When Opposites Attract; the Startling and Wonderful Jewelry of Margaret de Patta

“I’ll be your leather; take from me, my lace . . “

            Stevie Nicks

When Opposites Attract; the Startling and Wonderful Jewelry of Margaret de Patta

She was born in Tacoma, Washington in 1903, but moved with her family to San Diego in the 1920s.

She was influenced by the German Bauhaus movement and by Russian Constructivism.  In some way, her work reminds one of Louise Nevelson.  Her early paintings involved overlapping planes and translucency, designs which later reappeared in her brooches and other jewelry.

Bauhaus began in Germany in 1919; at that time, de Patta was studying painting.  By the 1930s, when she was in her late twenties, she turned to painting. Bauhaus artists were well rounded and studied various types of arts and techniques. At its heart, Bauhaus involved creating superior design destined for later industrial production. Bauhaus artists were often metal workers, but also painters, sculptors, photographers, film makers, etc.  Many followed the architect Hugo Gropius.  Often, old world ideas mixed with new, modern styles and themes.  Opposites did attract, and it worked.  It was sort of like mixing leather and lace a law the old Stevie Nick’s song.

Margaret de Patta Brooch, c. 1950 Public Domain

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy was one of the original artists of both the Constructivists and Bauhaus movements.  He left Russia in 1917, and then fled Germany when the Nazi’s came to power and temporarily put an end to Bauhaus in Germany. Moholy-Nagy’s gift was to be able to ignore the political themes inherent in much Russian Constructivism,  yet take different components and assemble them into art.  His sculpture Space- Modulator looked like a machine and played with light and space.  Moholy-Nagy came to the US to found the Chicago Bauhaus, with his headquarters located in an old house once owned by Marshall Field.

The concept de Patta used to describe her jewelry was “vision in motion.” She followed the ideas of Moholy-Nagy, but also studied all kinds of jewelry, especially ethnic jewelry.  Allegedly, she stumbled onto jewelry making when she was looking for a wedding ring in 1929.  She wanted a modernist style, but couldn’t find one, so she made her own ring.  No one knows where it is today.  Later, de Patta cut shapes from sheet of silver and assembled them to make pins.  She liked using lapidary techniques and cutting translucent stones like quarts and certain types of agate to add to her jewelry.  She got interested in photograms, or “painting” with light, where negative images of objects are created, often in stark, almost black/white contrast.  According to one expert who wrote “THE TRANSCENDENT JEWELRY OF MARGARET DE PATTA: VISION IN MOTION ““Photograms are made without a camera by placing objects directly onto photosensitive paper and then exposing it to strong light. The result is a negative image with variations in tone that depend on the transparency of the objects used.” (Ursula Ilse-Neuman 6)

Margaret de Patta also wanted her predominantly abstract work to have social influence.  She strived to create quality, “wearable” sculpture jewelry for the general public, and did not necessarily want to create luxury items, though today her pieces are pricey and hard to find. The effort ultimately cost her life; after suffering business and financial failure, she committed suicide in her early sixties.   Her jewelry, however, with its touches of architectural construction and contrasting pieces lives on, and is enjoying a renaissance in the world of art jewelry and design.