Her particular areas of interest were American folk art and furniture and contemporary craft objects, furniture, and jewelry. In those areas she collected widely. Farago was known for identifying significant artists early in their careers. Art News Magazine included her among the 100 top collectors in the world.[2] Her donations of artworks to the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston were extensive and considered transformative.[3]
Peter Farago was born on March 31, 1922, in Oradea, Romania to Aladar Farago and Margaret Berger. Many of his family was murdered during the Holocaust. Peter escaped from a Nazi forced labor camp[4] in the Carpathian Mountains[5] after 1.5 years imprisonment. Speaking five languages, he was particularly useful to the U.S. Military and other agencies involved in relief work.[4]
Daphne became a docent at the RISD Museum of Art. A self-taught collector, she became highly regarded for her work with American folk art and furniture in the 1960s and 1970s. This collection was donated and many of the pieces auctioned off in 1991 to benefit the RISD Museum of Art. In 1993, the RISD Museum of Art created an exhibition center named the Daphne Farago Wing in her honor.[6][1]
Next, Farago focused on contemporary studio craft works, collecting glass, ceramics, wooden objects and furniture in addition to fiber art and jewelry.[6] She became known for her "discerning eye" and her ability to identify emerging artists who would become leaders in their fields.[1] For her, part of the appeal of collecting was the opportunity for involvement and interaction with the artists, to directly show her respect for them and their work.[3]
She collected with the intent of acquiring work that encompassed the span of an artist's career, finding pieces that showed an artist's capabilities and unique style.[3]
She regarded jewelry as a form of public art, to be worn. In her jewelry collection she focused on the twentieth century from 1940 onwards, first collecting American jewelry and later adding European works. Farago liked to collect wearable jewelry, but also bought some pieces which were more provocative, such as Jan Yager's American Collar II. Artists whose works she collected include Robert Ebendorf, Mary Lee Hu, Sam Kramer, Bruce Metcalf, and Art Smith.[6]
Many of the objects have simple forms (spheres and fruitlike shapes are favorites) and bold colors, reflect sensitive and intelligent handling of materials and convey the individuality, imagination and, at times, sense of humor of their makers.[6]
Farago also made significant donations of works to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA),[1] donations whose impact was transformative.[3] Over her lifetime, she donated nearly 1000 objects to the Museum, including over 80 works of contemporary fiber art by Ed Rossbach and Katherine Westphal (2004) and over 650 pieces of contemporary jewelry (2006). The Daphne and Peter Farago Gallery at the Museum was opened in 2011.[1] Her collection of jewelry became the basis for the exhibition Jewelry by Artists: The Daphne Farago Collection which was held at the MFA in 2007,[6] and the reference work Jewelry By Artists in the Studio 1940-2000, published by the MFA.[2] Farago also supported the yearly Farago Lecture on Jewelry at the MFA which focused on art jewelry.[2]
Peter Farago died on February 21, 2010.[4][8] In 2012, Daphne Farago gave the MFA its largest gift of contemporary craft art to date, 161 craft objects made of fiber, ceramics, glass, wood, metal, and basketry.[7][3][9] The gift was unrestricted.[8] The Faragos are identified as "Great Benefactors" for making gifts of the value of $2.5 million-$5 million to the museum.[7]
"I think her passion and her vision was really unparalleled... She's been transformative in what we're able to do as an institution, to make craft have a presence at the museum, and to engage people." Emily Zilber, curator at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.[3]
Related Research Articles
The Rhode Island School of Design is a private art and design school in Providence, Rhode Island. The school was founded as a coeducational institution in 1877 by Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf, who sought to increase the accessibility of design education to women. Today, RISD offers bachelor's and master's degree programs across 19 majors and enrolls approximately 2,000 undergraduate and 500 graduate students. The Rhode Island School of Design Museum—which houses the school's art and design collections—is one of the largest college art museums in the United States.
Nancy Elizabeth Prophet was an American artist of African-American and Native American ancestry, known for her sculpture. She was the first African-American graduate from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1918 and later studied at L'Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris during the early 1920s. She became noted for her work in Paris in the 1920s and 1930s. In 1934, Prophet began teaching at Spelman College, expanding the curriculum to include modeling and history of art and architecture. Prophet died in 1960 at the age of 70.
The Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design is an art museum integrated with the Rhode Island School of Design, in Providence, Rhode Island, US. The museum was co-founded with the school in 1877. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the United States, and has seven curatorial departments.
Linda MacNeil is an American abstract artist, sculptor, and jeweler. She works with glass and metal specializing in contemporary jewelry that combines metalwork with glass to create wearable sculpture. Her focus since 1975 has been sculptural objets d’art and jewelry, and she works in series. MacNeil’s jewelry is considered wearable sculpture and has been her main focus since 1996.
Rosanne Somerson is an American-born woodworker, furniture designer/maker, educator, and former President of Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). An artist connected with the early years of the Studio Furniture, her work and career have been influential to the field.
Karla Black is a Scottish sculptor who creates abstract three-dimensional artworks that explore the physicality of materials as a way of understanding and communicating the world around us.
Polly Barton is an American textile artist.
Katherine Westphal was an American textile designer and fiber artist who helped to establish quilting as a fine art form.
Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf (1830-1895) was a founder and director of the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in Providence, Rhode Island.
Lisa Gralnick is an American contemporary metalsmith, studio jeweler and academic. She works in the field of craft and art jewelry. Gralnick says: "I have chosen to make jewelry, which is traditionally considered 'craft', and I do enjoy the processes and techniques that allow me to execute my work without technical faults. But 'craft' is only a means to an end for me, as it is for many artists. My desire to push the limits of jewelry and expand on them, to comment on its traditions and associations, is more the concern of any artist."
Lauren Kalman is a contemporary American visual artist who uses photography, sculpture, jewelry, craft objects, performance, and installation. Kalman's works investigate ideas of beauty, body image, and consumer culture. Kalman has taught at institutions including Brown University and the Rhode Island School of Design. Currently she is an associate professor at Wayne State University.
Myra Mimlitsch-Gray is an American metalsmith, artist, critic, and educator living and working in Stone Ridge, New York. Mimlitsch-Gray's work has been shown nationally at such venues as the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Museum of the City of New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Cooper-Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, and Museum of Arts and Design. Her work has shown internationally at such venues as the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, Stadtisches Museum Gottingen, and the Victoria and Albert Museum, and is held in public and private collections in the U.S, Europe, and Asia.
Liz Collins is an American contemporary artist and designer. Collins is recognized for her artwork involving fabric, knitwear, and textiles as well as the fashion label she developed. She has expertise in textile media including the transition of fabric into multi-dimensional forms as a method to vary the scale of her pieces to make them architectural and inviting rather than object-based. Collins is based in Brooklyn, New York.
Jan Yager is an American artist who makes mixed media jewelry. She draws inspiration from both the natural world and the lived-in human environment of her neighborhood in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, emphasizing that art is a reflection of both time and place. She has incorporated rocks, bullet casings, and crack cocaine vials into her works, and finds beauty in the resilience of urban plants that some would consider weeds.
Annie Evelyn is a furniture designer and artist known for works that combine an innovative use of materials with humor. She is co-founder of Table Fights.
Barbara Seidenath is a German-born American jewelry designer, metalsmith, and educator.
Alphonse Mattia was an American furniture designer, woodworker, sculptor and educator. In 2005, Alphonse Mattia was elected a Fellow of the American Craft Council (ACC).
MJ Tyson is an American jewelry designer.
Leelee Chan is a Hong Kong-based contemporary mixed-media artist and sculptor. Her collages, paintings, sculptures, and installations combine natural and organic forms with recycled materials and found objects as an exploration of material culture.
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.
