Margaret De Patta
Margaret De Patta | |
---|---|
![]() De Patta, c. 1960 | |
Born | Margaret Strong 1903 Tacoma, Washington, US |
Died | 1964 (aged 60–61) San Francisco, California, US |
Other names | Margaret Strong De Patta |
Education | Art Students League of New York, IIT Institute of Design |
Known for | jewelry design |
Movement | Architectonic jewellery |
Spouse(s) | Samuel De Patta (m.1929–1941, divorce), Eugene Bielawski (m. 1946–1964, death) |
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2c/Margaret_De_Patta_Brooch.jpg/220px-Margaret_De_Patta_Brooch.jpg)
Margaret De Patta (née Strong; 1903–1964) was an American jewelry designer and educator, active in the mid-century jewelry movement.[1]
Early life and education
She was born in 1903 in Tacoma, Washington,[2] and grew up in San Diego, California, the eldest of three daughters born to Hal and Mary Strong.[3]
De Patta attended the San Diego Academy of Fine Arts from 1921 until 1923.[4] Then from 1923 to 1925 she attended the San Francisco Art Institute (formally known as California School of Fine Arts) and studied sculpture and painting.[1][5][4] From 1926 until 1929, De Patta received a scholarship to attend the Art Students League of New York, where she encountered the work of the European avant-garde.[1][4]
She later returned to San Francisco and apprenticed with Armin Hairenian at the Art Copper Shop,[5][6] as well as taught herself the art of jewelry-making.[1]
Career
Her innovative jewelry was influenced by the "Bauhaus school, constructivism, and democratic ideals".[7] She married Sam De Patta in 1929.[4] De Patta first began experimenting with jewelry in 1929 when she made her own wedding ring.[8][9] She was known for her innovative use of visual effects in her jewelry, such as light refraction, image reflection, and magnification, which she achieved through the design of her stones.[10] She called her stones "opticuts".[10]
Her jewelry was featured in the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition (GGIE) in San Francisco. For many years she lived in a house on Laidley Street house in Glen Park, which was extensively remodeled after 1940s.[4][11]
In 1941, she studied under László Moholy-Nagy at the IIT Institute of Design (formally known as the School of Design) in Chicago, Illinois.[1] She met her second husband, industrial designer Eugene "Gene" Bielawski at IIT Institute, they were married in 1946.[1][12] In the 1940s she taught trade school classes in San Francisco with Bielawski however they were blacklisted from their work for "Communist leanings".[13] She struggled alongside Bielawski after they set up a Napa-based studio, to start a reasonably priced mass-produced jewelry line for the public.[13][14][15]
In 1951, De Patta led the founding of the Metal Arts Guild of San Francisco, she also served as the first president.[16] De Patta taught art classes at the California Labor School, and silversmithing, forging and lost-wax casting at the College of Marin.[17][18] One of her students was Irena Brynner.[18]
Death and legacy
She died in 1964 in a hotel room in San Francisco, from a suicide.[13][19] She had left notes bequeathing all of her major works before she died.[13]
After Bielawski's death in 2002, much of De Patta's work and materials were donated to the Oakland Museum of California.[13][20] Her work is collected in many major museums including the Smithsonian American Art Museum,[21] the Los Angeles County Museum of Art,[22] among others.
The first major retrospective of her work, Space-Light-Structure: The Jewelry of Margaret De Patta, opened at the Museum of Arts and Design in 2012 and travelled to the Oakland Museum of California that same year.[13][1]
In 1999, her abstract photography work was included in a group exhibition, The Photogram 1918–1948, at Ubu Gallery, New York City.[23] The Velvet da Vinci gallery in San Francisco held an exhibition of her jewelry in 2012, The De Patta Project: New Jewelry Made With Old Stones Acquired from the Estate of Margaret De Patta (1903–1964).[13]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g "The First Major Retrospective on Margaret de Patta, a Seminal Figure in the Studio Jewelry Movement, Opens at MAD in June". madmuseum.org. Retrieved 2017-03-16.
- ^ "The Transcendent Jewelry of Margaret De Patta: Vision in Motion | Art Jewelry Forum". artjewelryforum.org. July 17, 2012. Retrieved 2019-03-28.
- ^ "The First Major Retrospective on Margaret de Patta, a Seminal Figure in the Studio Jewelry Movement, Opens at MAD in June". madmuseum.org. Retrieved 2019-03-28.
- ^ a b c d e "Margaret De Patta papers". Smithsonian Online Virtual Archive (SOVA), Archives of American Art. Retrieved 2021-03-11.
- ^ a b "Jewelry by Margaret De Patta". Los Angeles Modern Auction. Retrieved 2021-03-11.
- ^ Doornbusch, Esther (2017-10-05). "Margaret de Patta". Hedendaagse sieraden (in Dutch). Retrieved 2021-03-11.
- ^ "Groundbreaking Jeweler: Margaret De Patta". American Craft Council (ACC). Retrieved 2017-03-16.
- ^ "Women who paved the way: Margaret De Patta | | the jewelry loupe". thejewelryloupe.com. 18 June 2013. Retrieved 2018-03-22.
- ^ Keith, Kelsey. "Imagine if Moholy-Nagy Made Jewelry". Dwell. Retrieved 2018-07-09.
- ^ a b GREENBAUM, TONI (1998). "Constructivism and American Studio Jewelry, 1940 to the Present". Studies in the Decorative Arts. 6 (1): 68–94. doi:10.1086/studdecoarts.6.1.40662662. JSTOR 40662662. S2CID 111529564.
- ^ "Margaret De Patta's House Is For Sale, and Her Influence Shows". EichlerNetwork. 17 October 2013. Retrieved 2021-03-11.
- ^ Ilse-Neuman, Ursula (July 16, 2012). "The Transcendent Jewelry of Margaret De Patta: Vision in Motion". Art Jewelry Forum. Retrieved 2021-03-11.
- ^ a b c d e f g Kahn, Eve M. (2012-02-02). "Cultivating a Love of 'Lover's Eyes' (Published 2012)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-03-11.
- ^ Lauria, Jo. "Margaret De Patta: Pioneer of Modern Studio Jewelry". ProQuest. 35. ProQuest 1173302507.
- ^ "Compulsion for Detail". New York Times. 3 February 2012 – via ProQuest Historical Newspapers.
- ^ "Jewelry of Our Times". EichlerNetwork. p. 3. Retrieved 2021-06-15.
- ^ "California Labor School 1945 fall term catalog". Calisphere. Retrieved 2021-06-15.
- ^ a b Brass, Kaitlyn. Irene Brynner (1917–2003) (PDF). Historical Masters. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 14, 2021.
- ^ "Oakland Museum exhibits work by Bay Area jewelry pioneer Margaret De Patta". Oakland North. 2012-02-03. Retrieved 2021-03-11.
after she committed suicide in 1964
- ^ "Margaret De Patta Jewelry | Oakland Museum of California". museumca.org. Retrieved 2017-03-16.
- ^ "Ring by Margaret De Patta / American Art". www.americanart.si.edu. Retrieved 2017-03-16.
- ^ "Margaret De Patta | LACMA Collections". collections.lacma.org. Retrieved 2019-03-18.
- ^ Loke, Margarett (1999-02-26). "Composing With Light (No Camera Required)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-03-11.
- 1903 births
- 1964 deaths
- American jewelry designers
- Artists who died by suicide
- Artists from San Francisco
- Artists from Tacoma, Washington
- Artists from San Diego
- Art Students League of New York alumni
- Illinois Institute of Technology alumni
- 1964 suicides
- 20th-century American women artists
- College of Marin faculty
- Suicides in California
- American women jewellers