Jane Gottlieb Sauer (born 1937) is an American fiber artist, sculptor, gallerist, and educator.[1][2] She is known for her abstract waxed linen sculptures, sometimes referred to as "closed baskets". Saur founded the Textile Art Alliance; and formerly owned the Jane Sauer Gallery (2005–2013) in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Jane Sauer
Born
Jane Gottlieb

(1937-09-16) September 16, 1937 (age 87)[1]
St. Louis, Missouri, United States[1]
Other namesJane Gottlieb Sauer
EducationWashington University in St. Louis[1]
Occupation(s)Visual artist, educator, gallerist
Known forFiber art, sculpture
MovementAmerican studio craft
SpouseDonald Carl Sauer (m. 1972–present)
AwardsAmerican Craft Council (2002 fellow)

Early life, family, and education

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Jane Gottlieb was born September 16, 1937 in St. Louis, Missouri.[1] She attended Washington University in St. Louis, and graduated with a B.F.A. degree (1959).[1][3]

She married Donald Carl Sauer in 1972. She worked as a public school teacher for twelve years.[4] In the late 1990s, she moved to New Mexico.[2]

Career

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She focused on painting in her early career, and shifted to fiber art. She was influenced to work in fiber by the book, Beyond Craft: The Art of Fabric (1974) by Jack Lenor Larsen and Mildred Constantine.[5]

Sauer has won many awards for her waxed linen sculptures, which are constructed with a knotting technique and finished with painting.[3][6] Her works of the 1980s and 1990s display uninhibited emotion; and according to the book Makers: A History of American Studio Craft (2010) Sauer's work is one of the best examples emotionally charged American studio craft of that time period, similarly to Norma Minkowitz.[4]

Sauer had a retrospective exhibition, "Jane Sauer: Impassioned Form" (2001), at the Robert Hillestad Textiles Gallery at University of Nebraska–Lincoln in Lincoln, Nebraska.[6] Other notable exhibitions include "Current Exhibition: Jane Sauer" (1988) at the St. Louis Art Museum; and the traveling group exhibition, "The Tactile Vessel: New Basket Forms" (1989–1991) at the American Craft Museum (1989, now the Museum of Arts and Design);[7] and the Erie Art Museum.[3]

Sauer was the gallery director at Thirteen Moons Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico; and took over the management in 2005.[2] She founded the "Jane Sauer Gallery" in the former Thirteen Moons Gallery space, which focused on fine art and crafts and was active from 2005 until 2013.[8][9] The gallery was sold in 2013, and the name was Tansey Contemporary until 2017.[8][10]

Her work is found in public museum collections, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston,[11] Philadelphia Museum of Art,[12] the Kemper Art Museum, the Cleveland Museum of Art,[13] Museum of Fine Arts, Boston,[14] and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.[15]

Awards and honors

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Sauer was a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) fellow in 1984.[3] In 2002, Sauer was elected a fellow of the American Craft Council (ACC);[16] and in 2019, she was awarded the lifetime achievement award from the National Basketry Organization (NBO).[5]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f Who's Who in American Art 1991–1992. R. R. Bowker Publishing. 1990. p. 979. ISBN 978-0-8352-2897-8.
  2. ^ a b c "Jane Sauer". American Craft Council. Retrieved 2024-03-21.
  3. ^ a b c d Heller, Jules; Heller, Nancy G. (2013-12-19). North American Women Artists of the Twentieth Century: A Biographical Dictionary. Routledge. p. 1182. ISBN 978-1-135-63889-4.
  4. ^ a b Koplos, Janet; Metcalf, Bruce (2010-07-31). Makers: A History of American Studio Craft. University of North Carolina Press. pp. 430–431. ISBN 978-0-8078-9583-2.
  5. ^ a b "NBO 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award Jane Sauer" (PDF). The National Basketry Organization. 2019. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 16, 2021.
  6. ^ a b Wolgamott, L. Kent (2001-02-18). "Blurring Boundaries: Artist shows true colors by mixing painting, fiber basketry". Lincoln Journal Star. p. 60. Retrieved 2024-03-21 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^ "Museums". New York Magazine. New York Media, LLC. 1989-11-06. p. 153 – via Google Books.
  8. ^ a b "A Finding Aid to the Jane Sauer Papers and Gallery records, 1898–2013" (PDF). Archives of American Art. Smithsonian Institution. 2016. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 9, 2022.
  9. ^ Fisher, Rich (September 29, 2011). "Meet the Celebrated Fiber Sculptor and Artist --- and Influential Gallery Owner --- Jane Sauer". Public Radio Tulsa. Retrieved 2024-03-22.
  10. ^ Cheney, Jillian (November 20, 2019). "Tansey Contemporary in Denver to close gallery doors before the end of November". UrbanGlass. Retrieved 2024-03-21.
  11. ^ "Jane Sauer". The MFAH Collections. Retrieved 2024-03-22.
  12. ^ "Basket Form". Philadelphia Museum of Art. Retrieved 2024-03-22.
  13. ^ "Circular Evidence America, 20th century". Cleveland Museum of Art. Retrieved 2024-03-22.
  14. ^ "Polychrome III". MFA Boston. Retrieved 2024-03-22.
  15. ^ "Jane Sauer". Smithsonian American Art Museum. Retrieved 2024-03-22.
  16. ^ "College of Fellows". American Craft Council. Retrieved 2024-03-21.
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