Ira Sadoff, an American poet, the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, sat for a portrait at the Hafftka studio.

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Norbert Oldani composed and created music for the painting Husband and Wife, 1992.

"A setting via Kyma X and a DX&E! of Michael Hafftka's photo of his painting Husband and Wife. Blue means spirit - in this case a unity with a duality within. The music is a simple 2 voice convergence canon with accompaniment and a seamless variation gave a unified two part AB form. Perhaps if Michael had made another painting like this one the man would be sitting down and the woman would be standing up. Yes vs. No, + vs. -, etc. This is in 26 tone EDO with a touch of one of it's modes, the Erlich Double Diatonic."

Norbert Oldani's website

Norbert's personal musical creed:
"To create a music which is instrumentally expressive and which uses mainly electronic instrumental technology and which is also based on contemporary acoustical knowledge and mathematics."

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Collaboration between Michael Hafftka and Cecelia Chapman. Video by Cecelia Chapman, Music by Feeding Goats (Michael Hafftka & Yonat Hafftka). Cecelia Chapman is an artist and filmmaker; her work investigates image, perception, and belief, creating works that attempt to examine human connection in the universe.

A blast from the past. Just added Portrait of Cathleen, 1983, oil on canvas, to the Early Years section. Click on the image to enlarge.

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Artist Review at NY Arts, the international guide to the art world. “The blank canvas is a mystical beginning of an inner journey.”

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The poet Irena Klepfisz sat for a portrait at the Brooklyn studio.




























Portriat of Irena Klepfisz, 40x30 inches, oil on canvas ©2011

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The poet Gerald Stern sat for a portrait at the Hafftka's studio.





































Portrait of Gerald Stern, 48x36 inches, oil on canvas ©2011

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In May 2011, three month before The Library of Congress announced their selection of Phillip Levine as the next poet laureate of the United State, succeeding W. S. Merwin, Phil sat for his protrait at the Brooklyn Studio of Michael Hafftka.




































Portriat of Phillip Levine, 48x36 inches, oil on canvas ©2011

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At the end of 2010 Michael Hafftka painted a portrait of the poet and writer Rodger Kamenetz, what turned out to be the begining of a series of portraits of poets and other artists. Hafftka and Kamenetz are collaborating on a book of poems by Kamenetz with drawings by Hafftka.





































Portrait of Rodger Kamenetz, 40x30 inches, oil on canvas ©2010

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Teetering on the Edge of Creation: Painting the Zohar, an article by Laura Beckman, July 7, 2011, in Tikkun Daily, about Hafftka's recent work. A selection of paintings is featurred in the Tikkun Gallery of the same issue.

This painting is in the Chapman University's Phyllis and Ross Escalette Permanent Collection of Art curated by Maggi Owens. It is reproduced in the book Chapman University Collections published in 2011. The painting is based on the forward to the Zohar and is accompanied by the quote "As He verged on creating the world, all the letters presented themselves before Him, from last to first." (The Zohar, Pritzker Edition, Volume 1)

Randy Esada, a Los Angeles art dealer, has recently purchased 22 large oil paintings of my early work from the Robin Symes collection. London’s best-known and most successful dealer in antiquities in the 80’s, Robin Symes, and his partner Christo Michaelides had the largest collection of my early work of any private or public collection. The paintings have never been in any of my shows since my selling them to Robin and Christo in the 1980’s. The paintings hung at the Rockefeller Guesthouse on 52^nd Street, a building designed by Philip C. Johnson in 1948,which at that time was owned by Robin and Christo. I have not seen theses paintings for many years, nor did I know where they were since Robin Symes sold the Rockefeller Guesthouse to Ronald S. Lauder in 1989.
Robin Symes’ rise and fall are described in the publication by Peter Watson and Cecelia Todeschini entitled The Medici Conspiracy: The Illicit Journey of Looted Antiquities--From Italy's Tomb Raiders to the World's Greatest Museums (2006) and in an online article by Peter Watson The fall of Robin Symes.Robin Symes’ misfortunes intensified dramatically when Christo Michaelides, his life long partner, died in a freak accident in 1999. Robin alienated the family of his late partner, son and heir of the Papadimitriou shipping family, and they spent millions on proving legal claim to half of the Robin Symes’ assets. Dimitri Papadimitriou, the head of the family, won the legal battle. This loss pushed Symes into bankruptcy that resulted in his conviction and incarceration in January 2005.

Randy Esada is now bringing some of these works to light in his gallery Thrive Decor.

Adirondack Review, Spring 2010 Issue
Article by Lori Cole
"Imagery of the Unconscious: The Fantastic Dark and Unsettling Light of Michael Hafftka (the Zohar Book of Concealment Series)"

Link to the article here

Lori Cole is a PhD candidate in the Department of Comparative Literature at New York University.  Her research focuses on the artistic exchange between the European and Latin American avant-garde. She is also a translator and art critic, writing for Artforum.com and Flash Art, among other publications.

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A solo show of paintings based on the new translation of the Zohar by Daniel Matt, The Zohar: Pritzker Edition, at the Mizel Art and Culture Center (MACC) in Denver, Co. This exhibition features a group of paintings that evolved from deep engagement with the Zohar, a collection of texts widely considered to be the most important work of Kabbalah. The exhibit opens two weeks after the close of a major show at Yeshiva University Museum, New York, in which a different selection from the Zohar works was on display. The Zohar series is a work in progress that began in 2008. Click here to see the completed works. Click here for the artist's statement.

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Michael Hafftka has been named a notable alumnus of DeWitt Clinton High School in The New York Times August 04, 2009 http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/21/dewitt-clintons-remarkable-alumni/?hp
Other notable alumni in the arts include:
H. Romare Bearden 1928, Alfred Leslie 1945, Barnett Newman 1923, Richard Avedon 1941, Aaron Siskind 1921, Will Eisner 1936 (The Spirit Creator), Bob Kane 1934 (Batman Creator), Stan Lee 1939 (Spiderman, Hulk Creator), Alvin Schwartz 1934 (Superman, Batman), Roy Neuberger 1921, Alan Kaufman 1971, and James Baldwin 1942

The New York Times article reported on the publication of  “The Castle on the Parkway: The Story of New York City’s DeWitt Clinton High School and its Extraordinary Influence on American Life.” Gerard J. Pelisson and James A. Garvey III, former Clinton teachers, embarked on an exhaustively researched telling of the Clinton story, from its establishment in 1897 in Midtown to its contemporary status as one of the largest public schools in the Bronx. But most important, the book is a tribute to the outstanding, often unsung alumni. There are a number of entries in the book about Michael Hafftka and references to his book Conscious/Unconscious. The Castle on the Parkway is available at www.castleontheparkway.com

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A major show of recent work at Yeshiva University Museum (YUM), 15 West 16th Street, New York, NY, March 22-August 30, 2009. The show includes a major large painting from 1985 called The Hill (Jerusalem), which is in the permanent collection of YUM. Also included in the show are 22 watercolors of the Hebrew alphabet, Aleph-Bet, and a selection of 22 watercolors from a work in progress based on the new translation of the Zohar, The Zohar: Pritzker Edition, by Daniel C. Matt, which is being published by Stanford University Press. In addition to the large painting in the museum's collection and the watercolors, the exhibit includes a few of Hafftka's most recent paintings from 2007 and 2008. This show is the first major solo show of Michael Hafftka in New York City since his show at the Aberbach Fine Art gallery in the late 90's and 4 years since his retrospective of large oil paintings at the Housatonic Museum in Bridgeport, Ct. Click here for the artist's statements REVIEW in The Jewish Press

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A solo show of Hafftka at the Mizel Center for Arts and Culture in Denver, Colorado, November 2009 to January 2010.

Curated by Simon Zalkind

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Two books from Six Gallery Press

Circular Stairs, Distress in the Mirrors Poems by Peter Klappert art by Michael Hafftka publisher Six Gallery Press Buy at Amazon

West Virgina Fiction by Che Elias art by Michael Hafftka publisher Six Gallery Press Buy at Amazon

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The Terror of Loch Ness reviewed at MUNGBEING.COM

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Wait, 60"x40" oil on canvas, 2006, was added to the permanent collection of Central High School, Philadelphia, PA, and is on permanent display.

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Conscious/Unconscious reviewed at The Review of Contemporary Fiction

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Aleph-Bet in the national newspaper, The Jewish Daily Forward, on the first page of the Arts section and on the homepage online. View article here.

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The Yeshiva University Museum acquired “The Hill (Jerusalem)", a major 1985 painting, for their permanent collection. The painting had been previously exhibited at the Jewish Museum in NY in the 1986 show Jewish Themes and was reproduced in their catalogue with the following text written by the curator of the Jewish Museum, Susan Tumarkin Goodman:

"In The Hill (Jerusalem) Michael Hafftka has created a turbulent work inspired by the words of Ezekiel. As the son of Holocaust survivors, the artist found a contemporary metaphoric resonance in this passage that expresses God’s anger towards those who have fallen into the sin of idol worship. The various divine punishments are vividly expressed by Hafftka through energetic brush strokes and gestural surfaces that inform his multilayered and complex biblical interpretation with emotional fervor. In this scene of intense drama, with its tormented frenzied figures, Hafftka evokes the power of divine wrath with a raw intensity that is both disturbing and stimulating."

To see a larger image click here.
The painting measures 78 inches high and 224 inches wide.

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Marc Lowe reviews Conscious/Unconscious in The Mad Hatter Review

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January 2008 A Heaven Of Others novel by Joshua Cohen art by Michael Hafftka publisher Starcherone Books Buy at Amazon

Fall 2007 The Terror of Loch Ness fiction by Che Elias art by Michael Hafftka publisher Six Gallery Press Buy at Amazon

Fall 2007 Aleph-Bet, An Alphabet For The Perplexed text by Joshua Cohen art by Michael Hafftka publisher Six Gallery Press Buy at Amazon

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Now available at Amazon Conscious/Unconscious fiction by Michael Hafftka with 27 drawings. Publisher: Six Gallery Press, Pittsburgh, PA Favorable mention at NextBook.org Reviewed on Amazon by Ann Rudy May 4, 2007 Reviewed at the Forward Jun 06, 2007

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Brussels, Belgium
Three large paintings will be included in a show at the Musee des Beaux-Arts d'Ixelles. The show will be on view from October 18, 2006 to January 10, 2007 and will travel to Arizona State University Art Museum in March 2007.
Please click on the images to enlarge.

Teri Johnson ©1985 78"x62" o/c, coll. S. Janssen			Red Road ©1985 78"x62" o/c, coll. S. Janssen
					Incubus & Succubus ©1988 78"x62" o/c, coll. S. Janssen

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New York, NY
Published by Fugue State Press: Stet by James Chapman, book cover by Michael Hafftka.

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Tempe, AZ
The ASU Art Museum, part of the Herberger College of Fine Arts at Arizona State University, has just received a gift of two encaustic paintings by Hafftka from the collector Stephane Jansen, a resident of Arizona. The ASU, named "the single most impressive venue for contemporary art in Arizona" by Art in America magazine, now has a total of three encaustic paintings by Hafftka.

	Untitled ©1988 24"x19" encaustic on panel
		Secrect ©1988 58"x48" encaustic on panel

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Washington, DC
The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, aquires a 1985 set of etchings by Hafftka named Overtones.
To view the set click here.

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Art New England Review by Steve Starger

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Tempe, Arizona
The Arizona State Univeristy Art Museum located in Tempe, AZ, has recently aquired through a generous donation from Stephane Janssen of Scottsdale, a painting by Michael Hafftka called "Fat Man". The painting is one of six encaustic panels created by the artist in 1988.

Port. of John Caldwell ©1993oil on canvas 16"x14"		Fat Man ©1988 58"x48" encaustic on panel

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Pittsburg, PA
The Carnegie Museum of Art acquired this month a portrait of John Caldwell by the artist Michael Hafftka.
John Caldwell (1941-1993) served as the Curator of Contemporary Art at the Carnegie from 1983 to 1989. Richard Armstrong, the Director at the Carnegie Museum, knew and worked with John Caldwell and thus can appreciate the significance of the portrait to the history of the museum. As a Curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art for more than a decade during the eighties, Mr. Armstrong also knows the work of Michael Hafftka and has followed his career over the years.
Caldwell discovered Hafftka’s work shortly before joining the Carnegie. Several years later under Caldwell’s directive, the Carnegie bought a large painting by Hafftka for the Museum’s permanent collection. Caldwell wrote extensively about Hafftka’s work and a friendship between the two ensued.
The painting was purchased from Michael Hafftka in Brooklyn by Ms. Laura Hoptman, Curator of Contemporary Art, under the directive of Mr. Armstrong.
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