Michael Hafftka

"Leap of Faith," o/c, 78 x 62 in. (198 x 157.5 cm), by Michael Hafftka, 1998

Michael Hafftka (born 1953) is an American figurative expressionist painter living in New York City. Hafftka was born in Manhattan to Eva and Simon Hafftka, European refugees and Holocaust survivors. Raised in the Bronx, he attended public schools and experimented with several creative forms before he discovered painting when he was 20. In the wake of the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War in 1973, Hafftka volunteered to work for a year on a Kibbutz in Israel. The "momentous change brought on a series of visionary experiences and mystical dreams", and when writing "proved an inadequate outlet of expression," Hafftka began to paint—an experience that proved "revelatory and self defining."

Back in New York, Hafftka worked as an artist while supporting himself with odd jobs. A voracious and broad reader and a frequent visitor to local museums, the artist discovered an affinity for Old Masters, such as Rembrandt and Goya, as well as for 20th-century artists, such as Giacometti and Bacon. Hafftka's interest in the graphic arts led him to design a number of covers for Urizen Books, including Detour (1977 novel)|Detour, Wedding Feast, and Circuits (novel)|Circuits by Michael Brodsky. At a Brodsky book-launch party, he met publisher Kevin Begos who published Hafftka's first book.

Several publications on the artist were followed by his first one-person show at Art Galaxy. Among the New York galleries that subsequently have featured his work are: the Rosa Esman Gallery, the Aberbach Gallery, the Mary Ryan Gallery, and the DiLaurenti Gallery. He has also exhibited widely in the United States and abroad.

Hafftka's work is represented in the permanent collections of a number of museums, including: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Museum of Modern Art, Brooklyn Museum of Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Carnegie Museum of Art, New York Public Library, Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum, Housatonic Museum of Art, Arizona State University Art Museum, National Gallery of Art, and Yeshiva University Museum.

Housatonic Museum Of Art in Bridgeport, CT, mounted the show A Retrospective: Large Oils 1985-2003, October 2004, with a 72-page catalogue containing 23 color plates. The catalogue includes essays by Prof. Sam Hunter and Michael Brodsky. Yeshiva University Museum at the Center for Jewish History in New York held a solo exhibition I of the Storm, a major show of recent works, March 22 through August 30, 2009.

Illustrated Books

• Conscious/Unconscious, short stories and drawings by Michael Hafftka, Six Gallery Press 2007, ISBN 978-0-9781772-9-4

• In the Penal Colony, a short story by Franz Kafka illustrated by Michael Hafftka, Limited Editions Club 1987, ASIN B003Y7OW8W

• The Terror of Loch Ness, a novel by Che Elias, illustrated by Michael Hafftka, Six Gallery Press 2007, ISBN 978-0-9782962-0-9

• A Heaven of Others, a novel by Joshua Cohen with art by Michael Hafftka, Starcherone Books 2008, ISBN 978-0-9788811-4-6

• Circular Stairs, Distress in the Mirrors, poems by Peter Klappert with art by Michael Hafftka, Six Gallery Press 2008, ISBN 978-0-9810091-1-7

External links

• Official website
• Essay by Michael Brodsky