Franciscus Hubertus Johannes Carpay (13 July 1917 – 12 September 1985) was a Dutch-born New Zealand industrial designer.

Early life

Carpay was born in

Heusden Heusden () is a municipality and a town in the South of the Netherlands. It is located between the towns of Waalwijk and 's-Hertogenbosch. The municipality of Heusden, including Herpt, Heesbeen, Hedikhuizen, Doeveren, and Oudheusden, merged wit ...

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, and trained at the Hertogenbosch Technical School in Hertogenbosch. He left the company in 1950 and travelled to the south of France where he met

Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

and worked at the Madoura Pottery in Valauris in 1950. At Picasso's insistence, Carpay met with two other pottery decorators, Roger Capron and Roger Picault, also working in Vallauris.

Entrepreneurship

Carpay established his own small commercial pottery in

Tegelen Tegelen ( li, Tegele) is a village in the municipality of Venlo, situated in the Netherlands. It was an independent municipality until 2001, when it was merged into the municipality of Venlo. Tiglian The name of the glacial stage of Tiglian (pa ...

. The business was not successful, and he returned to work as a graphic designer.

Move to New Zealand

While unemployed, Carpay had written to

John Allum Sir John Andrew Charles Allum (27 January 1889 – 16 September 1972) was a New Zealand businessman and engineer, and was Mayor of Auckland City from 1941 to 1953. Biography Early life and career Allum was born in London and educated at Goldsm ...

, the Mayor of

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about ...

, New Zealand, asking for the name of a pottery where he could find work. This letter was passed to Tom Clark of Crown Lynn who was developing a "Specials Department" and actively recruiting. Carpay arrived in 1953 and joined other artisans including Mirek Smisek and Ernest Shufflebotham. The intent of the "Specials Department" was to produce more upmarket works from Crown Lynn's existing commercial production-line wares. Carpay began to use his existing ideas on numerous readymade production line blanks. These one-off designs were meant to go into wider production as part of the ''Handwerk'' range but although his work was accepted into art society exhibition and was critically acclaimed the designs were not well received by consumers. In 1956 Carpay was laid off. Carpay remained in New Zealand and tried to obtain graphic design related work. Unable to do so he exhibited paintings, gave pottery decorating demonstrations and completed mural commissions. Carpay also taught at Howick District High School. The art equipment and resources of the school allowed him to develop his screen-printing techniques in the late 1950s and he began to work in fabric design and printing. He established a screen printing studio in his basement and started with placemats inspired by Maori rock drawings. In doing so he joined a number of other artists also using these motifs as artistic inspiration at the time including

Theo Schoon Theodorus Johannes Schoon (31 July 1915 – 14 July 1985) was a New Zealand artist, photographer and carver of Dutch descent. Biography Theo Schoon was born at Kebumen, Java in the East Indies, the son of Dutch parents, Johannes Theodorus S ...

, A. R. D. Fairburn and

Gordon Walters Gordon Frederick Walters (24 September 1919 – 5 November 1995) was a Wellington-born artist and graphic designer who is significant to New Zealand culture due to his representation of New Zealand in his Modern Abstract artworks. Education ...

. He was elected to membership of the New Zealand Society of Industrial Designers (NZSID) soon after its establishment in 1960, and served on its council to 1968.

Other ventures

Carpay developed his screenprinting business ''Frank Carpay Designs Limited'' and branched out into beach towels and beach wear printing onto white towelling. When a shipment of imported fabric was found to be faulty in the early 1970s the business was unable to survive, and he returned to design commissions.

Personal life

Frank Carpay died in 1985. In 2000 his wife donated an extensive collection of his

ceramics A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain ...

, textiles,

drawings Drawing is a form of visual art in which an artist uses instruments to mark paper or other two-dimensional surface. Drawing instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, various kinds of paints, inked brushes, colored pencils, crayons, c ...

and prints to the Hawke’s Bay Museum.

Gallery

File:Dish (AM 1990.24-6).jpg, Dish (topside)
Artist: Frank Carpay; David Jenkin; Crown Lynn Potteries Ltd

Auckland War Memorial Museum The Auckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira (or simply the Auckland Museum) is one of New Zealand's most important museums and war memorials. Its collections concentrate on New Zealand history (and especially the history of the Auckl ...

File:Dish (AM 1990.24-3).jpg, Dish (underside)

List of works

Works in the collection of Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Carpay, Frank 1917 births 1985 deaths Dutch emigrants to New Zealand Industrial designers New Zealand industrial designers