Marica Vilcek

Last updated
Marica Vilcek
Marica Vilcek.png
BornOctober 13, 1936
Ivanka pri Dunaji, Czechoslovakia
Occupation art historian
Spouse Jan Vilcek
Parent(s)Dezider Gerháth (father) and Maria Hamosova (mother)

Marica Vilcek (born October 13, 1936) is an American art historian and philanthropist. She has worked with museums and arts institutions in both Czechoslovakia and the United States, and is known for working with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the New York University Institute of Fine Arts, and the Vilcek Foundation, and for her philanthropic work on the boards of the New York Youth Symphony and the Foundation for a Civil Society.

Contents

Early life and career

On October 13, 1936, Marica Vilcek (née Gerháth) was born to parents Dezider Gerháth and Maria Hamosova in Ivanka pri Dunaji in Czechoslovakia. She was the second of three children in the family, with one older and one younger brother. [1]

In the late 1950s, Marica enrolled at Comenius University in Bratislava, where she earned the degrees in art history. Following her graduation from Comenius University, Marica pursued a doctorate in art history at Charles University in Prague. [1] She also began work at the Slovak National Gallery, where she was promoted to assistant curator. [2] She was interested in modernist art, and by art that was created by artists in protest of the Communist regime, while also abiding by the professional and national standards of art set by the government as was dictated by the National Gallery.

In 1961, she was introduced to Jan Vilček by mutual friends, at an Easter party. [3] In Love and Science: A Memoir, Jan recalls being impressed with her work at the Slovak National Gallery. In November 1961, Jan visited the gallery and asked her for a date. Their relationship progressed swiftly, and the pair were wed in a small civil ceremony in Bratislava in July 1962. [1]

In 1964, Marica and Jan Vilcek were granted permission to visit friends in Vienna and made the decision to defect from communist Czechoslovakia. With two suitcases of belongings, they drove to Vienna, Austria, and then on to Frankfurt in West Germany to apply for refugee status and to pursue visas and careers in the United States. [1] In 1965, the Vilceks immigrated to the United States, traveling to New York, where Jan had been offered a position as a research professor at New York University. [3]

New York, 1965–2000

In New York, Vilcek began volunteering with the library of the Brooklyn Museum, to build a career in art history in the United States. [2] In 1965, she was hired as a cataloguer in the Office of the Registrar and Catalogue Department at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; from 1974 to 1996 she was associate curator in charge of the Accessions and Catalogue Department, responsible for the museum's collections management as well as processing new acquisitions. [4]

At the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Vilcek mentored art historians, arts management professionals and scholars, working with the museum's internship programs, and developing connections with the New York University Institute of Fine Arts. [5] It was in this capacity that she first met Rick Kinsel, who would partner with Marica and Jan to develop the Vilcek Foundation. [6]

Honors and awards

In 2005, Marica and Jan Vilcek were named Humanitarians of the Year by the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America, [7] and in 2011 they were honored with the Outstanding New Yorker award given by the Center for an Urban Future in New York City. [8] In 2012, Marica received the Stephen K. Fischel Distinguished Public Service Award from the American Immigration Council in Washington, DC, [9] and accepted it on behalf of the Vilcek Foundation. In 2017, Marica and Jan were honored by the New York Landmarks Conservancy at the conservancy's 2017 Living Landmarks Celebration. [10] In 2021, the New York University Institute of Fine Arts renamed the Great Hall of the James B. Duke House in Vilcek's honor. [11]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Comenius University</span> Public university in Bratislava, Slovakia

Comenius University in Bratislava is the largest university in Slovakia, with most of its faculties located in Bratislava. It was founded in 1919, shortly after the creation of Czechoslovakia. It is named after Jan Amos Comenius, a 17th-century Czech teacher and philosopher.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New York University Institute of Fine Arts</span>

The Institute of Fine Arts (IFA) is a graduate school and research center of New York University dedicated to the study of the history of art, archaeology, and the conservation and technology of works of art. It offers Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in Art History and Archeology, the Advanced Certificate in Conservation of Works of Art, and the Certificate in Curatorial Studies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wendell Castle</span> American artist (1932–2018)

Wendell Castle was an American sculptor and furniture maker and an important figure in late 20th century American craft. He has been referred to as the "father of the art furniture movement" and included in the "Big 4" of modern woodworking with Wharton Esherick, George Nakashima, and Sam Maloof.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ursula von Rydingsvard</span> American sculptor (born 1942)

Ursula von Rydingsvard is a sculptor who lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. She is best known for creating large-scale works influenced by nature, primarily using cedar and other forms of timber.

Philippe de Montebello is an American museum director. He served from 1977 to 2008 as the director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. On his retirement, he was both the longest-serving director in the institution's history and the third longest-serving director of any major art museum in the world. From January 2009, Montebello took up a post as the first Fiske Kimball Professor in the History and Culture of Museums at New York University's Institute of Fine Arts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jan Vilček</span> Slovak immunologist (born 1933)

Jan T. Vilček is a Slovak-American biomedical scientist, educator, inventor and philanthropist. He is a professor in the department of microbiology at the New York University School of Medicine, and chairman and CEO of The Vilcek Foundation. Vilček received his M.D. degree from Comenius University Medical School in Bratislava in 1957; and his Ph.D. in Virology from the Institute of Virology, Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, in 1962.

Mary Frank is an English visual artist who works as a sculptor, painter, printmaker, draftswoman, and illustrator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yvonne Jacquette</span> American painter, printmaker, and educator (1934–2023)

Yvonne Helene Jacquette was an American painter, printmaker, and educator. She was known in particular for her depictions of aerial landscapes, especially her low-altitude and oblique aerial views of cities or towns, often painted using a distinctive, pointillistic technique. Through her marriage with Rudy Burckhardt, she was a member of the Burckhardt family by marriage. Her son is Tom Burckhardt.

Richard Ettinghausen was a German-American historian of Islamic art and chief curator of the Freer Gallery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pat Steir</span> American painter and printmaker (born 1938)

Pat Steir is an American painter and printmaker. Her early work was loosely associated with conceptual art and minimalism, however, she is best known for her abstract dripped, splashed and poured "Waterfall" paintings, which she started in the 1980s, and for her later site-specific wall drawings.

The Vilcek Foundation is an organization that aims to raise awareness of immigrant contributions to the United States and foster appreciation of the arts and sciences. The foundation's flagship programs include the Vilcek Foundation Prizes, which recognize immigrant contributions to American arts, biomedical science, and society. The foundation is also the designated steward of the art collection assembled by founders Jan and Marica Vilcek, comprising holdings in American modernism, Native American pottery, pre-Columbian objects, and contemporary art.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James B. Duke House</span> Mansion in Manhattan, New York

The James B. Duke House is a mansion at 1 East 78th Street, on the northeast corner of Fifth Avenue, on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. The building was designed by Horace Trumbauer, who drew heavily upon the design of Château Labottière in Bordeaux. Constructed between 1909 and 1912 as a private residence for businessman James Buchanan Duke and his family, the building has housed the New York University (NYU)'s Institute of Fine Arts since 1959.

Squeak Carnwath is an American contemporary painter and arts educator. She is a professor emerita of art at the University of California, Berkeley. She has a studio in Oakland, California, where she has lived and worked since 1970.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">András Szántó</span>

András Szántó advises museums, foundations, educational institutions, and leading brands worldwide on cultural strategy. He has directed the National Arts Journalism Program at Columbia University and has overseen the Global Museum Leaders Colloquium at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel</span> American historian

Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel is an American preservationist, historian, author, and television producer. She is an advocate for the preservation of the historic built environment and the arts. She has worked in the fields of art, architecture, crafts, historic preservation, fashion, and public policy in the U.S. She is the author of 24 books, numerous articles and essays, and recipient of many honors and awards. She is a former White House Assistant, the first Director of Cultural Affairs in New York City, and the longest serving New York City Landmarks Preservation Commissioner.

Pouran Jinchi is an Iranian-American, New York-based artist. She is best known for her abstract, calligraphy-based contemporary visual art.

Patricia Hermine Sloane was an American painter, author, and professor of fine arts at NYC Technical College of the City University of New York. She was best known for her abstract expressionism painting style, which can be interpreted as early street or urban art, with a close connection to the New York school movement. She was a member of the 10th Street Galleries in New York City during the 1950s and 1960s. Sloane's books included topics on fine arts, art history, principles of color, and the works of T. S. Eliot. She was married to Kenneth Campbell, a sculptor and artist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nicole Awai</span> American visual artist (born 1966)

Nicole Awai is an artist and educator based in Brooklyn, New York and Austin, Texas. Her work captures both Caribbean and American landscapes and experiences and engages in cultural critique. She works in many media including painting, photography, drawing, installations, ceramics, and sculpture as well as found objects.

Torkwase Dyson is an interdisciplinary artist based in Beacon, New York, United States. Dyson describes the themes of her work as "architecture, infrastructure, environmental justice, and abstract drawing." Her work is informed by her own theory of Black Compositional Thought. This working term considers how spatial networks—paths, throughways, water, architecture, and geographies—are composed by Black bodies as a means of exploring potential networks for Black liberation. She is represented by Pace Gallery and Richard Gray Gallery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rick Kinsel</span> American executive (born 1966)

Rick Alan Kinsel is an American nonprofit executive based in New York and Honolulu. He leads with the Vilcek Foundation and has developed multi-sector partnerships for Coty Inc. and with The Metropolitan Museum of Art. He has been involved in historic preservation and philanthropic communities in New York and Hawaii.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Vilcek, Jan (2016). Love and Science: A Memoir (1st ed.). New York: Seven Stories Press. ISBN   978-1609806682.
  2. 1 2 "A Realization of the American Dream". Vilcek Foundation. Retrieved 2023-08-21.
  3. 1 2 "The Immigrant Story Behind the Vilcek Foundation's Design Prizes". Metropolis. Retrieved 2023-08-21.
  4. "Marica F. Vilcek Elected Honorary Trustee at Metropolitan Museum". The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 2023-08-21.
  5. "Marica Vilcek". Vilcek Foundation. Retrieved 2023-08-21.
  6. "Rick Kinsel". Vilcek Foundation. Retrieved 2023-08-21.
  7. "Marica & Jan Vilcek". Arte Informado. 2018-12-20. Retrieved 2023-08-21.
  8. "Message from the Chair". issuu. Retrieved 2023-08-21.
  9. "ImmigrationProf Blog: Immigrant Achievement Awards". lawprofessors.typepad.com. Retrieved 2023-08-21.
  10. "2017 Living Landmarks Celebration". The New York Landmarks Conservancy. 2017-11-01. Retrieved 2023-08-21.
  11. Communications, NYU Web. "NYU's Institute of Fine Arts to Honor Marica Vilcek". nyu.edu. Retrieved 2023-08-21.