjorie and her husband, Jerry, supported Brooklyn Mental Health for Emotionally Disturbed Children and their artwork raised thousands of dollars through private exhibits and group shows.

Marjorie opened her Manhattan studio on a full time basis from 1977 to 1990 for children and adults who needed to present portfolios for special entrance examinations to the finest art schools and universities in NYC. A 12 year old, Julia Jacquette, a noted New York artist, worked with Marjorie for two years gaining entrance to an elite high school for art. Other students went on to exhibit throughout the country in galleries and museums. At that time Max Bugzester had his studio in back of Panoras Gallery and when he passed away in 1978, many of his students who had seen Marjorie’s work on exhibit started to attend our studio.

But it is her watercolors that are so very unique. Not adhering to any standard preparation or execution of the medium, her style expresses the subtlest to the most violent. These can be seen in the Tall Ships series which she did well over 300 paintings; ships in turmoil or serenity, vases that are mere suggestions or flowers exploding off the paper. Her technique incorporated from her oil paintings largely involved the use of the palette knife to apply the watercolors and gouache, seldom using brushwork. Two large art coffee-table books were published in 2008. “The Tall Ships Watercolor and Gouache: The Art of Marjorie Gotkin” book is 190 pages and contains 172 of her watercolor and gouache paintings of ships and seascapes. “Floral/Still Life Watercolors and Gouache: The Art of Marjorie Gotkin” is 280 pages and has 243 of her work. Both books can be ordered on line. Please look under Books for the link.

We are still discovering ownership of her work as these books are but a fraction of what she created. On July 6, 1999, Marjorie Gotkin, with loving care, made her transition at Hospice by the Sea.