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 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 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, William Clutz, Robert Cronbach, Elisabeth Frink, Terry Frost,

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, Joseph Konzal, Charles Green Shaw, Raymond Rocklin, Joop Sanders, John von Wicht, and Irwin Rubin. They also exhibited works by Eric Beynon, Manuel Felguerez, Zvi Gali, María Luisa Pacheco, Mimmo Rotella, Eusebio Sempere, 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, Eusebio Sempere, 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