Victoria Ellis – Deco Revival

Victoria Ellis revives the spirit of the Art Deco era in much of her ceramic art. She carves stoneware panels with intricate designs in low relief. Several of her fairyland subjects were showcased in our Fantastique exhibit and her Jazz Age dancers starred in the Carnival & Cabaret show. See Victoria’s work again in

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Allure of Lalique

René Lalique was the most celebrated jeweler of the Art Nouveau era and became the most acclaimed designer of Art Deco glass. Throughout his career, beautiful women were his muses as well as his customers. In the 1890s, Lalique’s spectacular jewelry enjoyed celebrity patronage, notably the divine Sarah Bernhardt, the

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Teatime Tango

The craze for the Argentine tango began in 1912 at the Paris thé dansants, where refreshing tea was sipped between dances. The Tango trend swept rapidly across Europe and added a tantalizing new dimension to the traditional British afternoon tea. One of Royal Doulton’s most popular Art Deco china patterns

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Founder & Benefactor – Arthur Wiener

Arthur Wiener acquired his first piece of pottery in 1965 when he traveled to London, as a young college graduate, armed with Frommer’s seminal guidebook Europe on $5 a day. He blew his daily budget on a Royal Doulton character jug of Merlin the magician, which caught his eye in

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Executive Director & Curator – Louise Irvine

Louise Irvine is an expert in British ceramic history and her career in the UK and the USA has been devoted to promoting a greater appreciation of the fired arts through publishing, lecturing, and exhibitions. She is regarded as the leading authority on Royal Doulton antiques, having published more than

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Into the Night

by Louise Irvine Into the Night is an exhilarating exhibition in London exploring cabarets, cafes and clubs in modern art. I was fascinated by all the connections with our current Carnival & Cabaret exhibit. From the Serpentine Dances of Loie Fuller at the Folies Bergère in Paris to the pulsating

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Art on Fire – The Chihuly Connection

By Louise Irvine Dale Chihuly is arguably the most famous glass artist in the world. His name draws vast crowds to site-specific glass installations across the globe as well as to art galleries and museums internationally. The stunning Art on Fire exhibit at the Wiener Museum of Decorative Arts presents

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Word Search

We are always thinking about interesting ways that you can enjoy WMODA at home. Elyse Buchanan, who works in our collections management department, is a big fan of word search puzzles. She has compiled a WMODA word search inspired by the fired arts exhibits on display in the museum. You

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Micky’s 80th Birthday

Micky Wolfson’s 80th Birthday was celebrated in considerable style by the Wolfsonian-FIU. A street party in Miami Beach launched the festivities along with a private viewing at the museum of A Universe of Things celebrating Micky’s collecting history.  The Fairyland Lustre Dragon King vase, which was Arthur Wiener’s birthday gift,

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No Christmas Elves

The dark side of Daisy’s Fairyland Lustre is well known thanks to our Fantastique video. There aren’t any cute Christmas elves in Daisy’s vision of Fairyland nor many fairy princesses with diaphanous dresses and gossamer wings. Instead Daisy reveled in the magical antics of the unprepossessing and mischievous residents of

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