Art for Life's Sake

Masterworks of Craft from Jane & Leonard Korman

As published in the Rago Jane Korman Auction Catalog, November 9, 2023

Left:
Toshiko Takaezu
Makaha Blue USA, 1993
glazed porcelain 47 ¾ h x 17 w x 17 ¼ d in (121 x 43 x 44 cm)
A monumental example of this form. Incised signature near base ‘TT’.
LITERATURE: Toshiko Takaezu: An Essential Balance, Perimeter Gallery exhibition catalog, pg. 6 illustrates this example
EXHIBITED: Toshiko Takaezu: New Works, Featuring the Makaha Blue Forest, 1997, Charles Cowles Gallery, New York Toshiko Takaezu: An Essential Balance, 13 October – 25 November 2000, Perimeter Gallery, Chicago PROVENANCE: Perimeter Gallery, Chicago

Right:
Toshiko Takaezu
Makaha Blue USA, 1994
glazed porcelain 31 ½ h x 10 ½ w x 10 d in (80 x 27 x 25 cm)
Incised signature near base ‘TT’.
LITERATURE; Toshiko Takaezu: An Essential Balance, Perimeter Gallery exhibition catalog, pg. 7 illustrates this example
EXHIBITED: Toshiko Takaezu: New Works, Featuring the Makaha Blue Forest, 1997, Charles Cowles Gallery, New York Toshiko Takaezu: An Essential Balance, 13 October – 25 November 2000, Perimeter Gallery, Chicago PROVENANCE: Perimeter Gallery, Chicago

Take a walk through center city Philadelphia, you’ll find evidence of Jane Korman’s vision all around you: on Arch Street, the innovative textile studios and galleries at the Fabric Workshop and Museum will be abuzz with creativity, with thought-provoking exhibitions on view. On Walnut Street, you’ll pass the Jane & Leonard Korman Respiratory Institute at T homas Jefferson University Hospital—an initiative inspired by her own experience as a lung cancer patient who never took the ability to breathe for granted. Each November at the nearby Pennsylvania Convention Center, the Philadelphia Museum of Art Contemporary Craft Show welcomes thousands of eager shoppers whose purchases support both the livelihoods of the artists displaying their work, and the Museum’s ability to acquire important works of contemporary craft. Korman was a longtime supporter and member of the Board of Directors of this annual event through the Women’s Committee of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where she also served on the Modern and Contemporary Art Committee. And if you venture a bit further afield to the northwest corner of the city, you’ll reach the Morris Arboretum of the University of Pennsylvania, where Korman was a Trustee and chair of the Fine Arts Committee. There, she spearheaded the creation of a permanent installation for children called Out on a Limb: A Tree Adventure Exhibit, complete with a nest of giant robin’s eggs and a Squirrel Scramble. It was designed as a fully accessible place for children and adults to explore and revel in nature, and to help them see that “we need trees, and trees need us.”

These efforts have something important in common: breathing deeply and enjoying nature in every season, celebrating art and creativity in all its forms, and sharing the wonder of exquisite craftsmanship with the historic city she loved, all demonstrating that for Jane Korman, art, life and nature were not separate entities, but deeply intertwined facets of a life well lived. The diversity and exceptional quality of the works of art in this important sale speak to this sense of interconnectedness, and reflect her eye for idiosyncratic beauty and adventurous form. From the playful wit of Judy Kensley McKie’s furniture to the trompe-l’œil everyday objects created in clay by Marilyn Levine, Korman’s collection demonstrates reverence for material mastery, an appreciation for originality and nontraditional forms, and enjoyment of the unpretentious humor that animates craft’s whimsical side. It also offers proof of her artistic foresight: McKie’s Table With Dogs was featured in the American Craft Council’s exhibition New Handmade Furniture: American Furniture Makers Working in Hardwood back in 1979.

Korman was well known as a connoisseur and philanthropist, but she was also a gallery owner and published author. Her 2010 book Splendid Settings: T he Art + Craft of Entertaining captured the spirit of her much-beloved collection. On the cover, a bouquet of peonies keeps company with a pair of elegant champagne flutes and three brilliantly glazed works by Toshiko Takaezu; this could only be Jane Korman’s table. Born in Philadelphia, she earned a BA in fine arts from Arcadia University, married Leonard Korman in 1957, and they raised three daughters together. In 1977, she established a gallery dedicated to contemporary American craft called Sign of the Swan in Philadelphia’s Chestnut Hill neighborhood. She later opened Swan Gallery near Rittenhouse Square, overseeing both spaces until 1989. Her passion for craft and expertise only grew as she became a trustee of the American Craft Council, and the Museum of Arts and Design, both located in New York, among other organizations. Splendid Settings explains how her varied passions overlapped: nearly 70 recipes, both her own and those shared from friends and artists, are presented against the vibrant backdrop of tables featuring Korman’s collections. She believed that like food and nature, works of art, craft and design are part of our shared feast, and should be enjoyed, not tucked away for “someday.”

Judy Kensley McKie
Fish Bench USA, 1999
patinated bronze 18 h x 76 w x 29 d in (46 x 193 x 74 cm) Incised signature, date and number to underside ‘JKM 1999 8/10’. This work is number 8 from the edition of 10.
LITERATURE: The Furniture Art of Judy Kensley McKie, exhibition catalog, unpaginated

To build a collection that encompasses works from such a wide array of genres, time periods, and materials suggests that Korman was inspired by something akin to artistic hospitality. Her collection includes quite a few greats: delicate vessels by George Ohr, vibrant and modern forms by Lucie Rie and Ruth Duckworth, and luminous Toots Zynsky bowls that seem to radiate color and light from their fused glass threads. Rudy Autio’s Blue Horse and Rider shows a woman clinging to the side of a vessel as though it were a wild steed, linking the two distinct forms of pottery and sculpture as though they couldn’t live without one another. Also striking is the number of works obtained directly from the artist, or even commissioned specifically for the Kormans, like Wendell Castle’s sculptural sets of dining tables and chairs.

Jane Korman admired beauty, but didn’t insist on a narrow definition of it. She felt a kinship with artists, being one herself, and understood them through a shared language. Many of the works in her collection are straightforwardly lovely, like Wayne Higby’s serene Landscape Bowl from 1980 or Harvey Littleton’s nearly edible Ruby Sliced Descending Form from 1985. Others possess a kind of rugged beauty that can only be truly appreciated with an understanding of artistic intent and preternatural skill. Observers might have glanced at Marilyn Levine’s 1984 KCP Bag and seen an ordinary useful object—sturdy, but worn a bit past its prime. Jane Korman saw Levine’s artistic devotion to capturing the contours and details of a personal item freighted with meaning, something that deserved to be realized through careful attention and virtuosic skill. Like nature, artistic inspiration takes infinite forms, and what strikes most people as traditionally beautiful represents just a narrow band of human creative endeavor. As long as a work of art was a triumph of technique, keenly observed, and authentically inspired, it was welcome at Jane Korman’s table.

Rudy Autio Esplanade USA, 2000 hand-built glazed stoneware 33 h x 23 w x 23 d in (84 x 58 x 58 cm) Incised signature and date near base ‘Autio ABC 10/00’. PROVENANCE Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts, Helena, MT

Wendell Castle Triad Chair USA, 2007 gel-coated fiberglass, gold leaf 34 h x 35 ½ w x 28 d in (86 x 90 x 71 cm) Carved signature, date and number to underside ‘Castle 07 7/8’. This work is number 7 from the edition of 8 plus 2 artist’s proofs and is registered with the artist’s studio as number 1411C. LITERATURE Wendell Castle: A Catalogue Raisonné 1958–2012, Eerdmans, pg. 393, no. v.21 references the edition PROVENANCE The Artist Friedman Benda, New York

Marilyn Levine KCP Bag Canada/USA, 1984 hand-built and glazed earthenware, metal 8 ½ h x 11 w x 10 ½ d in (22 x 28 x 27 cm) PROVENANCE T he Clay Studio, Philadelphia

Toots Zynsky Untitled USA, 1993 filet de verre fused and thermo-formed glass threads 6 ½ h x 10 ¾ w x 6 ½ d in (17 x 27 x 17 cm) Signed to underside ‘Z’. PROVENANCE Snyderman Gallery, Philadelphia