George Sakier (1897–1988) was an American artist and industrial designer.[1][2] A man of multiple talents, he originally studied at the engineering school of Columbia University and Pratt Institute. Having composed the text Machine Design and Descriptive Geometry at age 19, he went on to work as a camouflage technician during World War I. After the war he continued to work as an artist, combining technology with classicism.
In the 1920s, Sakier moved to Paris where he wrote articles on European art for American magazines and on U.S. engineering for European journals. For the fledgling international literary magazine Broom, where he also served as an art director, he authored (using the family name Sacken) an essay on Mayan art.[3] This essay stimulated the rescue of a Mayan collection from the cellar of the Trocadèro in Paris.[2] He also worked in art direction for Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, and Modes and Manners. During his tenure at Vogue, he provided the African mask featured in Man Ray's iconic photographic Noire et blanche.[4]
Sakier worked in the medium of glassware. From 1929 until 1979, he worked as the primary consultant for Fostoria Glass Company.[5][6] Sakier was also a proponent of the company's Art Deco designs.[6]
Sakier was also an accomplished painter, the metier about which he was most passionate.[7][2] His paintings were shown in the Julien Levy Gallery in New York City in 1932.[8] His works include "Red Mesa", "Seascape #011", and "Collage CO08". After he amassed his fortune from his industrial designs, he moved permanently to Paris where he pursued this passion until his death in 1988.[9]
Legacy
editYale University has a George Sakier Memorial Prize for excellence in photography. The Industrial Design Department at his alma mater, Pratt Institute, awards the George Sakier Merit Scholarship to students for excellence in color theory. His glasswork is in numerous collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Cooper Hewitt, and the Birmingham Museum of Art, among others.
References
edit- ^ Christine Taylor Klein, The Quiet Dissemination of American Modernism: George Sakier's Designs for American Radiator, Design Issues, Vol. 28, No. 1 (Winter 2012), pp. 81-90
- ^ a b c "George Sakier, FIDSA". 6 January 2017.
- ^ George Sacken “Maya Art,” Broom (January 1923): 86-88.
- ^ Wendy Grossman and Steven Manford, “Unmasking Man Ray’s Noire et blanche,” American Art (Summer 2006): 134-147.
- ^ Leslie Piña, Fostoria Designer George Sakier (Atgen, Pennsylvania: Schiffer Publishing Ltd., 1996)
- ^ a b Birmingham Museum of Art (2010). Birmingham Museum of Art : guide to the collection. [Birmingham, Ala]: Birmingham Museum of Art. p. 146. ISBN 978-1-904832-77-5.
- ^ Sakier Paintings (New York: The Sakier Foundation, 1995).
- ^ Julien Levy Gallery Records http://hdl.library.upenn.edu/1017/d/pacscl/PMA_PMA005
- ^ Christine Taylor Klein, "The Quiet Dissemination of American Modernism: George Sakier's Designs for American Radiator," Design Issues, Vol. 28, No. 1 (Winter 2012), 82.