Art Deco Dancer - Art at the Castle

[Music] hello I am Tim Mayer and thank you for joining me for the art at the castle series in an era in which people would regularly write letters for romantic personal and business correspondence decorative accessories were common artistic elements for desks it also gave collectors another Focus Stone pen sets elegant mechanical pencils letter openers of silver Chrome and Bone fine and often personalized stationary and of course a small bright electric lamp for illumination were all proper tools in an estate of this size hundreds of light sources are necessary and few are Ordinary by today's standards this Art Deco electric lamp was made in Austria in the late 1920s to 30s it features a lively dancing figure that wears a theatrical costume of flaring skirts and an elaborate headdress all ornately patterned and boldly colored it is painted bronze with an ivory face and stands 23 inches high upon a green onyx base the shade is made of silk many other works by the same artist are also very exotically expressive in movement and elegance William Randolph Hearst appreciated fine quality objects of Art as well as brilliant lighting and this object is not only well crafted but self-illuminated today decorative lamps remain among the most popular functional art the artist of this dramatic sculpture was professionally known as gerdogo but personally as Gerda iro gotchstein of Vienna Austria who lived from 1906 to 2004. she trained as an artist in 1927 Berlin then in 1928 and 1929 in Paris she worked as an assistant architect at first but became primarily a theatrical costume designer for 86 movies and many operettas and plays at the rymund theater in Vienna she was a specialist in complex historical films and was largely sidelined for being a Jew in 1938 when Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany as Jews her parents both perished in Nazi concentration camps but she escaped to death in part because she was married to a non-jew this lamp is seen on the first part of the designing the dream tour and in the last room shown of Casa del Sol it may also be seen upon request on a semi-private tour such as the art of San Simeon or on a private tour thank you [Music]

Channel: Hearst Castle

Views: 70

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Id: PSKy_WUJIx4

Length: 3min 41sec (221 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 30 2023