Jane Teller (July 5, 1911 — December 23, 1990) was an American printmaker and sculptor.

Early life and education

Jane Simon was born in 1911, in

Rochester, New York Rochester () is a City (New York), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, the county seat, seat of Monroe County, New York, Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffalo, ...

. Simon attended

Rochester Institute of Technology Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) is a private university, private research university in the town of Henrietta, New York, Henrietta in the Rochester, New York, metropolitan area. The university offers undergraduate and graduate degree ...

and

Skidmore College Skidmore College is a private liberal arts college in Saratoga Springs, New York. Approximately 2,650 students are enrolled at Skidmore pursuing a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science degree in one of more than 60 areas of study. History Sk ...

, and earned a bachelor's degree from

Barnard College Barnard College of Columbia University is a private women's liberal arts college in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a group of women led by young student activist Annie Nathan Meyer, who petitioned Columbia ...

in 1933. She pursued further art studies through

Works Project Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

classes 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 ...

, and in classes with

Aaron Goodelman Aaron Goodelman (1890 – 1978) was an American sculptor. He graduated from art school in Odessa, fleeing Eastern Europe for the United States in 1904 because of antisemitic violence.. He attended a number of major art schools in New York and Pari ...

, Karl Nielson, and

Ibram Lassaw Ibram Lassaw (May 4, 1913 – December 30, 2003) was a Russian-American sculptor, known for non-objective construction in brazed metals. Biography Lassaw was born in Alexandria, Egypt, of Russian émigré parents, he went to the U.S. in 1921. H ...

Career

Jane Teller taught sculpture at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

in the 1960s, and exhibited her sculptures through the 1980s. "The strong consistency of Mrs. Teller's vision," noted a ''New York Times'' reviewer, "is expressed through a few primary forms that recur with many variations. Cylinders and circles, always referring to an organic rather than a geometric form, are at the core of many pieces." Another ''Times'' reviewer, William Zimmer, assured readers that Teller was "practically an institution in New Jersey," though her work was not so well known beyond the Northeast during her lifetime. Teller won the Mary and Gustave Kellner Prize from the

National Association of Women Artists The National Association of Women Artists, Inc. (NAWA) is a United States organization, founded in 1889 to gain recognition for professional women fine artists in an era when that field was strongly male-oriented. It sponsors exhibitions, awards ...

in 1960, the Sculpture Prize from the Philadelphia Art Alliance in 1966, and a

Women's Caucus for Art Lifetime Achievement Award The Women's Caucus for Art Lifetime Achievement Award was established under the presidency of Lee Ann Miller (1978–80). Joan Mondale, artist and wife of vice-president Walter Mondale, helped to secure approval for a national award honoring women' ...

in 1988.

Personal life and legacy

Jane Simon married author Walter Teller; together they had four sons. They lived on a farm at

Plumsteadville, Pennsylvania Plumsteadville is a census-designated place in Plumstead Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located along Pennsylvania Route 611 Pennsylvania Route 611 (PA 611) is a state highway in eastern Pennsylvania running fro ...

, and in

Lahaska, Pennsylvania Lahaska is an unincorporated community in central Bucks County, Pennsylvania, United States. It lies east of Buckingham and west of New Hope on Route 202 and Route 263. While most of it is in Buckingham Township, it also extends into Solebury ...

, before settling in

Princeton, New Jersey Princeton is a municipality with a borough form of government in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton and Princeton Township, both of whi ...

. One of her sons married film director

Claudia Weill Claudia Weill is an American film director best known for her film '' Girlfriends'' (1978), starring Melanie Mayron, Christopher Guest, Bob Balaban and Eli Wallach, made independently and sold to Warner Brothers after multiple awards at Cannes, ...

. Teller died in 1990. Her papers are part of the research collection at the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Her sculptures can be seen at Temple Judea in

Doylestown, Pennsylvania Doylestown is a borough and the county seat of Bucks County in Pennsylvania, United States. It is located northwest of Trenton, north of Center City, Philadelphia, southeast of Allentown, and southwest of New York City. As of the 2020 cen ...

, at Princeton's Unitarian Church, at the

Library, at

Princeton University Art Museum The Princeton University Art Museum (PUAM) is the Princeton University gallery of art, located in Princeton, New Jersey. With a collecting history that began in 1755, the museum was formally established in 1882, and now houses over 113,000 works o ...

, and in the collection of the

James A. Michener Art Museum The Michener Art Museum is a private, non-profit museum that is located in Doylestown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1988, it was named for the Pulitzer Prize–winning writer James A. Michener, a Doylestown resident. Situated within ...

. Her family provided funding in her memory, for an exhibit on women printmakers by the Arts Council of Princeton in early 2015.

Selected exhibition catalogs

*''Jane Teller: Retrospective'' (Schick Art Gallery, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs NY, October 9—November 2, 1986). *''Jane Teller: Powerful Presences/Tender Connections: A Retrospective Exhibition of Sculptures and Drawings'' (Noyes Museum, Oceanville NY, September 24—December 13, 1987). *''Art, Age, and the River: Jane Teller'' (Princeton NJ 1991).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Teller, Jane American women printmakers American women sculptors 20th-century American sculptors Artists from Rochester, New York Rochester Institute of Technology alumni Skidmore College alumni Barnard College alumni Princeton University faculty 1911 births 1990 deaths 20th-century American women artists 20th-century American printmakers Sculptors from New York (state) American women academics