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 a U.S. city in Yazoo County, Mississippi. 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 reference to the Yazoo tribe living near the river's m ...

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 Parsons School of Design, known colloquially as Parsons, is a private art and design college located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Founded in 1896 after a group of progressive artists broke away from established Manhatt ...

. 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 or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

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 Washingt ...

at the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

. 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. Its collection focuses on 19th- and 20th-century art. History Sheldon Art Association In 1888, The Sheldon Art Assoc ...

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 Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 200 ...

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

MoMA Moma may refer to: People * Moma Clarke (1869–1958), British journalist * Moma Marković (1912–1992), Serbian politician * Momčilo Rajin (born 1954), Serbian art and music critic, theorist and historian, artist and publisher Places ; Ang ...

'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 artist known for his paintings, watercolors, drawings, and prints depicting the human figure and animals, both in casual scenes of daily life and in transcendent dreamlike worlds. Biogr ...

, William Clutz, Robert Cronbach,

Elisabeth Frink Dame Elisabeth Jean Frink (14 November 1930 – 18 April 1993) was an English sculptor and printmaker. Her ''Times'' obituary noted the three essential themes in her work as "the nature of Man; the 'horseness' of horses; and the divine in ...

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, Morris Kantor, 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,

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, John von Wicht, and

Irwin Rubin Irwin Rubin (1930–April 8, 2006) was an American artist and educator known for his colorfully painted wood constructions. Biography Irwin Rubin was born in Brooklyn, NY in 1930. He studied at the Brooklyn Museum Art School, the Cooper Union ...

. They also exhibited works by Eric Beynon,

Manuel Felguerez Manuel may refer to: People * Manuel (name) * Manuel (Fawlty Towers), a fictional character from the sitcom ''Fawlty Towers'' * Charlie Manuel, manager of the Philadelphia Phillies * Manuel I Komnenos, emperor of the Byzantine Empire * Manu ...

, Zvi Gali,

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. ...

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, 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 12 - October 1, 1960), and "The Wall" (Jan 2-20, 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

. 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 1986 deaths 20th-century American women artists People from Yazoo City, Mississippi Artists from Mississippi Parsons School of Design alumni