- Rita Boley Bolaffio
Rita Boley Bolaffio (
Trieste ,Italy , 7 June 1898 -New York ,USA , 20 May 1995) was anartist who was instrumental in reintroducingcollage anddecoupage into the United States. She created powerful artwork that underscored the importance of grace and imagination.Early years
Rita was born Margherita Luzzatto to Angelo Luzzatto and Olga Senigaglia in
Trieste ,Italy .Her family moved to
Vienna , where she passedWorld War I . She studied Art underJosef Hoffmann at theKunstgewerbeschule and did textile designs for the renownedWiener Werkstaette under the name Grete Luzzatto. She also studiedviolin under the famous violinistFrantišek Ondříček .In 1919 she married Oscar Bolaffio, an architect and engineer. They moved to
Milan in 1928, where Rita became one of the first horsewomen inItaly , ridingsidesaddle , and won the "Premio Ciglione della Malpensa" (the Ciglione della Malpensa Prize) in 1936.American career
In 1939, the
Fascist anti-Jewish policies forced the family to flee to America. She began a career as anartist , specializing in imaginativecollages that were displayed in the windows of most major department stores in America, includingLord & Taylor ,Saks Fifth Avenue ,Bergdorf Goodman ,Neiman Marcus ,Carson Pirie Scott , and many more, as well as many private commissions. She regularly contributed covers for such magazines asHarper's Bazaar , Vogue,Town & Country ,Good Housekeeping , andWoman's Day .She had many awards and one-woman exhibitions at
museums andgalleries (e.g.James Pendleton Gallery inNew York City ,J.L. Hudson Gallery ,Detroit ,Guild Hall Museum ,East Hampton , N.Y. and theColumbia Museum of Art inSouth Carolina ). Her work was showcased in theNew York Times , as well as European reference works onmodern art .She received the
Premio di Sorrento 1965 for her poem "Nell'afa".References
*
Marquis Who's Who in America
*New York Times (November 9, 1941; April 6, 1950)
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