Ilse Getz (born Ilse Bechhold; 24 October 1917 – 4 December 1992) was a German-born American painter and collagist active in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

and Newtown,

Connecticut Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...

, from the 1950s through the 1980s. She specialized on three-dimensional works, made mostly with found objects. She exhibited at several galleries in New York City including the

Bertha Schaefer Gallery 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 re ...

and Rosenberg Gallery, as well as in Europe, namely in

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

and

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

Life

Ilse Bechhold was born in

Nuremberg Nuremberg (, ; ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the Franconia#Towns and cities, largest city in Franconia, the List of cities in Bavaria by population, second-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Bav ...

, Germany, on 24 October 1917 in a family of Abraham Bechhold and Pauline Mann. When her father committed suicide in 1929, she was sent to

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

to live with her sister. In 1933, she and her sister left Germany, traveling to

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

and

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

. Bechhold then joined immediate family in New York. In 1937 she married lawyer David Getz and settled in

Allentown Allentown may refer to: Places * Allentown, California, now called Toadtown, California * Allentown, Georgia, a city in four counties in Georgia * Allentown, Illinois, an unincorporated community in Tazewell County * Allentown, New Jersey, a boroug ...

, Pennsylvania. Three years later she gave birth to a child and became naturalized citizen of the United States. In 1942 Getz visited her sister in Mexico. In 1943, upon returning to New York, she attended

Art Students League The Art Students League of New York is an art school in the American Fine Arts Society in Manhattan, New York City. The Arts Students League is known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists. Although artists may study f ...

, studying with

George Grosz George Grosz (; ; born Georg Ehrenfried Groß; July 26, 1893 – July 6, 1959) was a German artist known especially for his caricatural drawings and paintings of Berlin life in the 1920s. He was a prominent member of the Berlin Dada and New Obj ...

and

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 ...

. In 1945 Getz worked as freelance artist and already had her first exhibition at the Norlyst Gallery in New York. During 1947–1948, she traveled and worked in Europe, visiting Switzerland, France, Spain and Portugal, and Brazil. From 1954 to 1959 Getz worked in various art galleries in New York. In summer 1956 and 1958 she taught and exhibited at the Positano Art Workshop in Italy along with

Piero Dorazio Piero Dorazio (Rome, June 29, 1927 - Perugia, May 17, 2005) was an Italian painter. His work was related to color field painting, lyrical abstraction and other forms of abstract art. Early life Dorazio was born in Rome. His father was a civil s ...

. In 1958 Getz married her second husband, artist Manoucher Yektai. The following year she received Yaddo foundation fellowship to the artists’ community. In 1960 Getz designed backdrop for

Eugene Ionesco Eugene may refer to: People and fictional characters * Eugene (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Gene Eugene, stage name of Canadian born actor, record producer, engineer, composer and musi ...

’s play “The Killer” in New York. The next two years she spent in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

where she was represented by

Iris Clert Gallery The Iris Clert Gallery ( in French) was a single-room art gallery named after its Greeks, Greek owner and curator, Iris Clert. It was located on 3 :fr:Rue des Beaux-Arts, rue des Beaux-Arts in Paris, France. It was open from 1955 to 1976 and dur ...

. In 1962, Getz returned to New York City and maintained studio on the

Upper East Side The Upper East Side, sometimes abbreviated UES, is a neighborhood in the boroughs of New York City, borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded approximately by 96th Street (Manhattan), 96th Street to the north, the East River to the e ...

. In summers 1962, 1963 and 1965 she painted on

Mykonos Mykonos (, ; ) is a Greek island, part of the Cyclades, lying between Tinos, Syros, Paros and Naxos. The island has an area of and rises to an elevation of at its highest point. At the 2021 census, there were 10,704 inhabitants, most of ...

in Greece. Getz married in 1964 to Gibson Danes, Dean of Yale School of Art and Architecture. It was the third marriage for both of them. The couple lived in New York and Connecticut, and eventually settled in Newtown, Connecticut. Later in life, Getz suffered from advanced

Alzheimer’s disease Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease and the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in remembering recent events. As the disease advances, symptoms can include problems wit ...

and Danes feared that he would no longer be able to properly care for his wife. On 4 December 1992 Getz and Danes died of carbon monoxide poisoning the garage of their home in

Litchfield, Connecticut Litchfield is a town in and former county seat of Litchfield County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 8,192 at the 2020 census. The town is part of the Northwest Hills Planning Region. The boroughs of Bantam and Litchfield are ...

. They were 75 and 81, respectively. As police said, Getz was apparently killed by her husband who committed suicide. Getz is survived by a daughter, Patricia Getz-Preziosi.

Art and career

In 1942 Getz created her first oil painting while visiting her sister in Mexico and by 1945 she had her first exhibition at the Norlyst Gallery in New York. As a result of solo shows in New York at the Bertha Schaefer Gallery (1957-1958), Stephen Radich Gallery (1960), and inclusion in numerous important group exhibitions, Getz enjoyed a secure reputation as painter, when, in 1959, she included the assemblage, or collage construction, to the scope of her work. Her collages and constructions incorporated game boards, playing cards, birds, dolls and musical instruments. Some of her three-dimensional works were exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts in Phoenix, Arizona, the

Neuberger Museum The Neuberger Museum of Art (the NEU) is located at the centre of the Purchase College campus in Purchase, New York. With a collection of nearly 7,000 works of modern, contemporary and African art, it is one of the nation's largest academic mus ...

in Purchase and the Alex Rosenberg Gallery in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

. Retrospective exhibitions of Getz’s work were also held at the

Kunsthalle Nürnberg The Kunsthalle Nürnberg is an art centre founded in 1967, near the city centre. It organizes exhibitions by contemporary international artists in its galleries in Nuremberg. The Kunsthalle commissions new work by a majority of the artists it wo ...

in 1978 and at the Goethe House, New York in 1980. Recently her works were included in group exhibitions at Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College (2008-2009), Pavel Zoubok Art Gallery, New York (2014, 2016) and

Invisible-Exports Invisible-Exports was a contemporary art gallery located on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York. It was co-owned and directed by Risa Needleman and Benjamin Tischer and was recognized for housing provocative and controversial exhibition ...

, East, New York (2016). Her works are in the collections of

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is an art museum beside the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. The museum was initially endowed during the 1960s with the permanent art collection of Joseph H. Hirshhorn. It was designed ...

in Washington,

Hood Museum of Art The Hood Museum of Art is an art museum owned and operated by Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. The first reference to the development of an art collection at Dartmouth was in 1772, making the collection among the oldest and largest, a ...

, Dartmouth College,

Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) is an List of art museums#North America, art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at ...

, New-York Historical Society Museum & Library, Hopkings Center at Dartmouth College, the Kunsthalle, Nuremberg, and the

Tel Aviv Museum The Tel Aviv Museum of Art ( ''Muzeon Tel Aviv Leomanut'') is an art museum in Tel Aviv, Israel. The museum is dedicated to the preservation and display of modern and contemporary art both from Israel and around the world. History The Tel Aviv ...

in Israel among others. Getz’s work has been offered at auction multiple times, with the record price $134 USD for “Timeless Game”, sold at James Adams & Sons in 2007.

Exhibitions

Individual shows

* Norlyst Gallery, New York (1945) * Galleria Casa Serocline, Ascona, Switzerland (1947) * Bertha Schaefer Gallery, New York (1957–58) * Stephen Radich Gallery, New York (1960) * Iris Clert Gallery, Paris (1961) * Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York (1963) * Rigelhapt Gallery, Boston (1966) * Allentown Art Museum (1973) * Gimpel and Witzenhoffer Gallery, New York (1978) * Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase (1978) * Kunsthalle, Nuremberg (1978) * Goethe House, New York (1980)

Group shows

* Gloucester Art Society, Massachusetts (1944) * Museum of Modern Art, New York (1957) * Baltimore Museum, Maryland (1957) * Stephen Radich Gallery, New York (1959) * Galerie La Roue, Paris (1960) * American Embassy, London (1963) * Musee d’Arts Decoratif, Paris (1965) * Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania (1974)

Collections

* Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania * Tel Aviv Museum, Tel Aviv * Allentown Art Museum, Pennsylvania * Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, D.C. * Kunsthalle, Nuremberg

Books

* Ilse Getz : keywest winters, newtown summers : recent work, April 29 - May 28, 1982, New York : Alex Rosenberg Gallery, 1982.

References

External links

''Die Collage: Geschichte eines künstlerischen Ausdruckmittels''

Herta Wescher Herta Wescher (née Herta Kauert; 1899 – March 3, 1971) was a German art critic and art historian, who worked in France. She specialized in the study of modern art, and was an authority of collage art. Early life and education Herta Kauert wa ...

, (DuMont-Schauberg, Cologne, 1968) (in German). {{DEFAULTSORT:Getz, Ilse 1917 births 1992 deaths 20th-century American artists 20th-century American women painters 20th-century American painters Emigrants from Nazi Germany Immigrants to the United States