Graduate School, Syracuse University
Married the artist Margaret Ponce (1929-1987)
Left for Two Years in Paris painting and studying.

MFA in Graphic Design from Yale
Became art director of Seventeen Magazine

Marvin leaves photography as the center of his art for working in charcoal, pastels, and ink.

Marvin becomes art director for Harper's Bazaar Magazine.

“It was 1961. ... I applied for a job as an assistant to Marvin Israel, who became my boss and my friend. He was an antagonistic crazy man. Marvin was a big influence. Dick Avedon was a big influence too, and obviously Diana Vreeland, who was the fashion editor. I went straight from some minor jobs out of college smack into the Bazaar art department. I had no knowledge of fashion and little knowledge of photography, but I knew that I loved film.” — Ruth Ansel, 2002

Marvin becomes art director for Atlantic Records as well.

Q. “You became co-art director of Harper's with Bea Feitler in 1963. You must have been in your mid twenties.”
A: “And we were women! When Marvin was fired there must have been a hell of a lot of talk about, ‘Who shall we get, who’s going to replace Marvin?’ It was a big deal — Harper’s Bazaar was a high-end fashion magazine. The decision was made to give ‘the girls’ the chance to be co-art directors.”
— Inverview with Ruth Ansel, 2002

Marvin began intermittently teaching Panting/Drawing/Design at the Parson's School of Design in New York and in the Cooper Union at the School of Visual Arts.

Died 7 May in Dallas, Texas, of a heart attack while working on Richard Avedon’s In the American West

“There have been two teachers in my life, Alexey Bodovitch and Marvin Isreal. Since Israel's death last year, not a week passes in which I don't miss him: the aristocracy of his mind. his addiction to quality, and his refusal to rub life the right way. He was my true friend.” — Richard Avedon.

A Retrospective show of Marvin Israel art is given at the Parson's School of Design. The four untitled black and white works shown above are from the catalog of that show. EMI.01.0497 is also from that show, although the catalog only has a black and white version of the drawing.

There have been several retrospective exhibitions since then in New York and Hawaii; the most recent being 1991 at the Twining Gallery in New York.

All pictures, except the album covers, are courtesy of the Estate of Marvin Israel. The EMI numbers below the picture are used as identification numbers and are assigned by the Estate to known works of art.

Many one-of-a kind original art works by Marvin Isreal are available for purchase. There are several copies of Handiwork available as well. If you would like to own one or more of these pictures please click in the lower right corner of the banner below, where it says “Contact Museum” and send us an email letting us know of your interest.