Spotlight on Robert Kulicke “The Function of the Frame Designer/Frame Maker Is to Serve the Painter Using the Forms of the Architect.”
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From PFM’s inaugural issue, January 1990 20th Century Frame Innovator Spotlight on Robert Kulicke “The function of the frame designer/frame maker is to serve the painter using the forms of the architect.” By Bruce Gherman he decision to re-frame the impres- filled with 13th and 14th century Gothic sionistic paintings from the frames, so beautifully executed and TMuseum of Modern Art reproduced that I thought he might and the Guggenheim Museum have actually taken them from is a topic of ongoing contro- Gothic churches. I later versy. Recently, learned that Kulicke is an Connoisseur Magazine expert reproduction maker published an article and gilder, whose frames addressing the contro- adorn paintings such as versy, specifically that the DaVinci in the the replacement of the National Gallery. original, ornate period Robert Kulicke's life frames with modern, has been and continues float frames was done to be dedicated to the against the advice of pursuit of excellence in many designers. Robert art and framing. His Kulicke, the designer of knowledge of history the float frame and con- and technique is unsur- sultant on those proj- passed. When the Met, ects, partially agrees. Guggenheim or Modern The article sparked my Museums have a diffi- interest. cult framing problem to Kulicke's name is solve, Kulicke is often very familiar to me. called upon for consul- The float frame, the welded metal frame and the plexiglass tation. At the age of 65, the man we best know as box are almost synonymous with his name. As publisher painter and frame maker enjoys a life full of accomplish- of PFM and an admirer of his works, I wanted to meet ments. In the short time I've known him, I'm left with this man to learn more about his contributions to the the distinct impression that he has only begun to scratch framing industry and experience his framing knowledge. the surfaces of his talent. The following is the heart of He responded to my request for an interview with a gra- my enjoyable and personally enlightening interview with cious invitation to his home where I could view his new Robert Kulicke. frames and paintings. My preconceived notion that his home would reflect Bruce Gherman: When did you decide to become a Louis XIV splendor integrated with some of his own framer? modern works could not have been further from the Robert Kulicke: In 1947 I was studying art and adver- truth. What I encountered instead, was an apartment tising design. I took the summer off to paint. I made 48 PFM January/February 1990 some frames at that time which people really responded the emerging School of Abstract Expressionism. I began to, and thought to myself that being a frame maker developing, for and with them, the water gilded furni- would be a wonderful way to make living. When I ture wood strips in various gold and fine wood band began my career, I had no idea of the extent of my igno- frames. In 1953, I designed and developed the floating rance. I was easily the worst frame maker in America, frame for Knoll Associates. This was actually first used being reasonably intelligent, persuasive, enthusiastic and by artists in the 20's. What I did was to develop these totally ignorant all at once. ideas into products to serve the painters. None of these were inventions. They were developments. I am a BG: How did you go about advancing your skills? designer—I develop products. Invention implies some- RK: As a young novice in Philadelphia, I desperately thing coming from nothing and that never happened. It sought to learn what, in 1947 in America, was the is always an evolutionary development not an invention. unlearnable. There were only a handful Originality always happens as a byprod- of framers in America who had uct of the search for the answers the knowledge to carve and to a technical or an aesthetic gild. They were all problem. extremely secretive. At the same time I pleaded with them I was also improving to let me work for my skills as a repro- nothing but they duction maker. My wouldn't. Unable to knowledge of history learn what I wanted and tradition enabled in America, I left for me to make accept- Paris in 1949 on the able replicas, many of GI Bill. I studied which hang in the painting with Leger Metropolitan in the morning and Museum, the apprenticed myself to National Gallery and carvers, gilders and other museums. matmakers in the afternoon. It was still difficult to get important technical information. There seemed to be a BG: How did you establish such an important clientele code to teach only their sons the craft, but no one else. for yourself? I then paid a carver a journeyman's wage just so I could RK: When there are twenty guys in New York trying to watch him work. These skills took 15 to 20 generations make the most money as picture framers and there is one to evolve, so this was the only way I could think of to guy trying to make the best frames in the world, that's learn them. In my second year in Paris, I spent less and practically unfair competition. Everyone thought that I less time with Leger and more and more time in the must be a very rich man and quite crazy because I was Louvre, teaching myself the history of frames. I could- selling frames for less than what they cost to make. For n't read French, so I returned to New York to continue the first ten years of Kulicke Frames, I lost between 5 studying the history of frames and architectural design and 20 thousand dollars each year. I made it up by buy- at the New York 42nd Street Library. It gradually ing and selling medieval art. During that time it was occurred to me that frames are furniture and furniture is more important to me to establish an audience. I was a form of architectural design. I had to learn this to also a working painter, so I had a natural sympathy to make sense of the history of frames. serve the painters with whom I worked. When Franz Kline, Barnett Newman, Robert Motherwell or Bill BG: When did you open your business? DeKooning are at a cocktail party and the subject of RK: I started my frame shop in New York in 1951, at frames comes up, and they all say there's only one frame the age of 26, and began working with the painters of maker in America, Bob Kulicke, they have nothing per- January/February 1990 49 sonal to gain by it. That's more persuasive than any chair and that of my frame. This indicates just how far advertising. behind the architect the frame designer can be. BG: How did you invent the welded metal frame that BG: How soon after the welded metal frame did you you are famous for? develop the metal section frame? RK: I was not the first man to make a metal frame. I RK: As I was struggling with this new technology, I invented nothing. I am a designer. Metal frames have realized that if I could come up with a viable mechanical been made in various forms since the 20's but not well, joint, a metal section frame could be sold the way canvas and not successfully in terms of serving the painter, or as stretchers were being sold all over the world—in standard a viable art world length and pairs. I knew I product. I understood was too close to the problem back in 1954, that the and would probably not welded metal had to come up with the answer on be the classic 20th cen- my own, so I told my sales- tury frame, but it took people to keep an eye out for me until 1960 to a mechanical joint we could develop. I came to use. One day in 1966, one realize that abstract of my assistants, Don painting needed a Herbert, came back from a welded polished metal sales trip in Canada and frame in order to be placed, on my desk, a corner elegant enough for the joint design which was exact- large powerful art. I ly what I had been looking decided on aluminum for. Kulicke Frames, Inc. because stainless steel brought out the metal sec- weighed 7 times as tion frame in 1967 through much. The problems our contract division, for with aluminum were distribution as a commercial its difficulty to pro- product and it was a huge duce a clean aesthetic success. weld and its lack of cost effectiveness. BG: Another important While still experimenting with the problem, Porter design you developed was the Plexiglas box. Where did McCrae, of the museum of Modern Art, contacted me you come up with the concept? about a welded metal frame. If I could solve the prob- RK: We developed the plexibox in 1964 for the lem, they agreed to buy 2,000 frames from me over a Photographic Wing of the Museum of Modern Art. The three year period. For the next year and a half I gave concept of a frameless frame started with the braquet— a most of my time to this effort, with a great deal of help product of the 30's. The plexibox had been made off from the Utechni Corporationand their staff. I finally and on for 20 years, but never well and never as a viable succeeded in designing and developing a welded, pol- product, and not by anyone who understood that the ished, aluminum frame of which I am still enormously significance of the presentation is the proportion of the proud.