Ronald Hayes Pearson
Ronald Hayes Pearson | |
|---|---|
| Born | September 22, 1924 New York City, New York, US |
| Died | August 25, 1996 (aged 71) Deer Isle, Maine, US |
| Alma mater | University of Wisconsin, Alfred University |
| Known for | design, jewelry, metalsmith |
| Spouse(s) | Ruth Kathleen (Kay) Harris, Carolyn A. Hecker |
| Children | 6 |
Ronald Hayes Pearson (September 22, 1924 – August 25, 1996) was an American designer, jeweler, and metalsmith.[1] He lived for many years in Rochester, New York and later, Deer Isle, Maine.[2]
Biography
[edit]Ronald Hayes Pearson was born on September 22, 1924, in New York City, New York to parents Louise Hayes Pearson and Ralph M. Pearson (1883–1958), an accomplished American etcher-art teacher/critic.[3] In his early childhood, the family visited a Danish American metalsmith art colony at Milton-on-the-Hudson, called Elverhoj (“hill of the faeries”).[3] He attended University of Wisconsin from 1942 to 1943, for political science, followed by service in the United States Merchant Marine from 1943 to 1947. Following the service, he attended the School for American Craftsmen at Alfred University (1947–1948). In 1949, he also enrolled in Reed and Barton Silver Company's Special Design Program.[1][4]
Around the age of 12 Pearson was exposed to metalwork on his family's barge/art school. In 1948, he opened a studio, in a former chicken coop, in Alfred, NY. His earliest works were made by metal spinning, chiefly spun hollow bronze forms. He then took an interest in jewelry, and his first piece received a first-place award in competition.
In 1953, realizing there were limited outlets to sell his works, Pearson, along with metalsmith John Prip, cabinetmaker Tage Frid, and ceramist Frans Wildenhain opened Shop One in Rochester, New York. Apart from America House in Manhattan, it was at the time the only outlet in the United States that dealt exclusively in one-of-a-kind handmade craft work, and it remained in business until 1976.[5]
Pearson, Frid, Prip and Wildenhain also took steps at Shop One to make it easier for people to visualize what the pieces would look like in their homes.
In 1971, following a separation from his wife, and mother to 4 of his children, Kay (Kathleen) Pearson, Pearson moved to Deer Isle, Maine where he set up a studio. Until his death in 1996, Pearson ran his studio, at times with several other craftspeople, helping produce his works. He also had a hand in teaching craftspeople either at his studio or at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts and was a mentor to many up-and-coming craftspeople.[6]
Pearson's work was included in three of the Museum of Modern Art's Good Design exhibitions, held in 1950–51, 1951–52 and 1955, and two of his pieces are in the museum's collection.[7]
In 1976 Pearson was elected a fellow of the American Craft Council.[1] The Portland School of Art in Maine, now the Maine College of Art, awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1987 for his contributions to American jewelry design.[1][2] He received the American Craft Council's highest honor, its gold medal, in 1996.[3]
Personal
[edit]Mr. Pearson, married Ruth Kathleen (Kay) Harris from Charlton, Massachusetts. Kay had a supporting role in the success of Shop One when it opened, sewing Marimekko dresses, making weed cards and entertaining guest artists while raising 4 children. They later divorced. Pearson later remarried to Caroline Hecker, who he'd met at the Greenwood Gallery in Washington, DC. (Part of the Smithsonian) They had no children together. Mr. Pearson had 4 children with Kay Pearson, adopting a son from Kay's prior marriage. He fathered two other children, one of whom died young. He was married, shortly, two additional times. Ron was an avid sailor and could often be found smoking his pipe while piloting his Herreshoff Rozinante sailboat through Eggemoggin Reach and Frenchman's Bay, Maine.
Death and legacy
[edit]Pearson died of esophageal cancer at his home on Deer Isle, Maine, on August 25, 1996.[2]
He taught jewelry making at a number of American craft schools and designed flatware for major silver manufacturers, among them the Kirk Stieff Company.[1] He was a founding member of the Society of North American Goldsmiths and took part in the meeting convened by Philip Morton in Chicago in November 1968 from which the organization grew.[1][8] He was certified under the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act to train jewelers. His other honors included a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation grant (1969) and National Endowment for the Arts fellowships (1973 and 1978), and he served as a trustee of the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts from 1988 to 1994.
His work is held by the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the American Craft Museum, the Museum of Modern Art and the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.
References
[edit]- 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Ronald Hayes Pearson". Smithsonian American Art Museum. Retrieved 2021-02-12.
- 1 2 3 "Ronald Hayes Pearson". Democrat and Chronicle. Newspapers.com. 1996-09-06. p. 158. Retrieved 2021-02-12.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: others (link) - 1 2 3 Braznell, W. Scott (1999). "The Early Career of Ronald Hayes Pearson and the Post: World War II Revival of American Silversmithing and Jewelrymaking". Winterthur Portfolio. 34 (4): 185–213. doi:10.1086/496789. ISSN 0084-0416. JSTOR 1215256. S2CID 161447141.
- ↑ Gordon, John Stuart (2018). American Glass. Yale University Press. p. 255. ISBN 978-0-300-22669-0.
- ↑ "Our Story". Rochester Institute of Technology. Retrieved August 4, 2026.
- ↑ "Pearson Design Studio and Gallery". Visit Maine. Retrieved 2021-02-12.
- ↑ "Ronald Hayes Pearson". Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved August 4, 2026.
- ↑ "Who We Are: History". Society of North American Goldsmiths. Retrieved August 4, 2026.
External links
[edit]- Ronald Hayes Pearson at RIT Art on Campus
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