Monday, October 17, 2011

My Introduction to Harold Krisel

Article One of A Three Part Article



Summer 6 - Silkscreen
20" x 20" approximately
Harold Krisel

Included in the permanent collection of The Spartanburg
County Museum of Art. This work is part of a collection
of Krisel's work presented to the museum from the estate
of the late Roger Milliken, founder and CEO of
Milliken and Company.


In October of 2010 both Judy Langille and I were scheduled to teach at Quilting by the Lake 2 in Auburn, NY. As soon as we met Judy mentioned she had something for me — a catalog of work by her father Harold Krisel. Later that evening she presented me with an absolutely beautiful book titled Structured/Forms. The 49-page full-color catalog presents paintings and silkscreens produced by her father from the 1950s through the 1960s. The catalog was published by McCormick Gallery in Chicago and Vincent Vallarino Fine Art, Ltd in New York City. It's a treasure.

As Judy and I talked she also told me of her father's connection to my area of South Carolina. In fact, just that day, I had walked past a couple of large-scale paintings designed by Mr. Krisel which are in my home airport, Greenville-Spartanburg. I was very familiar with these works but had not recalled the name of the artist. She further revealed that the late Roger Milliken, founder of Milliken and Company, had a large collection of her father's work in both his personal collection and in his corporate headquarters and that part of that collection had been donated to the permanent collection of the Spartanburg Museum of Art in Spartanburg, SC. Additional works in the permanent collection were donated from the Krisel Estate.

I knew that evening that I wanted to write about Mr. Krisel. In addition to being a fine artist, he came across as a wonderful father, family man, designer, architect and teacher. My desire to write about him was to honor all of the roles he fulfilled during his life with so much success. With this in mind, I made the decision to invite my sister, Elizabeth Jarrard, to be a guest writer for the major portion of this article. Much of Beth's professional career focused on interviewing and writing about interesting people as well as doing feature articles, so this seemed a great fit.

Harold Krisel passed away in 1995 but his wife, Rose Krisel still lives in Great Neck, NY . This week I will be posting a series of three articles (this is #1) on consecutive days which feature the art and design of Mr. Krisel as well as interviews with his widow Mrs. Rose Krisel and one of his daughters, artist Judy Langille. I hope you will join us in the celebration of a creative accomplished artist.

The article for tomorrow is : Who Is Harold Krisel?




On Oct. 24, Fab.com will be offering a selection of original prints for sale from the Krisel Estate. If you are interested you can register to view this offering via this link: Fab.com/


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