Tony Magar was born Anthony Gordon McGhan on February 17, 1936, in London, England.
He died on November 22, 2022, in Portland, Texas.
Tony Magar was an accomplished and prolific sculptor and painter. He studied at the Royal Albert Hall School of Literature, London, England. He immigrated to the United States in 1956 settling in New York City where he worked as a hairdresser. In 1959, he moved to Torremolinos, Spain where he worked as an artist. In 1960, he returned to New York City where he worked as a studio assistant to sculptor Mark di Suvero. In 1968, he moved to Denver, Colorado where he taught art at the University of Denver. The City of Denver chose two of Magar’s monumental sculptures for the Burns Park sculpture garden. In 1994, Magar moved to Pueblo, Colorado where he studied Buddhism. In 1983, he moved to Taos, New Mexico and established an art studio. His final move was in 2010, to Portland, Texas, a small Gulf Coast town near Corpus Christi. He continued to create art in his Portland art studio until his death in 2022.
Tony Magar worked with Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, and Robert Rauschenberg. He was one of the founders of Park Place, the first gallery in SoHo to show abstract art.
The art of Tony Magar is or has been exhibited in museums and galleries including but not necessarily limited to the following:
203 Fine Art, Taos, NM
Andriola's New Gallery, Taos, NM
A.R.C. Fine Art, Fairfield, CT
Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX
Cline-LewAllen Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
Dwan Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Festival of the Arts, Santa Fe, NM
Harwood Museum of Art, University of New Mexico, Taos, NM
K Space Contemporary, Corpus Christi, TX
Laura Rathe Fine Art, Dallas, TX, Houston, TX, and Kirby, TX
Maggie Kress Gallery, Taos, NM
Martha Jackson Gallery, New York City, NY
Mike Weiss Gallery, New York City, NY
New Gallery, Houston, TX, and Taos, NM
Nick Brooks Antiques, Dallas, TX
Original Art Broker, Minneapolis, MN
Park Place Gallery, New York City, NY
Parkerson Gallery, Houston, TX
Reeves Art + Design, Houston, TX
Stables Fine Art Gallery, Taos, NM
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City, NY
“The subject matter is coming from a different place than the external world. You’re not dealing with the external reality, but more with magic. Personally conceived magic.” Tony Magar, 2011
