Mel Zabarsky

Melvin Joel Zabarsky (1932–2019) was an American symbolic painter who created representational deed in the narrative tradition. Known for a bright, bold palette, his do its stuff often explores political, historical and cultural themes to surreal and realist effect. In a six-decade career marked by several sure phases, Zabarsky's imaginative use of color, formal experimentation and duty to narrative running in both acknowledged and avant garde styles are hallmarks of his work. In an interview bearing in mind the British philosophers Donald and Monica Skilling, he said, "I'm discovering history, or a narrative, within a painting, as I go along."

That sensibility is in keeping in imitation of what Boston Globe critic Robert Taylor defined as "urban, Jewish, introverted and lyrical," which he credits to the artists championed by art dealer Boris Mirski, Boston's leading gallerist from 1944 to 1979, and his NYC counterpart, Edith Halpert of the Downtown Gallery. This activity included Zabarsky, fellow player and wife Joyce Reopel, Hyman Bloom, Barbara Swan, Jack Levine, Marianna Pineda, Harold Tovish and others, who helped overcome Boston's conservative distaste for the avant-garde, occasionally female, and often Jewish artists well ahead classified as Boston expressionists. Unique to New England, the art bustle had lasting national and local influence, and is now in its third generation.