Zoltan Hecht (1890–1969) was a Hungarian-born American artist.

Biography

Zoltan Hecht came to the United States with his family when he was 12 years old, and the family settled in

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

, Ohio. Hecht studied at the Cleveland School of Art. He moved to New York in 1913. He and his wife, Rosa Hecht (American, born 1890), lived in New York, and together established the New Age Association. The Association included their School for the New Age (1924–1931), established in Saluda, North Carolina. The purpose of the school was to train students in the crafts. An article in ''Nature Magazine'' is dedicated to the New Age project and establishes the year of school's beginning as 1924. By 1928, the Hechts were gaining recognition for their New Age hooked rugs. The rugs were fabricated by the School for the New Age, but designed by the Hechts and other artists and designers, including Pola Hoffmann, Hugo Gellert,

Ilonka Karasz Ilonka Karasz (July 13, 1896 – May 26, 1981), was a Hungarian-American designer and illustrator known for avant-garde industrial design and for her many '' New Yorker'' magazine covers. Early life and education Karasz was born in the Hungarian ...

, Herman Rosse and Herman Trunk. An exhibition of their rugs, along with hooked rugs designed by American artist Ralph Pearson's Design Workshop, was held at the Art Center in 1928. The Hechts also established the New Age Gallery, one of the first co-op galleries in New York City. Hecht was among the group of avant-garde artists living in New York in the first half of the twentieth century. He was good friends with the well known artists William and Marguerite Zorach, demonstrated by several portraits of him created by Marguerite. During his lifetime, Hecht's work was well received. Art critic Walter Rendall Story took note of his New Age designs in an article for the ''New York Times''. Two solo exhibitions of his work are noteworthy. In 1943, his watercolors were on view at the Nicholas M. Acquavella Galleries in New York. In 1981, a retrospective of Hecht's work was held at the Passaic County Community College in New Jersey. Rubel, Danielle. Zoltan Hecht Retrospective. Paterson, NJ: Passaic County Community College, 1981.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hecht, Zoltan 1890 births 1969 deaths Hungarian emigrants to the United States American textile artists