{"id":2834,"date":"2021-06-11T12:38:37","date_gmt":"2021-06-11T12:38:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ismardavidarchive.org\/indexofnames\/?p=2834"},"modified":"2021-06-11T12:38:40","modified_gmt":"2021-06-11T12:38:40","slug":"about-george-kratina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ismardavidarchive.org\/indexofnames\/about-george-kratina\/","title":{"rendered":"About George Kratina"},"content":{"rendered":"

George Kratina, 1910\u20131980, designer, sculptor and teacher.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

\"George<\/a>
Twelve-year-old George Kratina in the New York Tribune, November 6, 1922. Library of Congress.<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

In 1922, newspapers across<\/span> the country enthusiastically dubbed boy-sculptor George Kratina from Brooklyn a \u201cbudding genius.\u201d Kratina\u2019s father, a successful sculptor, who had studied with Rodin in Paris, and mother, a landscape painter, encouraged and supported their son\u2019s aspirations. Geroge Kratina worked his way through college doing sculpture, getting his bachelor\u2019s and master\u2019s degrees from New York State College of Forestry at Syracuse University. \u201cI took up forestry, not because I was going to become a forester, but because it was a good education and I felt I needed a general education.\u201d1<\/a><\/sup>Myers, Arthur, A Sort of Davy Crockett: With Rubber and Plastic, an Old Chatham Artist Carves a Tribute to Chattanooga\u2019s Pioneer Past, <\/em> The Berkshire Eagle, Pittsfield, MA, December 15, 1962, p. 14.<\/span> He then studied design and sculpture at Yale. He competed in \u201csculpturing\u201d in the 1932 and 1936 Olympics, in Los Angeles and Berlin respectively, when fine arts were still a part of the games. He taught at Cooper Union<\/a> and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Architect John Heyduk recalled Kratina as a \u201cpassionate teacher who never saw anything bad in your work, he always pulled out whatever was good in it.\u201d2<\/a><\/sup>ARMADILLO: John Heyduck. A taped interview conducted by Pere Eisenman in the fall of 1977.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Kratina and his wife Annie had a home in Old Chatham, New York, with a studio where he did his often monumental work. In an undated letter to Ismar David, he described a potential collaboration.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Letter<\/a>
Undated letter from George Kratina to Ismar David. Ismar David papers, box 1, folder 3, Cary Graphic Arts Collection, RIT.<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n
\n

Dear Ismar:<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a rough drawing \u2014 I hope you can get the idea\u2014
\n The lettering to be made of metal and is to be raised from the background \u2014 the doors are carved into an irregular surface (like a twisted trunk of a tree); so the lettering will not rest on a flat surface but rather a carved surface. \u2014 no boarder [sic] around lettering.<\/p>\n

You can reach me by phone and reverse charges when you call \u2013 so we can discuss the details. \u2013<\/p>\n

Thank you again \u2014
\n Sincerely
\n George
\n I\u2019m in the studio most of the time where there is no phone \u2013 but I\u2019m in the house \u2013before 8 AM \u2013 after 6 P.M. and from 1 PM to 2 P.M. —<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

George Kratina, 1910\u20131980, designer, sculptor and teacher. In 1922, newspapers across the country enthusiastically dubbed boy-sculptor George Kratina from Brooklyn a \u201cbudding genius.\u201d Kratina\u2019s father, a successful sculptor, who had studied with Rodin in Paris, and mother, a landscape painter, encouraged and supported their son\u2019s aspirations. Geroge Kratina worked his way through college doing sculpture, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-k"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ismardavidarchive.org\/indexofnames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ismardavidarchive.org\/indexofnames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ismardavidarchive.org\/indexofnames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ismardavidarchive.org\/indexofnames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ismardavidarchive.org\/indexofnames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2834"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.ismardavidarchive.org\/indexofnames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2834\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2843,"href":"https:\/\/www.ismardavidarchive.org\/indexofnames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2834\/revisions\/2843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ismardavidarchive.org\/indexofnames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ismardavidarchive.org\/indexofnames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ismardavidarchive.org\/indexofnames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}