La Jolla 1929–2018 Laguna Beach, CA

Upon her return from Rome to California, she earned her MFA in the inaugural class at University of California at Irvine in 1971 and moved to New York.

On January 1, 1972, Hafif created a work that serves as the basis for her practice for all her later oeuvre. With short vertical graphite strokes starting from the upper left corner, Hafif filled the page with vertical marks, explicitly revealing the process inherent in making the drawing. With an integrity recalling the rigor and seriality of Robert Ryman and Giorgio Morandi, she transferred this process into watercolor, oil, acrylic, and an entire inventory of pigments and supports used in painting. One stroke after another, in a meditative process that recalls the marking of time, Hafif reveals the qualities of her chosen medium through layering, juxtaposition, and the meticulous exploration of color.

Hafif was included in Rooms, the first exhibition at the experimental PS1 space in Queens in 1976 with artists such as Alan Saret, David Hammons, Franz West and Michelangelo Pistoletto among others. Recent exhibitions include a solo show at the Laguna Art Museum including a retrospective monograph of Hafif´s Inventory (her first show in California since 1975 exhibition at the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art), Made In LA, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, 2014, and solo shows at Museum St.Gallen and Baselland, 2017/2018 and MAMCO Geneva 2019, Switzerland.

WORKS IN PUBLIC COLLECTIONS:
Albright Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo
The American Embassy, Tokyo
The American Medical Association, Chicago
Chase Manhattan Bank, New York
DaimlerChrysler AG, Stuttgart
L’Espace de l’Art Concret, Mouans-Sartoux, France
Espace d’art contemporain, Demigny, France
Clemens-Sels Museum, Neuss, Germany
Fonds Municipal de Decoration, Ville de Geneve, Switzerland
Fonds Cantonal de Decoration, Ville de Geneve, Switzerland
FRAC Bourgogne, Dijon, France
FNAC, Puteaux, France
Laguna Beach Art Museum, California
Museum of Modern Art, New York
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
Kunsthaus Aarau, Aarau, Switzerland
Karl Ernst Osthaus Museum, Hagen, Germany
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.
Rotkreuzspital, Zurich, Switzerland
Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Switzerland
studio a, Otterndorf, Germany
Musée des Urselines, Macon, France
Von der Heydt Museum, Wuppertal, Germany
Wright State Medical School, Dayton, Ohio

LOANS TO:
Mamco, Geneva, Switzerland
MAC, Lyon, France
FRAC Bourgogne, Dijon, France
Musee des Beaux Artes de Nantes, Nantes, France
Private Collection, Lenbachhaus, Munich
Private Collection, Kunstmuseum Bonn, Germany