“Magnificent Obsessions: The Allure of Life, Love and Art of Judith and Gerson Leiber” is the subject of the next Friday Night Dialogues at the Shelter Island Public Library.
“Hitler put me in the handbag business,” Judith Leiber once said to a reporter in explanation of her life’s work. It was a “business” that generated the art and design of more than 3,500 elegant and whimsical little purses. Called miniaudieres, these small, ornamental cases are just big enough for bare essentials.
“Lipstick, a compact, a handkerchief, and a $100 bill, in case your boyfriend or husband doesn’t want to take you home,” as she put the precaution once known as “Mad Money.” When pressed, “What about eyeglasses, keys, etc.?” She replied, “What’s an escort for?”
Born in Hungary in 1921, Judith Leiber’s career spanned her long life and 72-year marriage to Brooklyn-born artist, lithographer, and sculptor, Gerson ‘Gus’ Leiber. Also born in 1921, Gus Leiber’s prints and paintings sometimes inspired Judith’s handbag designs.
They met in war-torn Budapest, where Gus was stationed in the Army. They married and moved to New York. As the years passed, the convergence of their love and art took on the aura of magnificent obsessions.
And that will be the topic of Friday Night Dialogues on February 11 at 7 PM via Zoom. The presenter is Ann Fristoe Stewart, director and curator of The Leiber Collection in East Hampton. Visit the library website to register.
Prize-winning designs
Judith Leiber was awarded all of the fashion industry’s major prizes — a Coty Award, the Neiman Marcus Winged Statue for Excellence in Design, and Accessories Designer of the Year by the Council of Fashion Designers among them.
Separately and together, the Leibers’ works are in the permanent collections of major museums and galleries, including the Met and the Whitney in New York, the Smithsonian and the National in Washington, the Chicago Historical Society, The Los Angeles Museum of Art, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
Those not in museums or private collections are housed at The Leiber Collection, a museum and 7-acre sculpture garden the couple built next door to their Springs home in East Hampton.
Witty and whimsical works of art
Widely considered works of art, Judith Leiber’s couture handbags were meticulously handcrafted and bedazzled with colorful rhinestones, beads, and crystals. Many drew inspiration from 20th-century artists such as Mondrian, Sonia Delauney, and Braque.
Others were witty and whimsical, shaped like fruits and vegetables, animals and objects: an eggplant, a pink rotary phone, a penguin, a meditating Buddha, a watermelon slice, a martini, a cupcake, an ice cream cone, seashells, ladybugs, and wads of cash among them.
Movie stars, princesses, queens, and first ladies from Mamie Eisenhower to Laura Bush carried them. Notably, Barbara Bush and Hillary Clinton had miniaudieres fashioned as Millie and Socks, who reigned as America’s First Dog and First Cat, respectively.
And according to The New York Times, Leiber handbags also filled aesthetic needs, such as an unforgettable dinner party centerpiece made of bags collected from guests. The Los Angeles hostess “lined them up on a mirror flanked with votive candles running down the center of the table.”
An extraordinary couple
Stewart will show various images and tell fascinating stories of this extraordinary couple’s life, love, and art.
She’ll talk about their early lives in pre-World War II Budapest, Brooklyn, and Titusville, Pennsylvania; about the war and the Holocaust; and of their meeting, marriage, and the start of their many years together in America with an immersion in the NYC art and fashion scenes.
And, she’ll discuss the museum and garden at their Springs home, where they died just hours apart on the same April day in 2018. Judith was 97, and Gus was 96.
At 446 Old Stone Highway, the Leiber Collection is all open free of charge on Saturdays, Sundays, and Wednesdays from 1 to 4 PM, and at other times for private or group tours by appointment. Please email info@leibercollection.org for reservations. Find additional details at leibermusem.org.
About Ann Fristoe Stewart
Ann Fristoe Stewart has been director and curator of The Leiber Collection for more than a decade and worked with Judith and Gus Leiber. She holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from Parsons School of Design in New York City.
She previously worked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and with various artists, including Jeff Koons, Rona Pondick, and Kara Walker.
The current exhibition at The Leiber Collection is a 100-year commemorative exhibition in collaboration with the Leonard Tourné Gallery in NYC. It features more than 500 examples of Judith Leiber’s dazzling designs and an extensive group of Gerson Leiber paintings from his Garden, Fashion, and Abstract Series.
Also on view in the Sculpture Garden are selected works from the museum’s permanent collection, including Shelter Island artist Margaret Garrett. Timed reservations are required for the exhibition, remaining at The Leiber Collection through April.
Join Friday Night Dialogues via Zoom
Like all the library’s programs, FND is open to all free of charge. Donations are gratefully accepted on the library’s website.
To register for the Zoom program, follow this link to the library website. Or, call 631-749-0042 during regular business hours, 9:30 AM to 7 PM on Monday through Friday, and until 5 PM on Saturday.
Next Up: Lynn Weikart on Michael Bloomberg’s “The Limits of Power, Friday, February 18.
Phyllis Gates is a trustee of the Shelter Island Public Library.
