Bertha Schaefer (1895–1971) was an American designer and gallery director, she was known for her furniture designs, and as an interior designer.

Biography

Schaefer was born in

Yazoo City, Mississippi Yazoo City is the county seat of Yazoo County, Mississippi, Yazoo County, Mississippi, United States. It was named after the Yazoo River, which, in turn was named by the French explorer Robert La Salle in 1682 as "Rivière des Yazous" in referen ...

in 1895. Her father Emil Schaefer was a refugee from Germany and worked as a board of trustees for a public school. She attended Mississippi State College for Women and

Parsons School of Design The Parsons School of Design is a private art and design college under The New School located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Founded in 1896 after a group of progressive artists broke away from established Manhattan art ...

. She briefly traveled to Paris after graduation from school and after she returned to New York City to work with interior designer Helen Criss for a few months. Schaefer died in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

on May 24, 1971. Her paper are in the

Archives of American Art The Archives of American Art is the largest collection of primary resources documenting the history of the visual arts in the United States. More than 20 million items of original material are housed in the Archives' research centers in Washing ...

at the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...

. The

Sheldon Museum of Art The Sheldon Museum of Art is an art museum in the city of Lincoln, in the state of Nebraska in the Midwestern United States. Previously called the University of Nebraska Art Galleries and later the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, the institution ...

was the recipient of paintings, prints, sculpture, and ceramics from her estate.

Design

In 1924 Schaefer founded ''Bertha Schaefer Interiors''. Her company designed

Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the , was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined Decorative arts, crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., ...

-inspired furniture and interiors for both residences and businesses. In 1952 Schaefer's work was included in

MoMA The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

's exhibition ''Good Design''. The same year she won a design award from MoMA. From 1950 through 1961 Schaefer designed furniture for M. Singer and Sons Furniture Company. Schaefer was a member of the Decorators Club of New York, serving two terms as president and, in 1959, receiving their design award.

Gallery

In 1944 Schaefer founded the Bertha Schaefer Gallery of Contemporary Art in New York City, which exhibited contemporary American and European painting and sculpture. The gallery represented

Will Barnet Will Barnet (May 25, 1911November 13, 2012) was an American visual artist and teacher, known for his paintings, watercolors, drawings, and prints depicting the human figure and animals, both in casual scenes of daily life and in transcendent d ...

, William Clutz,

Robert Cronbach Robert M. Cronbach (1908 – 2001) was an American sculptor, medalist, and teacher. He is best remembered for his medals, architectural sculpture, public fountains, and other works. He taught for many years at Adelphi University and at the Skowhe ...

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Terry Frost Sir Terence Ernest Manitou Frost RA (13 October 1915 – 1 September 2003) was a British abstract artist, who worked in Newlyn, Cornwall. Frost was renowned for his use of the Cornish light, colour and shape to start a new art movement in ...

Patrick Heron Patrick Heron (30 January 1920 – 20 March 1999) was a British abstract and figurative artist, critic, writer, and polemicist, who lived in Zennor, Cornwall. Heron was recognised as one of the leading painters of his generation. Influenced ...

Morris Kantor Morris Kantor () (1896–1974) was a Russian-born American painter based in the New York City area. Life Born in Minsk on April 15, 1896, Kantor was brought to the United States in 1906 at age 10, in order to join his father who had previously ...

, Joseph Konzal,

Charles Green Shaw Charles Green Shaw (May 1, 1892 – April 2, 1974) was an American painter, poet, writer, and illustrator. He was a key figure in early American abstract art. Shaw's paintings are part of most major collections of American Art, including the ...

, Raymond Rocklin, Joop Sanders, John von Wicht, and Irwin Rubin. They also exhibited works by Eric Beynon, Manuel Felguerez, Zvi Gali,

María Luisa Pacheco María Luisa Pacheco (22 September 1919 – 23 April 1982) was a Bolivian painter and mixed-media artist who immigrated to the United States. Despite her 20-year later career in New York, she was much more influential in Latin American art than t ...

Mimmo Rotella Domenico "Mimmo" Rotella (Catanzaro, 7 October 1918 – Milan, 8 January 2006) was an Italian artist considered an important figure in post-war European art. Best known for his works of décollage and psychogeographics, made from torn advert ...

Eusebio Sempere Eusebio Sempere Juan (3 April 192310 April 1985) was a Spanish sculptor, painter, and graphic artist whose abstract geometric works make him the most representative artist of the Kinetic art movement in Spain and one of Spain's foremost artists. ...

, Glen Michaels, Sheldon Machlin, and Karin Van Leyden. In the early 1960s, the gallery presented group exhibitions that focused on young, international artists working with hybrid forms between painting and sculpture, such as "Six Techniques: Six Nationalities" (September–October 1960), and "The Wall" (January 1962). Examples include “Relieve Luminoso Movil," electrically illuminated, plastic reliefs by Spanish artist,

, as well as carved, colorfully painted wood constructions by New York based Irwin Rubin. In 1972, following Schaefer's death, the gallery was renamed the New Bertha Schaefer Gallery.

References

External links

images of Schaefer's work
on Artnet.com
images of Schaefer's work
on MutualArt
Oral history interview with Bertha Schaefer, 1970 April 20–22
in the

, Smithsonian Institution
A Finding Aid to the Bertha Schaefer Papers and Gallery Records, 1909–1975, bulk 1940–1965
in the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution
Bertha Schaefer entry
from the Encyclopedia of Jewish Women {{DEFAULTSORT:Schaefer, Bertha 1895 births 1971 deaths 20th-century American women artists People from Yazoo City, Mississippi Artists from Mississippi Parsons School of Design alumni