Fraternity-Testvériség, 2010 (88. évfolyam, 1-4. szám)
2010-01-01 / 1. szám
Fraternity I Testvériség her preoccupation with Eastern thought, a very real influence on her work.” By 1970, Karasz’s activity level began to decline, and in 1981, she died in her daughter’s care. Her greatest contribution was that she integrated her European- born vision into her American life for almost 60 years. As early as in 1919, the adjective used to describe her work was most often “modern. Mariska Mariska was born in Budapest in 1898 and baptized as a Lutheran. She joined her mother and sister in New York just prior to WWI and enjoyed the climate there in which feminism played a significant role. The two sisters fit well into the city’s new intellectual and cultural mix. Ilonka was already established in Greenwich Village as a pioneer modernist in painting and graphic design who taught and contributed to avant-garde publications. Since fashion was one area Ilonka left alone, Mariska filled the gap. Fabric and threads were integral to her career as a fashion designer and artist. Like Ilonka, Mariska repeatedly changed her artistic focus. In the ‘20's, custom fashion designs for women were emerging so Mariska combined American style with Hungarian folk elements. In the early ‘30's, after her marriage and the births of her two daughters, she began to design children’s clothing that was both original and practical. In the mid-‘4o's, after a devastating studio fire, she reinvented her career and created embroidered pictures and abstract wall hangings that appeared in museums and galleries across the U.S. that garnered international attention. Mariska was the second of three children. Her young brother, Steven, assisted both girls with their creative projects. Ilonka excelled in drawing and Mariska in sewing. She made stitches so tiny that she later wondered how her eyes ever saw to make them. Before she came to the U.S., she decided that she wanted to work with clothing and was already making blouses for herself and her sister. Both sisters were close and their careers continually intersected. Mariska was often mistaken for Ilonka. Thus, Ilonka was a willing model for her sister’s clothing designs and her reputation helped Mariska with her career, but Mariska had more of an interest in writing English and possessed a good command of the language. Since the Karasz name in Hungarian is a type of fish, that motif decorated her stationery and was often pictured in her work. Her daughter, Solveig, is still a professional ceramics artist with a studio in the Torpedo Factory in Old Towne, Alexandria, VA. Mariska’s book, Adventures in Stitches, is probably her most lasting legacy because it demonstrates the link between her fashion designs and Hungarian traditional folk art, particularly the influence of the Gödöllő artists’ colony in 1901-1921. In 1917, the “made in America” movement encouraged American manufacturers to produce quality designs independent of European models, and from 1910-1920, status-seekers demanded custom wardrobes. Women wanted impeccable fit, fabric combinations, trim, and details that could not be found in ready-made clothes. It was then that Mariska found her niche. She relied on the aesthetic ideals of her youth, modernized folk design, valued skilled craftsmanship, vivid colors, and integration of ornament into a garment’s structure. Her business and even her children’s wear was top of the scale. Later, Mariska’s embroidered works of the ‘40's and ‘50's became unique works of art as well for embroidery and batiks in woven tapestry and needlework hangings for the wall became popular. Mariska’s embroidery added warmth and personality to plain, unadorned rooms. Gowns by Mariska Karasz Her tools were color, texture, pattern, and a strong belief that art belonged in everyday life. House Beautiful highlighted the studios of the Karasz sisters in August, 1928, and one writer described Mariska’s studio as a “reproduction as nearly as she can make it of a cottage room in her native Hungary.” She also mixed color, modern, and traditional materials from around the world. When she earned money, she traveled to Hungary to obtain craftsmen who could do the appliqued designs she wanted. In most cases, the garments were designed and cut in the U.S., sent to Hungary to be embroidered or appliqued, and returned to the U.S. to be assembled. One of her designs was based on a szur, the traditional man’s outer coat worn for centuries by Hungarian shepherds and peasants. They were long and heavy, made with white backgrounds and worn over the shoulders and fastened across the chest with the sleeves that were seldom used. Sometimes, the sleeves were sewn shut and adopted for storage. Their popularity waned after WWI, but they became a symbol of Hungarian nationalism. In the spring, 1926, Mariska presented a szur-inspired coat as a delightful “evening
