By Albert Al Hirschfeld
Located in Surfside, FL
Very Rare Hand Woven Wool Tapestry Rug Carpet produced by the Edward Fields workshops. This was written up in an article in New York magazine in the 1970s. (this is a pile weave not a flat weave like an Aubusson.) From Hirschfeld's Japanese Kabuki Theatre series; Signed EF and Hirschfeld
Albert Al Hirschfeld, American (1903 - 2003) was born in St. Louis in 1903. The family moved forthwith to New York. Soon he was enrolled at the Art Student's League. Hirschfeld has never had to convince anyone that he's a genius; it has always been apparent. By the ripe old age of 17, while his contemporaries were learning how to sharpen pencils, Hirschfeld became an art director at Selznick Pictures.
He held the position for about four years and then in 1924 he moved to Paris to work, lead the Bohemian life, and grow a beard. In 1943, Hirschfeld married one of Europe's most famous actresses, the late Dolly Haas. They were married for more than 50 years—in addition, they produced Nina. Nina is their daughter, and Hirschfeld has engaged in the "harmless insanity," as he calls it, of hiding her name at least once in each of his drawings.
It's interesting, I think, that although Hirschfeld was initially attracted to sculpture and painting, this gave way to his passion for pure line."Sculpture, he once said to me, is a drawing you trip over in the dark.
I believe that Hirschfeld's devotion to line comes from yet a more fundamental aesthetic - his respect for absolute simplicity. "When I'm rushed I do a complicated drawing. When I have the time, I do a simple one." In 1991, Al Hirschfeld became the first artist in history to have his name on a U.S. Postage Stamp Booklet when the United States Postal Service released the five stamps they commissioned Hirschfeld to design. The stamps portray Laurel & Hardy, Jack Benny, Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy...
Category
20th Century Modern Albert Al Hirschfeld Mixed Media