The Art of Michael Izrael Galmer

R E P O U S S É ST Y L E , T H E N A N D N O W:
A C E L E B R AT I O N O F T H E A RT O F
MICHAEL IZR AEL
GALMER
Housed in a former Gilded Age mansion surrounded by Italian–style
gardens, Evergreen Museum & Library is at once an intimate collection
of fine and decorative art, rare books, and manuscripts assembled by two
generations of Baltimore’s philanthropic Garrett family, and a vibrant,
inspirational venue for contemporary art. As a teaching museum of
Johns Hopkins University, Evergreen contributes to the advancement of
scholarship and museum practice by helping to train future art historians, historic preservationists, and museum professionals.
For information about tours, hours, exhibitions,
and special programs, please visit museums.jhu.edu.
E V E R G R E E N M U S E U M & L I B R A R Y, J O H N S H O P K I N S U N I V E R S I T Y
R E P O U S S É ST Y L E , T H E N A N D N O W:
A C E L E B R AT I O N O F T H E A RT O F
MICHAEL IZR AEL
GALMER
James Archer Abbott
© 2014, Evergreen Museum & Library, Johns Hopkins University.
4545 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21210
museums.jhu.edu
Published in conjunction with an exhibition
organized by Evergreen Museum & Library,
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced
without written permission from the publisher.
ISBN-10: 0983803099 / ISBN-13: 978-0-9838030-9-6
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
December 11, 2014–July 19, 2015
Design by B. Creative Group, Inc.
Photography by [ZeO] Productions except for pages 6, 31, and 32 by Julia Pearson.
Wine Coaster with Horses, 1999
Cover: Wild Iris Cuf f Bracelet, 2012
FOR E WOR D
The Evergreen Museum & Library Advisory Council
I
The Maryland State Arts Council
contemporary silversmith. By its subject, this exhibition brings new
R EPOUSSÉ ST Y LE , THEN A ND NOW: A CELEBR ATION
OF THE A RT OF MICH A EL IZR A EL GA LMER is made possible by
The Evergreen House Foundation
am pleased to welcome you to Johns Hopkins University’s
Evergreen Museum & Library for Repoussé Style, Then and Now:
A Celebration of the Art of Michael Izrael Galmer, an exhibition
that celebrates the vision of this accomplished and well recognized
attention to the vast decorative arts holdings of Evergreen—a largely
untapped treasure trove of furniture and applied arts just now gaining
GENEROUS SUPPORT IS PROV IDED BY
due attention through the research of students and scholars, alike. But
John and Mary Ann Beckley
this exhibition is not intended as an historical study, for Mr. Galmer’s
Claudia Bismark and Wade Wilson
work is of our time. His vision as an artist and artisan may reveal
Elizabeth Drigotas
historical cues, but his stunning works in silver reflect a resurgence of
Elizabeth and Jay H. Elliott
interest in the art of silver design and manufacture.
Sarah H. B. Foster
Fanny and Sholim Ginsburg
Repoussé Style, Then and Now: A Celebration of the Art of Michael
Svetlana Grinblat
Izrael Galmer continues a tradition of intimate exhibitions begun by
Fredye and Adam Gross
Evergreen’s last resident, Alice Warder Garrett. It fulfills Mrs. Garrett’s
Mrs. Thomas Roland Hobbs
desire that her husband’s family home continue to serve as a venue
Mr. and Mrs. Charles Johnson
Lillian and Haig Kazazian
Ann Koch
for the study and appreciation of all art. We welcome you, inviting you
to enjoy this celebration of contemporary design.
Zina Kroner
Olive and John B. Long
Edith and Stephen Nichols
Carolyn and Kevin O’Keefe
Susie and Bill Rienhoff
Shlomit Rind
Mrs. Carl Robert Scheir
Susan D. Turner and Robert Ciaverelli
Winston Tabb
Sylvia Wehr and Richard Johnson
Sheridan Dean of University Libraries and Museums
Susan Adams Weiss and Jeffrey Arnstein
Johns Hopkins University
Prime Home Therapy, LLP
3
Repoussé Style, Then and Now: A Celebration of the Art of
MICHAEL IZR AEL
GALMER
by James Archer Abbott
Director and Curator, Evergreen Museum & Library
REPOUSSÉ : adjective \r -,pü-’sā\ shaped or ornamented with patterns in relief made by
hammering or pressing on the reverse side–used especially of metal
I
n appreciating the creativity of artist Michael Izrael Galmer, one is
immediately struck by his thoughtful homage to the style of the
metal technique known as repoussé. Not a literal emulation of the
ancient art of reverse hammering of patterns on sheets of silver and
other fine metals, Galmer’s very modern partnering of advanced casting
techniques with traditional hand–work such as chasing all the same
affords a new appreciation for the rich relief patterning characteristic
of actual repoussé. Indeed, his creations have been credited with a
contemporary revival of repoussé–inspired elegance–a lavish taste
that was identified with Baltimore through much of the nineteenth
and twentieth centuries, largely due to the work of the prolific Kirk
and Stieff companies, and which is well represented in Evergreen
Museum & Library’s silver collection. It is in recognition of this unique
dual influence as both a revivalist and contemporary artist that Evergreen celebrates Michael and his art.
Bee Vase, 2001
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Michael Izrael Galmer was born in the former Soviet Union in 1947, in
the formative years of the Cold War. Though limited in many ways by
the constrictions of communism, he was encouraged by his parents
to pursue an advanced education. Michael attended Moscow University,
where he studied chemistry and physics, as well as an evolving
personal passion—art. While earning a doctorate in the field of physics,
he continued to explore the realms of drawing, painting, and sculpture,
with nature as his predominant muse. His favorite artist proved to be
the seventeenth–century Dutch painter and printmaker Rembrandt
van Rijn, largely because of “his decisive, precise delineations of forms,”
as the artist recalled recently. But the student did not limit himself
to fine art, and he often took time out to study examples of applied
art around him, such as the most utilitarian of door pulls, hinges, and
various examples of table equipage.
He was already thinking about beauty in
the most basic of applications, but he was
redesigning such in his head, creating with
luxurious metals–most notably, silver.
Not long after meeting his wife, Galina, a computer science major
at the same university, Michael began to dream about greater
opportunities beyond those afforded by his native country. “My wife
and I began to think about using our skills and talents in a free society,”
he remembers. Eventually with their young daughter, Zina, they
strategically traveled to Austria for two weeks, and then moved on to
Italy for two months while awaiting permission to travel to New York.
With no relatives or personal connections, the young family “started
from scratch, from zero” in America.
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At this time Michael began envisioning “a
company in which he could combine his
artistic passion for nature, silver and design
with his technical expertise and ingenuity,”
as a later press release described.
He and his wife started Galmer Silversmiths in 1981, utilizing a new
surname born of their combined first names. In its earliest home,
a garage in Long Island City, New York, Galmer Silversmiths began
more as a scientist’s laboratory than anything else. Here, Michael
experimented with new fabrication and casting techniques for silver
and other metals. But very soon after, that garage became as much
the designer’s domain as that of the scientist. The artist began to
translate his years of envisioning stylish reinterpretations of both practical
and ornamental wares to reality, and word of his skill became known.
By 1983, America’s premier luxury retailer Tiffany & Company
expressed interest in seeing examples of Michael’s talent. Arranging
for the transport of some of his most ambitious works to date to the
firm’s Fifth Avenue offices, the then exclusively Russian–speaking artist
phonetically memorized a script written in English that highlighted
his accomplishments and skills. Though Michael laughs about them
now, these efforts were not wasted in the least. Within a month,
Galmer Silversmiths was manufacturing small trophies for a yacht
company’s presentation to special clients. Soon after, the commissions
grew in size and importance.
Wild Iris Cuf f Bracelet, 2012;
Bamboo Bracelet, 2011;
and Vineyard Cuf f Bracelet, 2013.
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Afforded a rare, non–exclusive relationship with Tiffany, Michael was
sought by other firms as well, including the New Jersey–based Lenox
Company, which utilized his artistry in the development of sterling
repoussé–inspired table wares and household gifts. He also was
commissioned to design a number of pieces of Judaica for the Jewish
Museum of New York. By the mid–1990s, Michael had fulfilled a series
of unique commissions, such as the highly–praised recreation of a
monumental silver punchbowl originally commissioned for the U.S.S.
Oklahoma—the ship that became a tomb for its sailors at Pearl Harbor
on December 7, 1941. Sought by the Oklahoma Historical Society in
an attempt to preserve the original bowl that had long since been
transferred to near continuous service in the state’s governor’s
mansion, the Galmer Silversmiths’ replacement was heralded for its
exactness to the original.
It includes not only precise reproductions of
the seal of Oklahoma, the then–territory’s 1889
land grant, and busts of influential settlement
players Captain David Payne and the Cherokee
silversmith Sequoyah, but also “tiny scratches
found on the original.”
In Baltimore, Michael is “known” (though anonymously) for his
replications of the famous mid–nineteenth–century Woodlawn Vase,
annually bestowed upon the owners of the winner of the Preakness
Stakes horse race at the Monument City’s Pimlico Race Course. It is
important to note that his talents were sought for this commission
by the silver manufacturing Stieff family, an equally great honor in
which Michael continues to take pride.
Palm Beach Candlestick , 2007;
Blossom Pitcher, 2001;
Flask with Horse, 2000
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Perhaps Michael’s most ambitious work to date is the five and a
half feet tall sculpture, The Ten Commandments, included in this
exhibition at Evergreen. Neither a commissioned work nor one intended
to be identified with any specific religion or faith, this vast sculpture
starts with the artist’s vision of the beginning of the world. The organic
quality of the base derives from Michael’s life–long fascination with
nature, with the root–inspired texturing representative of “a world, raw
and without rules.” From this harsh beginning rises a civilized society
of many, all of whom are partnered in embracing a new world order.
Though this work has been sought out by prominent Judaica collectors,
it remains with the artist­—“un–owned.” Even motion picture director
Steven Spielberg was unable to secure it for a fundraising auction to
benefit the nuclear–devastated Russian city of Chernobyl. For Michael,
the purpose of The Ten Commandments is to impact and educate the
public at large, not to be cloistered for the appreciation of a very few.
“The message,” he says, “belongs to the
public rather than any single collector.”
It is with this impassioned pronouncement that one gains the greatest
understanding of Michael Izrael Galmer. His conviction as an artist
is driven, first and foremost, by the passion for and love of creating
beautiful things.
The Ten Commandments, 2001-2011
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“I tell artists just starting out: Design for
family. Design with love. In describing
my own art, I think I would have to
begin with the pleasures of walking in
the woods, seeing nature first hand.
I seek to translate what I enjoy in
nature to the silver and other metals
I work with.”
Jonquil Vase, 1996
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Stone Blue Goblet, 2002;
Goblet with Horses, 1999;
Rose Bird Goblet, 1998;
Traditional Goblet , 2005.
The artist began to translate his years of
envisioning stylish reinterpretations of both
practical and ornamental wares to reality,
and word of his skill became known.
Lemon Set: Napk in R ing, Tumbler, Pitcher, Tray, 2006
18
A RT I ST
Q& A
In that it is always beneficial to “hear” from the
artist, directly, Evergreen director and curator,
James Archer Abbott, sat down with Michael Galmer
to talk about the origins of his art, and a bit more.
Moose Flask , 2000
21
JA MES A BBOT T: Michael, for the person who has never seen your
creations, how would you describe your vision as an artist?
MICH A EL GA LMER : The first thing I always try to advise young
artists on is to never design for money. Yes, an artist wants to eat, but
his talent should never be dictated or directed by profit. My art begins
with a passion, not a need to make money. I tell artists just starting
out: Design for family. Design with love. In describing my own art, I
think I would have to begin with the pleasures of walking in the woods,
seeing nature first hand. I seek to translate what I enjoy in nature to
the silver and other metals I work with. I think I would have to bring
in the idea of a beautiful woman when describing my art, as so many
of the things I design are intended as complements of a delicate wrist
or hand or neck. Perhaps I am the facilitator of a dialogue between
nature and such a woman; my art is the conversation between the two.
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Spider Napk in R ing, 2004;
Spider Wine Coaster, 2003;
Spider Goblet, 2003
JA MES A BBOT T: Repoussé silver is an inspiration for your art, and
your style borrows much from these works. What was the first piece of
repoussé silver that you remember seeing?
MICH A EL GA LMER : I remember it very well. It was soon after I
had arrived in the United States from the Soviet Union and I was
visiting New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. I was in that great
institution’s American Wing, and I came across wonderful mixed metal
pieces from the late nineteenth century, made by Gorham and Tiffany.
Though these pieces were Japanesque in style—something I don’t
do—I was so excited with their complexity of design. Of an actual
example of repoussé, that would have been this incredible ewer and
tray made by the Providence, Rhode Island–based Gorham. It was
pure sculpture. Yes, it was a usable object, presumably for wine, but it
was truly a work of art, too. The body of the ewer is like the hour–glass
figure of a woman of that time, curvaceous and sensual…and soft,
though it is made of pure silver…and the handle is a stretched female
figure growing out of a naturalistic leaf. I was so moved by this object.
You have to read something, feel it, and this piece had me doing just
that, and it and other pieces that I saw that special day long ago, gave
me the inspiration for what I create today.
Rose Cup, 1998
25
JA MES A BBOT T: Is there a motif that you find yourself revisiting
again and again? If so, what is it and why does it fascinate you?
MICH A EL GA LMER : Chrysanthemums. I enjoy nature and I
include many different flowers in my work, but I regularly revisit the
chrysanthemum. First, there is not just one but there are so many
varieties of this flower, so you never really know it completely or fully.
There is a perfectness to the chrysanthemum, a delicacy as well as
a balance that fascinates me [and] has me sometimes drawing on a
napkin over lunch, adapting it to a new object or form.
Chrysanthemum Pitcher, 1997
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JA MES A BBOT T: What is the benefit of an object being made of silver?
MICH A EL GA LMER : I think silver is special because it is identified
with both a sense of fineness and the idea of tradition. Of quality,
there is no more beautiful material to see, touch, or feel. Silver is an
amazing, fine material that can be crafted in so many unique ways.
When one acquires an object made of silver, I see them thinking about
not just the present, but also a future—perhaps a distant future. Silver
is something that represents succeeding generations of a family, or it
is something that is identified with permanence and longevity.
Bear Cocktail Shaker, 2001
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JA MES A BBOT T: Why do you think the repoussé style is entering a
stage of resurgence?
MICH A EL GA LMER : I really didn’t know it was, but now that you
say this, I would guess that everything goes through a cycle of ups
and downs. I guess such increasing popularity has to do with a rising
appreciation for craftsmanship. We live in an amazing world where
identical things can be made in seconds by machines. Though I can
make “another” of something, each one of my works is chased and
polished by my own hands. I think that may be part of this “resurgence”
you speak of: quality, artistry.
Of the style of repoussé, which can be very intricate, I think there is an
audience that appreciates beauty. The illusion of depth that is incorporated in such pieces as a goblet or even a bracelet fascinates people.
The effect changes with the light, the time of day. It is pure sculpture. I
love watching a woman wear one of the silver cuffs that I make, seeing
her move it in various directions, seeing her appreciate the intricacy of
the flowers. Again, I come back to creating a dialogue between nature
and the patron. I am a lucky man in being able to do this.
Cabbage Porringer, 1995
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E X HIBITION CHECK LIST
CABBAGE PORRINGER, 1995
Sterling silver
JONQUIL VASE, 1996
Sterling silver with selective burnishing
CHRYSANTHEMUM PITCHER, 1997
Sterling silver with 24k gold–plated interior
ROSE BIRD GOBLET, 1998
Sterling silver with selective burnishing and
24k gold–plated interior
ROSE CUP, 1998
Sterling silver
GOBLET WITH HORSES, 1999
Sterling silver with 24k gold–plated interior
BEE VASE, 2002
Sterling silver, highly textured and ornamented, with
24k gold–plated interior
SPIDER GOBLET, 2003
Sterling silver, amber stones and 24k gold–plated interior
SPIDER WINE COASTER, 2003
Sterling silver, amber stones, and 24k gold–plated interior
SPIDER NAPKIN RING, 2004
Sterling silver, amber stones, and 24k gold–plated interior
TR ADITIONAL GOBLET, 2005
Sterling silver, satin finish, and oxidized detail, with
24k gold–plated interior
WINE COASTER WITH HORSES, 1999
Sterling silver with 24k gold–plated interior
LEMON SET: NAPKIN RING, TUMBLER,
PITCHER, TR AY, 2006
Sterling silver in high shine, 24k gold–plated silver lemons,
24k gold–plated interiors
FLASK WITH HORSE, 2000
Sterling silver, in matte, textured, and low–shine
PALM BEACH CANDLESTICK, 2007
Sterling silver
MOOSE FLASK, 2000
Sterling silver in matte, with texture and low–shine
BAMBOO BR ACELET, 2011
Sterling silver, Sleeping Beauty turquoise, and
24k gold–plated backing.
BEAR COCKTAIL SHAKER, 2001
Sterling silver with texture against spare
background spaces
WILD IRIS CUFF BR ACELET, 2012
Finest sterling silver and 24k gold–plated interior
BLOSSOM PITCHER, 2001
Sterling silver with highest–shine and minimal texture
VINEYARD CUFF BR ACELET, 2013
Sterling silver and 24k gold–plated interior
STONE BLUE GOBLET, 2002
Sterling silver with texture and high shine with
24k gold–plated interior
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, 2001–2011
Sterling silver and bronze
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“I think silver is special because it is identified
with both a sense of fineness and the idea
of tradition. Of quality, there is no more
beautiful material to see, touch, or feel.
Silver is an amazing, fine material that can
be crafted in so many unique ways.”