Norma Rubovits (1918 – March 16, 2016) was an American paper marbler, bookbinder, and collector.
Norma Rubovits | |
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| Born | Norma Bloch August 26, 1918 Tulsa, Oklahoma |
| Died | March 16, 2016 Chicago, Illinois |
| Alma mater | University of Oklahoma |
| Known for | Paper craft |
Early life and education
editRubovits née Bloch was born in 1918 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She attended the University of Oklahoma.[1] At the age of 21, she relocated to Chicago to work as a dietician at University of Chicago Hospitals. She married Dr. Frank Rubovits and the couple studied bookbinding techniques, including a class taught by Elizabeth Kner.[2]
Career
editRubovits turned her attention to paper marbling, learning the process by contacting other paper marblers and studying books about the craft in the Newberry Library. Her style evolved into producing spare images that she referred to as vignettes. As well a creating marbled paper, Rubovits amassed a collection of over 4,000 examples of marbled paper from around the world.[1] She donated her collection to the Newberry Library[3] in the early 1990s. In 2010 the Newberry held a retrospective of her work.[2]
Rubovits died at the age of 97 on March 16, 2016, in Chicago.[2]
Featured works
editHer work was included in the 2023 exhibition Pattern and Flow: A Golden Age of American Decorated Papers, 1960s-2000s at the Grolier Club,[1] and in the Paper Legacy Project at the Thomas J. Watson Library at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.[4]
References
edit- ^ a b c Dubansky, Mindell; Berger, Sidney E. (2022). Pattern and flow: a golden age of American decorated paper, 1960s to 2000s [exhibition, The Grolier Club, New York, January 17-April 8, 2023]. New York New Haven: Thomas J. Watson Library, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Distributed by Yale University Press. p. 170. ISBN 978-0300266191.
- ^ a b c Megan, Graydon (22 March 2016). "Norma Rubovits, bookbinder who specialized in marbling paper, dies at 97". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 9 March 2024.
- ^ "Norma Rubovits papers". Archives of American Art. Smithsonian Institution. 7 July 2015. Retrieved 9 March 2024.
- ^ "Collection of marbled paper samples / created by Norma Rubovits, 1918-2016". Thomas J. Watson Library Digital Collections. Retrieved 9 March 2024.