, Recalling Stylist Who Defined City BY JENNIFER MALONEY church's gift shop-depict the creation story. The spectacular architectural "She was a great storyteller," decorations of Hildreth Meiere said the exhibit's curator, Cathe­ live on in landmarks across the rine Coleman Brawer. "She inter­ country-from the medallions on preted everything she did as a I the fa\ade of Radio City Music narrative vignette. There's al­ i Hall to the floors and ceilings of ways something happening." the . The exhibit shows her work But even in New York, where through sketches, full-size wa­ she based her career and her Art tercolor renderings, photographs Deco style became one of the and samples shipped city's signature visual motifs, from her fabricator in Germany. Ms. Meiere's name has faded It has been expanded for the into obscurity since her death in New York show to include new 1961. items, such as a never-before­ Now, Ms. Meiere's work is be­ shown film of Ms. Meiere mak­ ing celebrated with an exhibit ing portable triptychs for mili­ opening Friday at the Museum tary field chapels during World of Biblical Art, called "Walls warn. Above, Hildreth Meiere, c. 1923; Speak: The Narrative Art of Hil­ A section will focus on her right, one of the medallions she dreth Meiere." painted murals at St. Michael's created for . The show, which opened in St. Passionist Monastery Church in Bonaventure, N.Y., in 2009 and Union City, N.J., where a fire went to the National Building cocktail lounges across the U.S. front of the sanctuary of Temple tholomew's Church at Park Ave­ ripped through the church Museum in Washington D.C., last and even on ocean liners. Emanu-El, at East 65th Street nue and 51st Street in Midtown, shortly after Ms. Meiere's chapel year, displays the pioneering But it was in New York where and Fifth Avenue. The tiny glass where a depiction of Jesus raises dome was installed in 1934. Her work of a woman who, beginning Ms. Meiere's work was most pieces-many coated in gold his arms over glittering saints work survived, and she was com­ in the 1920s, completed more iconic and prolific. leaf-shimmer as if lit by danc­ and animals. missioned to create more pieces than 100 architectural commis­ Her designs in sparkling glass ing candlelight. Ms. Meiere's windows line St. for the church's restoration. sions. mosaic are perhaps her most ac­ A similar effect is achieved Bartholomew's nave and in the Some of those pieces have Her work appeared in claimed, and in New York these when spotlights shine on the narthex, five more gilded since been lost, and some of churches, office buildings and include the 70-foot arch at the half-dome of the apse of St. Bar- domes-now capping the Please turn to page AlB A18 I Monday, January 30, 2012

** THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. _,. CITY NEWS

Above, Catherine Brawer, curator of the exhibit on Ms. Meiere's work; right, an Art Deco mosaic designed by Ms. Meiere at Temple Emanu-El. An Art Deco Stylist Who Defined City Continued from page A17 who had set aside her own artis­ what remains needs restoring, tic ambition to raise a family, said Ms. Brawer, who is on the encouraged her and took her to church's restoration group. Italy to study. At the time of the commis­ "Perhaps it was the romance sion, Ms. Meiere wrote, the Pas­ of that word 'abroad' that fmally sionist monks were unhappy tipped the scales, but by sixteen with the facial expression of her I had decided to be an artist and depiction of Mary. from then on, backed by the cre­ So she climbed the 75-foot ative enthusiasm of my mother, scaffolding and fixed it. I had only to follow my nose," ences in Washington. members. In 1946, she was ap­ "She wanted to be known as Hildreth Meiere wrote in 1946. She plunged into a profession pointed the first woman member an artist," said her daughter, In Italy, she fell in love with dominated by men, sketching de­ of the New York Municipal Art Louise Meiere Dunn, 81 years murals. Her award-winning de­ signs in a Midtown studio and Commission, and in 1956, she old, of Stamford, Conn. "She signs led to an introduction to negotiating commissions in the was the first woman to receive didn't want to be known as a the architect , cigar-smoke-filled rooms of the the Fine Arts Medal from the woman artist." who commissioned her to deco­ Architectural League of New American Institute of Architects. Ms. Meiere (pronounced mee­ rate the Nebraska State Capitol York, which awarded her a gold "Her work was really her air) was born in Flushing, and the dome of the Great Hall medal in 1928, six years before life-and me," Louise Meiere Queens, in 1892. Her mother, of the National Academy of Sci- the league admitted women Dunn said.