MORE LESSONS FROM MY GODFATHER GEORGE

Shopping bag design for the Brooklyn Museum of Art, design for folk craft from India

My godfather George died on March 11, 2009 and not a day goes by without my thinking about him. Peruvian belts, block-printed bedspreads from Rajasthan, and American Indian sterling bangles were the things my godfather gave me when I was a teenage girl. But his life lessons were far beyond just the interests of my teenage world. He taught me not to judge a period of art before understanding all the others. And, he taught me not to merchandise your house in decorating it. He saved merchandising for his museum shops. At the time {from 1965-1977} he started and managed the Gallery Shop at the Brooklyn Museum. George did it all—from buying {international folk craft from sixty-five countries} to merchandising, and he edited the yearly mail-order catalog. He was the best at it. Former museum director and portrait painter, Tom Buechner said that my godfather George..."did a grand job" and that "the shop was the pride of the Museum." And, former vice chairman Thomas A. Donnelly wrote in 1978 that "during George's stewardship, the Brooklyn Museum Gallery Shop reached its eminent position in the museum field and that it became the proto-type for most museum shops."


Javanese puppet and Taiwanese tiger

I recently found these drawings in a box from George's closet. They are designs for toys, ornaments and folk craft from around the world, scribbled with my godfather's notations and precise art direction. He had an incredibly intuitive and astutely trained eye with an opinion to match! He was a savvy marketer and merchandiser. I can only imagine the perfection and expertise he put into every project at the Brooklyn Museum Gallery Shop. I can hear him directing the scene now.

Painted clay acrobats from Mexico and Puppet with drum from China


Bavarian hand puppet and hand-painted Noah's Arc from Austria


Ceramic owl from Guatemala and American Indian Hopi Kachina doll


Burmese Duck and painted wood Nutcracker from Bavaria

A TRIBUTE TO EXTRAORDINARY GEORGE

In the last weeks of my godfather George's life he told me he loved the actress Louise Brooks. He told me to learn about Maggie Lane's needlepoint kimonos and Anne Ryan collages. We talked about Cora Ginsburg and antique textiles, William Spratling and Alexander Calder jewelry, 17th & 18th century European paintings, Moghul drawings, Iranian jewelry, and Japanese prints. I read him articles from the New York Times. He asked me to tell him about my dog and he closed his eyes and smiled as he listened. I held Freesia up to his nose so he could smell its peppery sweetness. We held hands. We talked about blogs and blogging. We talked about how The Met glows in the evening. He gave me instructions for thank you notes. I got to know his nurses and aids. We looked through postcards of paintings and he thought the Dutch pastoral scene with the cows was "a bore." He was a consummate New Yorker but had also lived in Rome and Paris. When I attended art school in London he gave me a list of his friends to visit in Europe with priceless descriptions of each one. He began his career in the antiques department at Lord & Taylor, then as a silver buyer for Tiffany & Co. Later, he started the original museum gift shop at The Brooklyn Museum and then The Crafts of all Nations shops at The United Nations. He volunteered in the European Design & Decoration Library at The Met for eighteen years, with a few of them spent in the Costume department. He was a serious art collector. When I told him on Monday that I would be back at the end of the week he said "you better call first" with a smile. He died on Wednesday, March 11th after a spin around the hospice halls in a wheeling recliner. He was 88. I was lucky.