During the 1950s Abularach worked in the National Archaeology and Ethnology Museum doing museum displays, which introduced him to American anthropological history. In 1959 he moved permanently to New York and encountered Zen Buddhism, then popular in New York, thereby creating an East-West dialogue in his work. He became famous for his enlarged images of the human eye. The work of Abularach is a combination of the language of folklore, magic and mysticism, and contemporary concerns.