Culture Vulture / Art: A to Zabar

By C.S. GILBERT

The family that creates together does great together . . . and that’s spot on both for the description of long-married Stanley and Judith Zabar and for the really excellent art show they mounted together last spring at Cocco and Salem Gallery on Upper Duval.

The Zabar name is best known for the family deli, well established for 80 years now at 80th and Broadway in New York City. (Full disclosure: I lived at 130 West 80th St. between Columbus and Amsterdam and was a great fan of the coffee, the food, and later, as a visitor to NYC, the housewares.)

But not in Key West. When the couple became parttime Sugarloaf residents, about 20 years ago, they became better known for art than for foodstuffs. First Judith, then Stanley, earned reputations as highly competent fine artists, she in painting and he in photography. She developed into a truly interesting and emotionally-charged abstract painter. He, until the most recent Cocco and Salem show, was a decent but not very daring photographer. Then he began to experiment with the art form, to mix media, and to produce some knock-your-socks-off work.

Their efforts were not retirement entertainments. “I have been painting since kindergarten and Stanley had a speed graphic when I married him almost 63 years ago,” Judith Zabar wrote from their home in New York early this summer. Both achieved a level of artistry that earned previous shows at Cocco and Salem, which is the youngest of the really top drawer galleries in town. This season, however, Mr. Zabar started augmenting his photographs with drawing and paint; the result is a product uniquely his and immensely interesting even when it fails to grab the aesthetic throat and squeeze. Gallery co-owner Jim Salem, himself a superb artist and teacher, summed up the transformation: “He said he’s just having fun,” Salem told us.

Would that fun more often led to good art.

In the recent Zabar family show, Stanley showed the most vibrant colors; Judith’s canvases were darker than other recent work, less to our taste than the brighter ones but professionally composed and clearly interesting. It was a great show.

As the immensely interesting amd varied 2014-15 arts season gave way to a decidedly less chock-full but nevertheless interesting summer, the vulture is sad that timedidn’t allow proper attention to be given to a number of shows at Frangipani, in particular Paul Carmichael and Mark Harker.. . . to Helen Harrison and absolutely anyone else in the.Harrison Gallery’s stable . . .to Will Fernandez . . . to anything at SoDu. . . to KW Art Center’s demo meetings . . . .The vulture is of course just scratching the surface, but these topics topics deserve a legitimate beakful of a column; may there be enough time to give them all the honor they deserve next season.

That’s all for now. Gotta fly!

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