Arpad Rosti Decorative Objects

organic form sculptural glazed ceramic lamp by Arpad Rosti. Dark blue-green and grey in color. Best known for his remarkably inventive lamps, trays and vessels designed in organic, free form shapes, Arpad Rosti was a highly versatile artist, equally at home in both the ceramics and enameling fields. While most of his work was done in either clay or metal, in the late 1940s he also ventured into furniture design when he produced a group of tables in treated wood, mosaic, copper, and glass. His one-of-a-kind furniture was exhibited in 1949 at the Chinese Gallery in New York and written up in the New York Times. As further evidence of his wide-ranging talents, in 1972 he was commissioned to produce a stained glass window for a residence in North Caldwell, New Jersey which New York Times critic Joan Cook described as “a miracle of color and light.” Born in Subotica, Yugoslavia in 1909, Rosti studied architecture at the School of Industrial Arts in Budapest. In 1940, he moved with his wife Ilona to the United States and settled in New York where he became a naturalized citizen in 1945. In 1947 his work was featured in an exhibition organized by the Craftsmen’s Equity and presented at the Barbizon-Plaza Galleries in New York. The organization, of which he was President, aimed to “put craft on a business basis without sacrificing the individuality inherent in handmade articles.” Throughout the 1950s Rosti’s work was regularly chosen for the prestigious National Ceramic Exhibitions at the Syracuse Museum of Fine Arts (now known as the Everson Museum). It was included in seven of these exhibitions between 1946 and 1958 and in 1947 Rosti’s work was singled out by the New York Times critic Edward Alden...