Queensland Art Gallery Presscuttings Book 1 : Presscuttings, 1959-1962

THE CHR I ST I N SC 1 ENCE MON I TOR. BOSTON. WOMEN 10 DAV Australian Craftsman Exhibits in New York By Marilyn Hoffman Sing Correspondent of the Christian Science lifonifor New York Wood and craftsmanship ppeak for themselves in Shulim Krimper's small collection of .handcrafted pieces now being ; shown in New York by the Aus- tralian Department of Trade. This exhibition of chests, buf- fets, desks, chairs, and coffee tables aims to show at least ,,some Americans what is being - done by a fine artist-craftsman in Melbourne. Krimper, as he calls himself, is an Australian who emigrated from Austria, via Germany, in 1939. During the past 10 years he has come to be considered by many as the top cabinetmaker of Australia. and Ms pieces have found their way to Europe and the United States. ' Today Krimper works with six assistants in his small shop In suburban St. Kilder, design- ing and building furniture of old-world craft tradition and character, but uniquely his own. - He works with quiet, undeviat- ing, uncompromising steadiness and fervor oblivious of time. He 'thinks nothing of putting 800 hours Into one buffet! Each piece is sanded and °buffed to a satin buttery finish, and such woods as oak, teak, Australian black bean, silver ath, Farrah, New Guinea ,and Queensland walnut are rubbed down only with wax for protec- tion. El, 'holding to his own rigid Sutcliffe Pty Shulim Krimper standards of workmanship, Krimper has had au influence for good on generpl mass -pro- duction standards in Australia. His work is not only in many Australian homes and public buildings but is represented as furniture "art" in the National Gallery of Victoria and the Queensland National Art Gal- lery. Robert Haines, director of the Queensland gallery, who came to the U.S. with the Krimper pieces, says, "Shulim Krimper cargristikwilitaMa 17 years ago and is an examilla of the finest type of artist -craftsman. . . . He claims furniture as a crea- tive art, and the clarity, unity, and harmony of his pieces, re- sulting from a basically simple line, with variation, repetition of motif, and restrained orna- mentation, bear out his idea in fact." What about the craftsman? From his own pen comes this: "I was born 60 years ago at Sercth, a small country town in the Austrian Dukedom Buko- vine, the youngest in a family of five. My father was a schol- arly and deeply religious man, tall, lean, with blue eyes and a long graying beard. "His two ambitions in life were to serve God and to study his beloved books, the Bible and greet volumes of commen- taries. He was quiet anti serene and respected for his wisdom and learning." After both parents had passed on, Krimper was apprenticed at 12 to a good cabinetmaking mas- ter. He lived in the master's house, working Irons 5:30 a.m. Handmade teak chest and bookcase by Australian craftsman. designer Shulim Krimper is an example of his fine furniture, beautiful In detail, but not overelaborate. Copper bands link recessed grips for opening sliding doors. Buffet combines teak chest and Queensland black bean base designed as a unit by Mullin Krimper. until 9 p.m. for four years, and working for him for many ,years thereafter. After World War T, he wan- dered northward, working in Vienna and Prague, finally to settle in Berlin. There he four:( that "work with my mast, had been exacting, thorough, and of great variety. But nearly all the work was done by hand. I now learned to master machines. "Itdeeply"c'alissttairbihIppt(rocy ciaLtinwea (he and his wife) received news that our papers for emigrating to Australia had conic, We ac - rived in Australia in August, 1939, with little material goods but with much hope. The van _ which contained our possessions was still in Hamburg and never reached Australia." In his adopted country. fie - cording to Robert Haines, }crim- per': "exceptional experience of conditions and work in Europe is only matched by his persist- ent enthusi:ttm ler presenting contemporary luri.iture lift die new world " Ihra lith N11, aelt Teak, used for this graceful chair, (spiral of the svork of Australian craftsman -designer (Qualm Krimper, has been riddled to buttery satin sniondilir,s, enhancing the i wood finish.