Carol Janeway

Last updated
Carol Janeway
Born(1913-10-02)2 October 1913 [1]
Brooklyn, Kings County, New York
Died22 November 1989(1989-11-22) (aged 76) [2]
New York, New York
EducationCornell University
Known forTiles, Ceramics, Paintings; Greenwich Village Activism
MovementPrimitivism
Website http://www.caroljaneway.com/#

Carol Janeway (born Caroline Bacon Rindsfoos) (1913-1989) was a noted American ceramicist active in New York City in the 1940s and 1950s. She was active in the preservation of Greenwich Village starting in the late 1940s.

Contents

Career

Decorated ceramics by Carol Janeway offered in 1945 mail-order catalog Carol Janeway ceramics 1945.jpg
Decorated ceramics by Carol Janeway offered in 1945 mail-order catalog

The main venue for her ceramics was Georg Jensen Inc. (New York City) from 1942 -1949, while Gimbels, I. Magnin, Gumps and other stores also sold her wares. She had three successive studios in Greenwich Village until the early 1950s when she worked out of her home in Milligan Place in Greenwich Village. She was featured in a 1945 issue of Life Magazine for her work with ceramic tiles. [3]

In 1947 Janeway was asked to submit designs for the noted British manufacturer Josiah Wedgwood & Sons however the firm did not put the designs into production. Two such Janeway plates appeared in the 1948 Wedgwood exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum. [4]

She designed and produced a line of ceramic chess, backgammon, and checker sets. Of the 32 artists invited to exhibit in The Imagery of Chess, a dada-surrealist art event at the Julien Levy Gallery from December 1944 to January 1945, she was one of two female artists whose chess sets were featured. [5]

She decorated many tile fireplace surrounds installed mainly in the New York area.

Her how-to ceramics book, Ceramics and Potterymaking for Everyone, was published in 1950 by Tudor Publishing Company as a part of a series. Her pamphlet, Ceramic Brushes: their selection, use, and care, was published in 1952 by Delta Brush Mfg. Corp., New York.

News of her diagnosis of lead poisoning leading to her retirement appeared in a 1950 "Lyons Den" column. [6]

Works by Janeway are held by few museums, despite claims in her obituary. These are the Cooper-Hewitt [7] Smithsonian Design Museum in New York City and the Philadelphia Museum of Art which holds Janeway's papers in addition to some tile work. Ceramic art by Janeway and additional papers were sold by her estate and are in a private collection.

Greenwich Village Activist

From the 1950s she became increasingly active in preserving Greenwich Village working alongside Jane Jacobs, Doris Diether and Ruth Wittenberg among others. [8] These women, in particular its long-lived Chair Doris Diether, founded in the 1960s what became Community Board II (CB2) in 1971, one of New York's earliest community boards. [9] When Janeway was not serving on the CB2, she regularly attended the meetings. [10] The successful campaign to preserve the two linked mews, Patchin Place and Milligan Place, started in 1962 with appeals by local groups to the City's Board of Estimates for rezoning. [11] Janeway formed the Committee for the Preservation of Patchin and Milligan Place for this purpose. [12]

A ceramics teacher at the infamous New York Women's House of Detention for two years, 1962-65, she testified in 1965 before New York County's Fourth May Grand Jury investigating the prison's notorious mistreatment of prisoners. [13] Janeway distinguished herself as a witness by reporting in The Villager newspaper a four-article series describing her treatment by the prosecutor in the Grand Jury. [14] Her colleague at the prison was social worker Sara Harris who in writing her 1967 exposé on the Women's House of Detention, Hellhole, relied on Janeway's items in The Villager in writing Chapter 12. [15] While she was initially in favor of prison reform, once the building was emptied of prisoners in 1971 [16] she and the Patchin and Milligan Place tenants group called for its demolition in 1973. [17]

Personal life

Born Caroline Bacon Rindsfoos in her maternal grandparents' home in Brooklyn, she and the family moved to Columbus, Ohio, in 1925 where her father, Charles Siesel Rindsfoos, joined his brother William in the Brunson Bank. She eloped in 1932 with fellow Cornell student Eliot Janeway and kept the name after the failure of the marriage in 1934. She lived in London from 1933 through 1939 with various trips to Moscow, Paris, Capri. She studied lithography in London. In Moscow as a lithographer in 1935 she gave birth to her daughter, Helen Roe, renamed Kiske Janeway (1935-2022).

During World War Two, French sculptor Ossip Zadkine, in self-exile in New York, lived with her and mentored her artistic career. In 1942, several ceramicists trained her in ceramics: Anne T. Wright, William Suoini, Catherine Yarrow, C. Paul Freigang,Designed Tiles studio, and others. She was the subject of many portraits by artists including Zadkine, [18] Maya Deren, [19] and Tusnelda Sanders. [20] [21]

In 1956, amid tabloid coverage, a jury of 6 in NY Municipal Court recognized Janeway's claim on her 1 Milligan Place apartment, and scuttled the landlord's eviction, in an early example of palimony. Her fiancé/leaseholder had abandoned the relationship and the apartment leaving her to continue paying bills. [22]

In 1987, daughter Kiske joined the Monastery of St. Clare, Evansville, Indiana, as Sister Catherine Kiske and died there in 2022.

Diagnosed with mouth cancer, Carol Janeway died of pneumonia in November 1989. Her will of 1988 bequeathed the liquidated assets of her estate to The People With Aids Coalition. [23]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ossip Zadkine</span> Russian-French artist

Ossip Zadkine was a Russian-French artist of the School of Paris. He is best known as a sculptor, but also produced paintings and lithographs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Georg Jensen</span> Danish silversmith

Georg Arthur Jensen was a Danish silversmith and founder of Georg Jensen A/S.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucie Rie</span> Austrian-British studio potter (1902–1995)

Dame Lucie Rie, was an Austrian-born, independent, British studio potter working in a time when most ceramicists were male. She is known for her extensive technical knowledge, her meticulously detailed experimentation with glazes and with firing and her unusual decorative techniques.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edith Heath</span>

Edith Kiertzner Heath was an American studio potter and founder of Heath Ceramics. The company, well known for its mid-century modern ceramic tableware, including "Heathware," and architectural tiles, is still operating in Sausalito, California, after being founded in 1948.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eliot Janeway</span> American journalist

Eliot Janeway, born Eliot Jacobstein, was an American economist, journalist and author, widely quoted during his lifetime, whose career spanned seven decades. For a time his ideas gained some influence within the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and he was an informal economic advisor to Lyndon B. Johnson, especially during Johnson's years in Congress, though he broke with Johnson over the economics of the Vietnam War. His eclectic approach focused on the interaction between political pressures, economic policy and market trends. He was at times a vigorous critic of the economic policies of presidents from Franklin D. Roosevelt to Ronald Reagan. His enduring pessimism about US economic prospects earned him the nickname "Calamity Janeway".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patchin Place</span> Street in Manhattan, New York

Patchin Place is a gated cul-de-sac located off of 10th Street between Greenwich Avenue and the Avenue of the Americas in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. Its ten 3-story brick row houses, said to have been originally built as housing for the Basque staff of the nearby Brevoort House hotel, have been home to several famous writers, including Theodore Dreiser, E. E. Cummings, John Cowper Powys and Djuna Barnes, making it a stop on Greenwich Village walking tours. Today it is a popular location for psychotherapists' offices.

Harold Ambellan (1912–2006) was an American sculptor. Born in Buffalo, New York and relocated to New York City, Ambellan provided sculpture for New Deal-era projects and served as President of the Sculptors Guild in 1941, prior to his service in the U.S. military. Ambellan exiled himself to France in 1954 because of his political views.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jens Risom</span> Danish-American furniture designer (1916 - 2016)

Jens Risom was a Danish American furniture designer. An exemplar of Mid-Century modern design, Risom was one of the first designers to introduce Scandinavian design in the United States.

Edris Eckhardt was an American artist associated with the Cleveland School. She is known for her work in Ceramic art and glass sculpture, her work with the Works Projects Administration's (WPA) Federal Arts Project of Cleveland, and her teaching.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ceramic art</span> Decorative objects made from clay and other raw materials by the process of pottery

Ceramic art is art made from ceramic materials, including clay. It may take varied forms, including artistic pottery, including tableware, tiles, figurines and other sculpture. As one of the plastic arts, ceramic art is a visual art. While some ceramics are considered fine art, such as pottery or sculpture, most are considered to be decorative, industrial or applied art objects. Ceramic art can be created by one person or by a group, in a pottery or a ceramic factory with a group designing and manufacturing the artware.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harrison McIntosh</span>

Harrison Edward McIntosh was an American ceramic artist. He was an exponent of the Mid-century Modern style of ceramics, featuring simple symmetrical forms. His work has been exhibited in venues in the United States including the Smithsonian and internationally including at the Louvre in France.

Israeli ceramics are ceramics designed either in Mandatory Palestine or Israel from the beginning of the 20th century. In additional to traditional pottery, in Israel there are artists whose works were created in an industrial environment. Until the late 1970s there existed in Israel a local tradition that emphasized the local values of nature as an expression of Zionist identity. From the 1980s artistic expressions that sought to undercut this tradition began to appear in the works of Israeli artists, who combined ceramics with other artistic media and with personal, critical agendas.

Polia Pillin, née Sukonic or Sunockin, was a Polish-American ceramist during the 20th century. Born in Częstochowa, Poland, in 1909, she immigrated to the United States in 1924 and settled in Chicago, Illinois. In 1927, she met and married Ukrainian immigrant William Pillin. They lived near Albuquerque, New Mexico, from 1936-1940; Chicago from 1940-1948; and finally Los Angeles, California, from 1946 until their deaths.

Chris Gustin is an American ceramicist. Gustin models his work on the human form, which is shown through the shape, color, and size of the pieces.

Marie Balian, née Alexanian, was an Armenian artist and ceramic painter, especially known for her distinctive and impressive ceramic tile murals.

Catherine Yarrow was an English artist known for printmaking, painting, ceramics and pottery in a surrealist mode. She studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, graduating in 1925. The art historian Patricia Allmer has described her as 'one of the international figures of surrealism and its developments in the 1940s.'

Hitomi Hosono is a London-based ceramicist who won the inaugural Perrier-Jouët Arts Salon Prize. She is known for intricate ceramic pieces that are inspired by botanical studies and her memories of the Japanese landscape and the greenery of East London.

Georg Jensen Inc. was a gift and department store known for Scandinavian imports located in midtown Manhattan at 667 Fifth Avenue at 53rd Street from 1935-1968. In 1935, it was founded and managed by Frederik Lunning (1881-1952), re-inventing his original New York store, Georg Jensen Handmade Silver, Inc., founded 1923, at 169 West 57th Street, across from Carnegie Hall. Georg Jensen Inc. was the Lunnings' family business, official importers and vendors of Denmark's Georg Jensen silver. The firm distributed a glossy yearly mail-order catalog illustrated with museum-quality photographs, starting in 1936. The Battle of the Atlantic cut off imports starting in 1939 prompting Jensen's, a major importer from Europe, to cultivate North American artisans, some of whom had emigrated from Europe, and fill their shelves with quality goods: silver jewelry, turned wood, art enamel, tiles and ceramics, lamps. With wartime materials restrictions, Jensen's launched in fall 1942 "The Lunning Collection," a modern furniture collection comprising 21 designs by Jens Risom, executed in-house, along with pieces designed and executed by Otto Christiansen. At Frederik Lunning’s death in 1952, his son Just Lunning managed Georg Jensen Inc. until his sudden death in 1965. Georg Jensen Inc. expanded in 1966, establishing a separate furniture showroom in Manhattan and satellite stores in Manhasset and Scarsdale, New York and in Milburn and Paramus, New Jersey. The Trustees of the Estate of Frederik K Lunning sold all their Jensen stores in 1968, ending the Lunning era of Georg Jensen Inc. In 1978, the last of a series of successor stores and corporations declared bankruptcy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tusnelda Sanders</span> Danish primitivist painter and illustrator

Tusnelda Sanders was a noted Danish primitivist painter and illustrator whose works were sold both in France and in North American galleries from 1944 until her death. Her graphic illustrations were used in books and posters. From the 1920s until her death, she lived and made art in Cagnes-sur-Mer, the artists' colony on the Cote d’Azur near Nice, France. Her works are signed with the single name, "Tusnelda." Her unofficial name-change to Tusnelda in midlife awaits explanation.

Designed Tiles, a New York City silkscreen studio devoted to decorating and firing ceramic tiles, was established in 1941 by American artist and sculptor Harold Ambellan (1912-2006). In taped interviews of 2005 describing his entire artistic career, Ambellan recounted the beginnings of Designed Tiles. Ambellan operated Designed Tiles from 1941 to 1958 then sold it to Steven and Masha Sklansky who continued to produce decorated tiles until 1978.

References

  1. ↑ "Carol Janeway". www.caroljaneway.com. Retrieved 2022-08-31.
  2. ↑ "Carol Janeway, Ceramist and Author". www.nytimes.com. New York Times. November 24, 1989. Retrieved August 31, 2022.
  3. ↑ "Carol Janeway's Tiles Have Fanciful Designs". Life Magazine: 12-14. July 23, 1945.
  4. ↑ Graham II, John Meredith; Wedgwood, Hensleigh Cecil. Wedgwood: A Living Tradition. Brooklyn, NY: The Brooklyn Museum. p. 115.
  5. ↑ List, Larry (2005). The Imagery of Chess Revisited. New York: Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum. pp. 89–92.
  6. ↑ Lyons, Leonard (February 6, 1950). "Lyons Den (syndicated)". New York Post.
  7. ↑ "Carol Janeway | People | Collection of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum". collection.cooperhewitt.org. Retrieved 2017-04-13.
  8. ↑ Tasse-Winter, Dena. "Carol Janeway: Ceramicist and Fierce Village Advocate". www.villagepreservation.org. Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation. Retrieved 14 June 2023.
  9. ↑ Blumenthal, Ralph (December 20, 1971). "Local Boards are Gaining in Power After 2 Years". New York Times. p. 12.
  10. ↑ "Carol Janeway, Village Activist, Is Dead". The Villager. November 30, 1989.
  11. ↑ "Patchin, Milligan Pl. to Stay as They Are". The Villager. January 17, 1963. pp. 1, 13.
  12. ↑ "Patchin and Milligan Tenants Unite to Preserve Quiet Corner". New York Times. September 30, 1963.
  13. ↑ Ferrell, William E. (March 6, 1965). "Inquirey Ordered at Women's Jail". New York Times.
  14. ↑ Janeway, Carol (July 1965). "A Closer Look at the Grand Jury (Parts 1-4)". The Villager.
  15. ↑ Harris, Sara (1967). Hellhole: The Shocking Story of the Inmates and Life in the New York City House of Detention for Women. New York: Dutton.
  16. ↑ "Prison for Women, Shut Down by City, To be Demolished". New York Times. June 15, 1971.
  17. ↑ "New Group Would Raze Jail". The Villager. June 1, 1973. pp. 1, 16.
  18. ↑ "Buste de Carol Janeway", www.zadkine.com/sculpture/25
  19. ↑ "Maya Deren. Portrait of Carol Janeway. 1943 | MoMA". The Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 2017-04-13.
  20. ↑ Jenssen, Victoria (2022). The Art of Carol Janeway. Friesen Press. p. 378.
  21. ↑ "Tusnelda Sanders" . Retrieved 6 January 2023.
  22. ↑ Albelli, Alfred; Patterson, Neal (January 6, 1956). "Love Gone, She Can Linger in the Nest". NY Daily News.
  23. ↑ Probate File 2020-90, Will of Carol Janeway. Surrogate's Court of the State of New York. June 26, 1990.

Bibliography

Janeway, Carol. Ceramics and Potterymaking for Everyone. (New York: Tudor Publishing Co.) 1950.

Janeway, Carol. Ceramic Brushes: their selection, use and care. (New York: Delta Brush Mfg. Corp) 1952.

Jenssen, Victoria, "Carol Janeway's Fanciful Doorknobs," in O Pioneers! Women Ceramic Artists 1925 - 1960. ed. Ezra Shales (Alfred, NY: Alfred Ceramic Art Museum) 2015, pp.39-41.

Jenssen, Victoria, foreword by Pat Kirkham, The Art of Carol Janeway: A Tile & Ceramics Career with Georg Jensen Inc. and Ossip Zadkine in 1940s Manhattan. (Friesen Press) 2022.

List, Larry. The Imagery of Chess Revisited. (New York: Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum) 2005.

Tasse-Winter, Dena, Carol Janeway: Ceramicist and Fierce Village Advocate. Blog, June 9, 2023. https://www.villagepreservation.org/2023/06/09/carol-janeway-ceramicist-and-fierce-village-advocat


This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.