Charlotte Mayer Obituary, Charlotte Mayer has passed away unexpectedly
Charlotte Mayer Obituary, Death – We regret to inform you of the demise on November 9th, at the age of 93, of the inspirational artist Charlotte Mayer. born in 1929 in Prague Thanks to the influence of her grandparents, Charlotte Mayer (nee Fanta-Stutz), who were prominent cultural figures in Prague in the 1930s and frequently hosted informal salons for writers, artists, and musicians at their home, “Das Rosel Haus,” she was fascinated by natural forms and sculpture from a young age. Charlotte, who was just ten years old, and her mother boarded a train headed for Holland under the tenuous pretense of a wedding in April 1939, one month after the German Army had seized Prague and as tensions were rising.
They traveled to England to start their new lives as refugees after spending a week in Amsterdam. Bullies at school and a nomadic existence as a refugee travelling throughout the country made these early years challenging because there was little English to talk with and the threat of war hanging over everything. When Mayer’s cherished grandmother was transferred to the Treblinka concentration camp in 1942, communication with family back in Prague became incredibly difficult and suffered a terrible blow. A brief visit to Ambleside during these trying circumstances allowed her high school art instructor to recognize her artistic talent and encourage her to go to Goldsmiths. She enjoyed her two years there as a Fine Art student, where she primarily created figurative work and portraits in plaster and clay.
When Mayer was admitted to the Royal College of Art’s sculpture program in 1950, she discovered a new setting where extreme chauvinism toward female sculptors continued to rule. Mayer was taught by wood carving Heinz Henghes, a German émigré who had been an apprentice of Isamu Noguchi, John Skeaping, and Frank Dobson. Determined to disregard this, Mayer concentrated on her art. By chopping huge chunks of Yew or adding bull rushes to plaster for texture, Mayer learned to experiment with natural materials. This method encouraged her to incorporate a variety of natural materials in her subsequent work. Mayer first met her future husband, the ambitious young architect Geoffrey Salmon, at the Royal College of Art.
They were married in 1952. The maternity wing of Epsom General Hospital received Mayer’s first public commission, “Mother and Child,” in carved alabaster the following year. With the birth of her son Julian, who was followed in 1959 by the arrival of twin girls Louise and Antonia, she quickly fulfilled the role of the mother she had portrayed in the commission, much to her satisfaction. While Mayer briefly put her career on hold in favor of a family life, her interest in sculpture had resurfaced by the middle of the 1960s. A significant trip to New York with her mother in 1967 served as the inspiration for a collection of modern new works titled Black Cities.
Motivated by the sight of Manhattan’s skyscrapers covered in snow, the artist worked on this series exclusively for the following five years, initially in painted wood and then, after enrolling in a welding course, in stove enameled steel. One day in the early 1970s, Mayer was traveling along the Embankment when he noticed smoke rising from the chimneys of the renowned Battersea Power Station. He immediately went home and created a sculpture that was based on the rings of smoke. This sparked a lifelong fascination with circular and spiral shapes that are gracefully poised in space and frequently drawn from the natural world.
Long-term meditation practice also served as a rich source of inspiration for Mayer and enabled her to visualize the forms of her works before beginning to produce them in her Highgate studio. One realizes that meditation is more than just sitting still, Mayer said in an interview, stressing the value of meditation in her practice. In stillness, movement is possible. Mayer’s work possesses an inherent grace, firmness, and composure that makes her sculptures instantly recognizable, whether she works in micro for her jewelry or at gigantic size for her numerous public projects. The sculptures’ visceral force and peaceful serenity combine to convey a message in a subtle yet potent way. According to Tom Flynn, the author of Mayer’s book “In Essence,”
Many of the pieces Mayer has created over the years appear to speak to those who have experienced loss or pain in their lives with a remarkable clarity. Certain objects have a healing quality that defies simple explanation. In Mayer’s case, it is undoubtedly a result of a combination of her iconographic choices, her aptitude for fusing disparate formal elements, her skill in choosing the best surface finish for the materials she employs, and an innate ability to convey the essence of something intangible and beyond the reach of language.
Charlotte Mayer Obituary, Death – We regret to inform you of the demise on November 9th, at the age of 93, of the inspirational artist Charlotte Mayer. born in 1929 in Prague Thanks to the influence of her grandparents, Charlotte Mayer (nee Fanta-Stutz), who were prominent cultural figures in Prague in the 1930s and frequently…