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BY NATASHA THOMSEN
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Chair in maple. Anja Hinrichsen photo.

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To Matko Peckay, wood causes a contagious feeling that leads to a work of art or something functional, often both.

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The 58-year-old Slovenian has been creating hand-carved armchairs, rocking chairs, loveseats and tables out of hardwood on and off for over 14 years, turning what is initially thought of as functional into a passionately embedded art form.

A year after moving to New York City in 1997, Peckay and his wife, Jeannette Gerber, settled 35 miles north on a 1-acre property in Westchester County’s Ossining, N.Y. While he pursues his passion one day at a time in his workshop, his wife now has a successful business as a tutor for standardized-test preparation. Taking breaks only to renovate their 125-year-old home and landscape their garden, his mind is on design and creating a new piece ever year.

“I’m stepping back and preparing myself,” said Peckay, in his thick Slovenian accent. Spurred on by an unstoppable urge to work with his hands, he bears no particular message other than the love of what he does and finding the harmony between what he feels and makes a piece “right.”

“We, as people, are different and see things differently. Otherwise, it all would be pretty boring,” he says. Accepting those different approaches means allowing a “live and let live” within woodworking, and yet he has to stay within the limits of what can be done with furniture. “I’m learning to stay open and go through a process.”

Selecting the wood lays the foundation for everything that follows. “The challenge is in finding wood where the grain works, inside as well as outside.” There is also the interplay of thickness and width, which determines which woods are more flexible. Peckay culls through local lumberyards for hardwoods – beech, curly and spotted maple and black walnut among them. He’ll even go to remote warehouses to select the appropriate kiln-dried woods with the straightest grain. He now sparingly uses Swiss pear, which is expensive in the United States.

Born in Ljubljana, Slovenia, formerly Yugoslavia, Matko Peckay made mahogany sailing boats as a young man. He became interested in design while studying mechanical engineering at the Stojna Tehnicna Sola. Following a trip to Scandinavia in the mid-1970s, he began exploring the elegant curves and lines of now-classic Scandinavian furniture designs. His personal mission: to create chairs and tables that are unique, but true to the wood’s nature.

After moving with Jeannette to California in 1983, Peckay pursued his creative path working as a carpenter and artist’s assistant while taking classes in drawing and watercolor at the Academy of Art University, formerly the San Francisco Academy of Art. Being the primary wage earner for the couple at the time, he couldn’t accept the full-time scholarship offered to him.

Peckay’s self-taught journey as an artist and woodworker largely mirrors, and was profoundly enhanced by, that of renowned Californian contemporary furniture craftsman Sam Maloof. Of Lebanese descent and known for his signature chairs and trademark rocker, Maloof’s work embodied the modern Danish/Scandinavian lines that Peckay relished. “When I saw Maloof’s work, knew I wanted to make this type of furniture.” To achieve this, he had to hone his drawing skills and took a pencil and charcoal class at the university.

Returning to his wife’s native Switzerland in 1990, Peckay received his first commission in a small village in the outskirts of Zurich, where he worked as a carpenter and leased a loft space in an industrial building occupied by artists and tradesmen. At first, it started out as a barter agreement with a potter for a 10-foot, narrow dining room table in maple. By 1996, the same potter ordered a custom-made double-sided desk. Using his connections with cabinetmaking, Peckay launched himself as a woodworker. He went on to make his first love seat and armchair, followed by a rocking chair and dining room table.
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“Chairs are my passion,” he declares. He also has a yen for rockers with long wings and curved backs. A serendipitous encounter with the elderly Sam Maloof in 2001 at the Renwick gallery in Washington, D.C., led to a one-day workshop at the master’s studio in Alta Loma, Calif. Peckay was captivated by how even an armrest shaped out of solid wood respected the flow of lines. “I could see 60 years of experience at the core of his designs.”

Peckay takes the rough-cut wood and selects what will work with the different parts of a chair. He’s familiar enough with the woods to know what colors – from light to reddish brown, or even purple brown – they will produce. Front legs need very straight grains to carry the weight and support the armrest. After hand-carving the different components, he assembles and glues the pieces together, filing them down with handmade rasps from France and doweling them together. He sands and finishes with oil and wax. He may spend upward of 350 hours to create a single armchair, a justification for the minimum $6,700 he asks for one chair.

With a recent order destined for Aspen, Colo., Peckay was challenged with selecting and preparing wood for four matching black walnut chairs that all needed to be of the same proportions. He also discovered the importance of “zooming in and out” of his pieces. “It’s very important to see a chair from afar, to move from micro to macro.”

Peckay says that, while the physical demands of woodworking are stressful to his shoulders, he also finds it necessary to allow his mind time to relax, “otherwise, I get too focused and trapped in the repetitive phase of working each piece.” Three years ago, he began crafting wooden bowls and creating small sculptures from a variety of maples, black walnut, myrtle wood burl and ash. Peckay has found that working on smaller items allows him to “free mold and shape as I go.”

Matko Peckay’s clients include private residents in Westchester, interior designers and architects. His “circle of admirers” includes people who are “in the profession and appreciate my efforts and value what goes into each part of a furniture.”

Group exhibits and furniture shows are another source of encouragement. At the prestigious Philadelphia Invitational Furniture Show in 2005 and 2006, his work caught the eye of acclaimed furniture designer Mira Nakashima, daughter of the late Japanese-American furniture designer and craftsman George Nakashima. She invited Matko and Jeannette to take a private tour of the famous Nakashima studios in New Hope, Pa.

Every spring for the past five years, the Peckays have transformed their living room area into a three-day arts and crafts salon. Here, area artisans join them in presenting their photography, jewelry and paintings in a relaxed atmosphere that is attended by a growing e-mail list of people.

These days, Peckay cultivates commissions both nationally and locally. His goal: to make his work known to those who can appreciate his personal quest to go with the grain. And it’s not uncommon for a client to visit his workshop for a “sitting,” as was the case for a very dear 93-year-old customer who is only 5 feet tall.

Make an appointment to visit Peckay’s showroom: 914-945-0706.
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BY KARLA KLEIN ALBERTSON
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Mandara. Blown glass with multiple incalmi and criss-crossed canes, recent work that demonstrates Tagliapietra’s creative vigor.
It was made using the multi-step Pilchuk ‘96 technique that produces lines of color running through the object.
Photo by Russell Johnson. Courtesy Renwick Gallery/Smithsonian Images

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Italian designer Lino Taglipietra (b. 1934) emerged from the traditional Venetian glass workshops in Murano to become a catalyst for innovation in the international studio glass movement.

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In 2009, the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery in Washington, D.C.,  presented an exhibition titled Lino Tagliapietra in Retrospect: A Modern Renaissance in Italian Glass. It brought  together 140 examples ranging from simple early pieces to brilliantly complex works.

Tagliapietra is an artist who has increased in creative power over six decades. Already a maestro in Venice in his early twenties, he had a command of classic techniques, some of which date back to the Roman period. Rather than remaining in his homeland, the artist chose to share what he knew in other countries. The resulting cross-pollination not only enriched his students, but altered Tagliapietra’s approach to his own work.

Susanne K. Frantz, former curator of Twentieth-Century Glass at the Corning Museum of Glass in upstate New York, curated the Renwick Gallery exhibition and is the author of the accompanying catalog, a must for any glass collector. In a recent interview, she explained what happened when Tagliapietra first came to teach at the Pilchuk Glass School near Seattle in 1979: “Lino hadn’t met any of the Americans until he came to the United States. They were very creative and willing to take chances – they just didn’t have the technical know-how. It was pretty much trial and error.”

At first, she explained, “Italians came over and demonstrated their technique, not really even teaching. Lino didn’t speak any English at all. At Pilchuk, he would just make the things that he made. Someone would ask about a technique and he would demonstrate that and the others would watch. That was a huge eye-opener, just these very subtle movements.”

Frantz noted the results: “Over the years, he was able to help them. In order to accommodate Lino and the other artists who came over, they would improve the working environment and materials. It really did change international glass. If you look at American studio glass, most of it was so crude at that time. It raised the technical level not only in American studio glass but studio glass worldwide.”

Just as dramatic was the effect that this marrying out of his gene pool had on Tagliapietra. Frantz continued, “They helped each other; it wasn’t a one-way street. It’s interesting how Lino gave so much, but he got so much too. He had all the instincts, but Lino had never been in an environment like he encountered in the United States. It encouraged him to develop his artistic ability.” [Ed. – Pilchuk was co-founded by renowned glass artist Dale Chihuly and patrons Anne Gould Hauberg and John H. Hauberghe.]

The Tagliapietra exhibition catalog explained important techniques that the Italian artist had mastered and was able to pass on, such as inciso, a decoration of narrow parallel lines cut into the surface of cooled glass. Incalmo is a tricky process where two or more bubbles of molten glass that have been opened are aligned and joined. He also came up with new methods, such as “Pilchuk ’96,” a multi-step technique which allows the worker to produce lines of color running vertically or diagonally through the blown glass.

Once stimulated, Tagliapietra’s design innovation has never stopped. The curator pointed out, “In the past 10 years, he has really exploded. I even asked him what happened. Some people when they hit a mature age, the creativity just explodes.” Her words are strongly supported by works from this decade in the exhibition, such as Nubia (2000), a blown triple-incalmi glass piece with white and black canes, or the colorful blown and cut Stromboli (2004). Tagliapietra continues to divide his working life between Italy and the United States.

Although much of his output has already entered public and private collections, Tagliapietra’s works occasionally appear at auction. In 2006, for example, the Chicago auction house Wright sold a 1991 vase from the glassmaker’s “sgraffito art” period for $10,200. Talking recently with SCM, Richard Wright praised the artist as the top living master from Murano, after the Venetian district’s reemergence as a great glass center in the 1950s.

Wright pointed out his ability to go beyond what had been done previously: “Lino takes that great tradition and the techniques that are there, and gets it away from the functional – he elevates it to art. He does some very large sculptural pieces. The boats are amazing. It’s clearly true that he gets better as he gets older. The way he’s improved over his career is the idea of taking traditional techniques and pushing further, pushing further.”

Mark Hill has been a specialist at both Sotheby’s and Bonham’s, and is currently a contributor to Judith Miller’s series of Collector’s Guides, including the one on 20th-century glass. Above all he is an avid collector of studio glass. He spoke with SCM about what makes Tagliapietra’s glass exceptional. “In glass, no techniques are new as such. The core-forming of vessels all the way down to the use of colored glass in rods was practiced by the Romans. But it’s what you do with those techniques that brings in the novelty in glass.”
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“His pieces are staggering,” Hill continued. “The thing that really gets me when you look at a Tagliapietra piece is the incredible size; it’s something you can only really appreciate when you’re standing in front of the object. It’s the scale of the piece, handling such a sheer mass of glass to create such an elegant object, as he does, is a demonstration of great virtuosity and experience.” Hill praised Tagliapietra’s “incredible use of color…He’s very Italian in that way. These vibrant colors, organic forms – they look almost as if they’ve grown on the end of an alien plant. There’s so much of Italian glass in Tagliapietra’s work, but at the same time, the studio side of it freed him up from carrying on more traditional styles.” His forte, according to Hill, is his use of classic techniques in new ways to produce the most amazing optical effects.

“The studio glass market in general is thriving,” Hill observed. “It’s an area I feel that’s very strong for the future. It’s not a case that the oldest is always the best. A piece produced yesterday might have much more interest and fetch more. There has been a development of skills over the last 10 or 20 years. The great thing about studio glass is that every single object is unique, an artwork in glass. And with studio glass, the artist invariably puts his mark on it.”

Before Lino Taglipietra in Retrospect opened, Robyn Kennedy, Chief of the Renwick Gallery, stated: “This exhibition is a wonderful chance to highlight the work of one of the elder statesmen of glass. Lino is not only an educator and exquisite craftsman but one of the most innovative glass artists today. His work continues to develop and push the boundaries of the medium.”

She later observed in an interview with SCM, “The show has been terrifically well received – people love it. Some have said it is the favorite show they’ve seen at the Renwick.” Kennedy was surprised to find on meeting the artist, “He’s almost nonchalant about some of the techniques he uses, like the incalmi works where he’s putting two pieces of glass together. He was always an advanced craftsman, and he has revived techniques that were lost.”

Most important, she said, “Lino was very pleased with the installation here. And our lighting designer had the time of his life.”

The exhibition was organized by the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, Wash. (www.museumofglass.org), where it first appeared. Another great destination for collectors is the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, N.Y. (www.cmog.org), which has an ongoing Masters of Studio Glass Series.
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About Karla Klein Albertson

Karla Klein Albertson focuses on the decorative arts, from excavated antiquities to contemporary pop-culture icons. She currently writes the Ceramics Collector column and exhibition features for Auction Central News, covers shows and auctions for the Maine Antique Digest, and authors the Antiques column in The Philadelphia Inquirer. She holds a master’s degree in classical archaeology from Bryn Mawr College.
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BY ELIZABETH MCFADDEN
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Tudric pewter shelf clock with enameled face and distinctly hammered finish. Image courtesy of Rago Arts and Auction Center, Lambertville, N.J.

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London department store founder Arthur Lasenby Liberty (1843-1917) was a major influence in the history of modern design, with many of Liberty & Co.’s creations being as important today as they were a century ago.

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Arthur Liberty’s association with Archibald Knox (1864-1933), one of his most talented designers, brought us Tudric ware – goods crafted from pewter. Knox’s designs were timeless, inspired pieces, taking their inspiration from ancient Celtic patterns, bringing affordable beauty to more homes than ever. Yet, due to Liberty’s strict policy of anonymity, Knox’s name is not to be found on any of the pieces he designed.

The end of the 19th century was rich with the ideas of the Arts & Crafts movement, with its move away from mass-produced goods; and Art Nouveau, drawing its inspiration from nature. It was also fashionable to incorporate traditional styles of individual countries into art and design. In Britain, inspiration was drawn from ancient Celtic symbolism, with its crosses, knots and elaborate interlace patterns. Archibald Knox was chiefly responsible for Liberty & Co.’s role in the Celtic revival, using his talent for design and his deep knowledge of all things Celtic to create household objects steeped in ancient references, yet with designs adapted to more modern tastes. The Cymric (silver) and Tudric (pewter) ranges of goods included functional pieces for the home ranging from clocks to candlesticks. They combined functional, modern design with Celtic inspiration in a blend of object, pattern and shape well ahead of its time.

Liberty & Co., the now world-famous department store on London’s Regent Street, was founded in 1875. Starting out with one assistant and one porter, Liberty specialized in fine fabrics and rugs from the Orient. By the 1890s, Liberty & Co. had begun producing its own patterns. As the store fast became the place to shop, it began selling a wider range of items, including furniture and decorative household items under the name Liberty & Co.

From the outset, Arthur Liberty showed a flair for marrying the idea of classical design with new innovations. Going against the rejection of mass-production associated with the Arts & Crafts movement, he employed machinery to produce goods, but insisted on maintaining standards in keeping with the Arts & Crafts principle of finely finished goods. Liberty style became synonymous with great quality and fabulous taste – in Italy, Art Nouveau became known generically as “Stile Liberty.” When interviewed by The Daily Chronicle following his knighthood in 1913, Sir Arthur commented, somewhat drily, that he had become “a mere adjective.”

In 1899, Archibald Knox began to design pieces for the Cymric range of silverware for Liberty & Co., so named to reflect its Celtic-inspired designs. These were some of the finest, most brilliantly designed silverware pieces of the day. Knox’s unique ability to combine beauty and form harmoniously with function was evident in the stunning pieces he created. The most sought-after pieces of Cymric ware attributed to Knox can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars today.

In 1900, with the success of German art pewter in the market, in particular that of J.P. Kayser & Son, Liberty’s commitment to “the production of useful and beautiful objects at prices within the reach of all classes” led to the production of his own Tudric range of pewter ware, presenting competition for Continental manufacturers. Knox submitted designs on a piecework basis, and Liberty oversaw the production of what have become some of today’s most desirable examples of pewterware. Pieces of Tudric ware were given registration marks, a series of digits (presumably the mold or model number) to help prevent competitors from pirating an object, as well as the brand name “TUDRIC.” Many pieces were also marked Liberty & Co. Any attempt to trace a designer using these registrations leads right back to Liberty & Co.

There seems a strong social significance to the production of Tudric ware, as it made great design and beautiful household goods accessible to more people than ever before. Liberty made it his business to produce machine-made goods, but not at the expense of excellence. Much of Liberty’s machine-made Tudric ware has the hammered look of handmade Arts & Crafts metalwork. Many of the finer pieces are embellished with semi-precious stones, abalone, or what Knox called “floating” blue and green enamels.

Knox, who saw himself as a modernist, moving away from tradition towards the abstract, was, it seems, a willing participant in the use of cutting-edge methods of production. Commercially, his association with Liberty distinguishes the Tudric ware range as being groundbreakers in the movement toward mass-produced, high-quality goods. His quiet, unobtrusive nature must have fitted comfortably with Liberty’s strict policy of anonymity with regard to his designers – it seems he was more committed to excellence in design and artistry than any pursuit of personal recognition.

Although his parents were Scottish, Knox was born and raised on the Isle of Man, which nestles in the Irish Sea in the middle of the British Isles. Rich with rugged beauty and ancient Celtic symbolism, the isle and its bond with Knox are unquestionable. He studied Celtic ornament throughout his life, becoming a medallist in 1892 for his study of Historic Ornament, specializing in Celtic design. This knowledge was expressed in the Cymric and Tudric ware designs he produced for Liberty & Co. His creativity was unstoppable; his genius touched textiles, ceramics, silver, pewter and enamels as well as furniture. With his Tudric ware, the design is always integral to the piece, never superfluous.

There is a mystical quality to Knox’s persona; there is little documentation regarding his life and work. Records kept at Liberty’s were destroyed by fire, and much of Knox’s correspondence was apparently lost during the London Blitz. Despite this, and the anonymity of pieces produced for Liberty’s, scholars of his work are able to identify with some authority the distinguished line and design of his hand.

Knox’s enduring and brilliant designs for Liberty & Co. are now in great demand. Actor Brad Pitt is known to be an ardent collector. Said to hold one of the most valuable and extensive Arts & Crafts collections, his passion was fueled when working on location in London, in the 1990s. In 1999 he exhibited pieces from his own silverware collection as part of the Liberty Style exhibition at the Metropolitan Teien Art Museum in Tokyo, which went on to tour Japan. This included one of Knox’s masterpieces, a silver rose bowl, one of the most iconic pieces in the Brad Pitt collection, valued at around $500,000.

In addition, when twins were born to Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt on July 12 this year, their new son was named Knox Leon Jolie-Pitt. Pitt’s maternal grandfather’s name was Hal Knox Hillhouse, but many believe the name Knox also pays tribute to one of his favorite designers. Indeed, the homepage of the Archibald Knox Society Web site has displayed a message welcoming the Pitt-Jolie’s new arrival.
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The work of Archibald Knox has gained him a reputation as a leader in the modern design movement and he has become a major part of the cultural heritage of the Isle of Man. In recognition of this, the Archibald Knox Society was established on the isle in order to “promote the legacy of Archibald Knox” worldwide and allow him “his rightful place in the history of the decorative arts.” The Society’s founder and chairman, Liam O’Neill, is currently working to bring together all known records of all Knox’s work. You can visit the Archibald Knox Society website at www.archibaldknoxsociety.com.

Manx National Heritage is also keen to provide opportunities for people to find out about Knox’s connections with the Isle of Man, and to enjoy the wealth of art and designs produced by Knox. You can visit their website at www.gov.im/mnh/heritage/library/bibliographies/knox.xml.

Visitors to the Isle of Man can visit the Manx Museum, with its extensive collection both of original designs by Knox and examples of jewelry, fabrics, papers, Cymric and Tudric ware, as well as a large number of watercolor paintings.

Tudric ware would continue to be produced for some years after the collaboration between Liberty and Knox ended, but it was during the early period (1899 to approximately 1906, when Knox was designing for Liberty) that some of the most remarkable and vibrant examples were created. Knox remained a bachelor until his death at the age of 69; such was his inexhaustible creativity that it’s small wonder he had no time for marriage.

The significance of Knox’s talent in the story of Liberty & Co. was clearly recognized long after the professional relationship between designer and department store ended, and it was Knox who designed the Celtic-style headstone for Liberty’s grave following his death in 1917. The combination of Liberty’s vision and Knox’s genius still reverberates today, and it seems that, together, they are a seamless combination of talent, genius and pure good taste.
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BY TOM HOEPF
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Eva Zeisel designed this casserole with duck head cover for Great Western Stoneware.
The dish is 9 by 7½ inches and has a blue and brown microcrystalline glaze.
Image courtesy Sollo-Rago Modern Auctions.

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Looking at the many lines of tableware Eva Zeisel has designed in her long and illustrious career, one would say she has a gift.

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What makes the designer extraordinary says her daughter is her generosity. “She always says she thinks of her designs as a gift to her audience, said Jean Richards, whose mother will be 102 on Nov. 13. “She has always tried to do that are beautiful and elegant and enhance people’s lives. She does it with a spirit of generosity and giving.”

Born Eva Stricker in Budapest, Hungary in 1906, she attended the Royal Academy of Fine Arts at age 17 with the dream of becoming a painter. Her mother convinced her to learn a trade as well. Eva apprenticed as a potter and soon found work as a designer at a local ceramics factory.

Eva moved to a new job in Schramberg, Germany, where she acquired skills in all phases of industrial ceramics production. She later worked in Berlin and Hamburg.

Intrigued by the artistic and social movements taking place in Russia, Eva went on a vacation there in 1932. While in Leningrad she accepted a position at the Lomonosov factory, the former Imperial Porcelain Factory. Quickly she became artistic director for the porcelain and glass industries for the entire country.

In 1936 she was falsely accused of plotting to kill Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, and was imprisoned. Without explanation, she was released 16 months later and placed on a train to Austria. There she narrowly evaded the Nazi takeover, fleeing to England. She reunited with Hans Zeisel, who had been waiting for her. They married and emigrated to the United States in 1938 with $64 between them.

“She immediately went to the library, picked up a trade magazine and went to the editor. She immediately picked up a couple little jobs,” said Jean Richards, Eva’s daughter.

The Zeisels settled in New York. With her impressive credentials, Eva created the department of ceramic arts industrial design at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, where she taught until 1952.

“Her teaching career at Pratt was parallel with her designing. She very much enjoyed it. Many of her students became her assistants in the studio. A lot of her students were older because they were (veterans) going to school on the GI Bill,” said Richards.

Meanwhile she continued freelance designing for the leading manufacturers in the ceramics industry. Her first major design in America was Museum Ware, done in conjunction with the Museum of Modern Art and manufactured by Castleton China. “It was the first all-white dinnerware set done in America,” said Richards. “That put her on the map in America. It was her breakthrough design.”

Reviews said its clean shapes and elegant forms reflected the best of European Modernism. Zeisel actually designed the Museum Ware line in the early 1940s, but World War II delayed its release until 1946.

The Museum of Modern Art’s special exhibition in conjunction with the launch of Museum Ware enabled American homemakers to put a face with Eva Zeisel’s name, which appeared on many of her designs.

An exception is Town and Country dinnerware for Red Wing, which was not marked. Town and Country was less formal and had biomorphic shapes, including tabbed handle lids and tilted bowls and pans.

Introduced in 1946, this colorful and boldly modern line remained in production for 11 years.

Another of her successful designs was the aptly named Tomorrow’s Classic introduced in 1949 and later manufactured by Hall China Co.

Pat Moore, founder of the Eva Zeisel Collectors Club, now the Eva Zeisel Forum, discovered the designer’s work while attempting to fill out a table setting of Tomorrow’s Classic in the Bouquet pattern, which she had inherited from her mother.

“One thing led to another and I ended up talking to Eva on the phone,” said Moore. “The more I found out about her the more enthusiastic I got about her work. It started out with the shape of this design that I had grown up with, but then as I found other things … I just really fell in love with her lines with the shapes she designed.”

Now Moore collects everything Zeisel has ever designed. “We don’t add too much because we probably have the largest collection of Eva’s designs anyplace,” she said.

“I’ve lost track as to the number of lines. At one time I had a list of 50 different names that her work had come out under different company names,” said Moore.

Zeisel has created ceramic designs for Sears in the United States, Rosenthal in Germany, Mancioli in Italy, Noritake in Japan and Zsolnay in her native Hungary.

Zeisel has said she has designed 100,000 items.

“That probably is not realistic unless you count every pattern that was put on every shape,” said Moore, adding nevertheless the number is immense.

Not all of Zeisel’s designs were for ceramic products. She designed metal cookware and other household items. She designed a chromium-plated chair that, although did not go into production, received critical acclaim at the Milan Triennale in 1964.

In 1983 Zeisel received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and returned to Hungary. The following year a retrospective of her work entitled “Eva Zeisel: Designer for Industry” began an international tour.

Zeisel was honored in 2005 when she received the National Design Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Smithsonian’s National Design Museum.

“Eva always says that people have a very personal relationship to their dishes as opposed to their couch or something else in the house. Eva’s philosophy is everybody appreciates beauty,” said Richards.

Zeisel splits her time between her apartment in New York City and a large old house that she has had for a long time in Rockland County, N.Y.

At the time of this article’s publication, Zeisel had not considered retiring. “When is she going to retire? She’s 102 and she’s designing,” said Richards. “I would say the fun, the playfulness and not taking herself too seriously accounts for her continuing to have design ideas. She loves to design.”

Editor’s note. Eva Zeisel passed away December 11, 2011, in New York City at the age of 105.
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BY TOM HOEPF

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Like many of Bolmeier works, this poppy painting was started outside and completed over multiple sessions indoors.

The 11 by 14 painting is mixed media on board. Image courtesy of the artist.

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Her paintings aren’t displayed in major museums, and she isn’t represented by an exclusive gallery, but among her friends, family and community Jane Bolmeier is known as a talented and respected painter.

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She is not wealthy and neither has she had her – as Andy Warhol put it – 15 minutes of fame. Yet Bolmeier has produced a considerable body of work since moving to New York City in 1957 and continued to paint until her passing July 11, 2011, at the age of 79.

Much of her recognition was through solo and group exhibitions at Westbeth Gallery, which showcases the work of residents of the Westbeth artist community in the Far West Village in Manhattan.

Bolmeier lived at historic Westbeth, a residential and studio complex in the former Bell Labs, for more than 30 years. During that time she worked to earn a living and painted for her own enjoyment.

Jane Bolmeier was born Oct. 2, 1931 in Chicago, while her father was a graduate student at the University of Chicago. She and her twin, Joan, grew up in Jackson, Miss., where their father was a school administrator.

“When I was in junior high school and high school we lived next door to a person who was vice president of the Mississippi Art Association. Oh, the paintings she had of artists from Jackson, Mississippi, … I decided I would like to be a painter so I could have paintings in my house,” said Bolmeier, adding her father was supportive of her art and education.

After earning a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts at Duke and a master’s in creative art at the University of North Carolina, Bolmeier taught school one year in North Carolina. “I didn’t like it. I wasn’t a disciplinarian,” she said bluntly.

Determined to be a painter, Bolmeier spent the summers of 1955 and 1956 at abstract painter Hans Hofmann’s art school at Provincetown, Mass., on Cape Cod. “He was one of the best teachers in the United States at that time. He had a dynamic personality and was very encouraging,” said Bolmeier, who keeps an inspirational letter from Hofmann urging her to continue painting.

To do that Bolmeier had to move. “I wanted to be a painter so I moved to New York. At that time most of the people involved in the arts lived in New York,” said Bolmeier, who found work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. “They said if I learned to type I could have the job,” she said.

Meanwhile Bolmeier followed Hofmann’s advice. “He said even though you have a full-time job and you’re pursuing a career in art, as long you keep painting – it’s good to paint large and wild,” said Bolmeier.

Indeed she did, in 1958 and 1959 creating a series of numbered abstract expressionist paintings as large as 68 by 100 inches. Soon, however, painting such large canvasses posed a practical problem for an unknown artist. “Many painters paint large when they’re young. These things are difficult to sell, they’re hard to store and they eventually just disappear,” said Bolmeier.

While reducing the scale of her art, Bolmeier kept painting, even while working at what she describes as “regular jobs.” Those included stints at Crowell-Collier Publishing Co. and an office job at Hunter College in Manhattan, where she stayed long enough to earn a pension. “The pension really helps,” said Bolmeier, who lives in an apartment and has a separate studio at Westbeth.

“There were years at Westbeth I couldn’t paint; my space was just too small. That’s one reason I went to graduate school,” said Bolmeier, who earned a doctorate degree with an emphasis in Art Criticism from New York University. Her dissertation was titled “Rauschenberg and His Critics.”

“(Robert) Rauschenberg had a one-person exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art, and I recalled reading a review in one of the art magazines – and then I dreamt about him. When I dreamt about him, it was really an inner motivation, although I don’t think I have much in common with Rauchenberg,” she said.

Bolmeier, like her mentor, Hofmann, had a passion for nature, which is evident in her painting, whether it’s a still life or a landscape. She loved spending Septembers in Provincetown when the crowds are gone and lodging is less expensive. “I studied there with Hofmann and I enjoy painting the water, the boats … and the light is so special.” Bolmeier found natural beauty around her neighborhood in New York. Starting in 1969 she often painted at St. Luke’s Gardens in West Village.

“St. Luke in the Fields is a church on Hudson Street that has a beautiful garden. I painted oil pastels there. A couple of them are hanging in the meeting room of the manse,” she said.

While Bolmeier did not know of any major art collectors who own her work, occasionally her paintings go to someone outside her family and circle of friends.

“Several years ago a doctor wanted to buy a Hans Hofmann, but a Hofmann is so expensive. So he found a list of Hofmann’s students, checked on my work on my Web site and liked it. He lived a couple miles from here. He came over and bought two paintings,” said Bolmeier, adding that her paintings are “very moderately” priced. “Except for the very big ones, they’re less than a thousand dollars, that that’s very cheap for a painting,” she said.

Bolmeier’s output increased after moving to a studio at Westbeth, separate from her apartment. She worked there when New York winters prevented her from painting outdoors. It had a view of the Hudson River just across West Street. “One of the windows of my apartment looks down the Hudson River, and on a clear day I can see the Statue of Liberty, which is nice,” said Bolmeier.

The “comfort” Bolmeier’s paintings exude is what impresses Cynthia Maris Dantzic, an art professor at Long Island University. “She has the ability to transport the viewer to the spot without putting in so much of her personality and trying for a style, just trying to give you the feeling of the space, the light and the land. At the same time her work has all the criteria … color, form, composition – all those things you look for in a painting,” she said.

Dantzic chose to feature Bolmeier in her new book 100 New York Painters on the recommendation of Bruno Palmer-Poroner, former owner of the prestigious East Hampton Gallery and former owner and publisher of Artspeak, an international art review.

“I didn’t want only to put in super-famous names like Chuck Close and Alex Katz. They’re all in the book and that’s wonderful, but I wanted to include people who might be wonderful but not known to me. So I asked people who I respected and Jane was one of the people who was highly recommended,” said Dantzic.

Bolmeier’s small paintings are described on the Westbeth Web site as having “vivid hues, soft washes, deeply colored gessoed backgrounds, and a broad range of textures and movement.”

Though Bolmeier has painted flowers throughout her career, she hesitated to call them her specialty. “I don’t know that I’m best known for painting flowers. When I first moved to New York my paintings were more subjective inward. Now when I paint I look onward at nature,” she said.

As a single woman artist living in New York City in the tumultuous 1960s, one might expect Bolmeier to have had a wild side. “Probably not,” she said with a chuckle. “I painted wild because basically I was not wild.”

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