Isaiah Zagar, an artist who created one of Philadelphia’s great public art attractions, died on February 19 due to complications from heart failure and Parkinson’s Disease, which he had been diagnosed with in 2023. His death was confirmed by Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens (PMG), the nonprofit organization that tends to the eponymous artwork. His creations “defined the spirit of Philadelphia,” writes the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Zagar’s work is included in the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Fabric Workshop and Museum, the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, and the Brandywine Workshop and Archives. He received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Pew Charitable Trusts.
Born in Philadelphia, Zagar was raised in Brooklyn and earned a BFA in painting from New York’s Pratt Institute. At age 19, he discovered a sprawling art environment created in Woodstock, New York, by untrained artist Clarence Schmidt, which instilled an interest in this strain of outsider art. He married his wife Julia (née Papiroff), a fellow artist, in 1963, and the pair spent three years working with folk artists in Peru while serving with the Peace Corps as conscientious objectors to the Vietnam War.
After a 1967 suicide attempt, Zagar taught himself to work in mosaic and used it to decorate the exterior of Julia’s folk art store, Eye’s Gallery, on Philadelphia’s South Street, where they settled for life in 1968. Emily Smith, PMG’s executive director, notes in an announcement of his passing that the artist found art to be “a tool to survive.”
Isaiah Zagar’s crowning creation was Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens.
Courtesy Philadelphia's Magic Gardens.
“My work is marked by events and is a mirror of the mind that is building and falling apart, having a logic but close to chaos, refusing to stay still for the camera, and giving one a sense of heaven and hell simultaneously,” the artist said.
Zagar would ultimately create more than 200 public mosaic murals, principally in Philadelphia but also around the world, while Julia continued to run Eye’s Gallery, presenting an international group of folk artists. The couple’s life is the subject of the 2008 documentary In a Dream, directed by their son Jeremiah Zagar.
Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens consists of two buildings the Zagars bought as studios in 1986 and 1995. He would go on to cover them with mosaics and then continue to embellish adjacent vacant lots they did not own. When the owner of the lots moved to sell them and destroy Zagar’s work, the neighborhood rallied to preserve it, and incorporated PMG as a nonprofit. Zagar would go on to further develop the lots, including excavating tunnels and grottos and covering every surface. The duo bought a nearby warehouse in 2007 and he mosaicked that space as well over the following fourteen years and ultimately donated it to Magic Gardens.
Isaiah Zagar’s crowning creation was Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens.
Courtesy Philadelphia's Magic Gardens.
“Isaiah was more than our founder; he was our close friend, teacher, collaborator, and creative inspiration,” says Smith. “He was unlike anyone we have ever met and will ever meet. Above all things, he was an artist. In his lifetime, he created a body of work that is unique and remarkable, and one that has left an everlasting mark on our city. He always told us that the staff and visitors were the beating heart of his artworks, and with us it will beat on. We love you, Isaiah. We will miss you so much.”
