Description: Original Jaun Ricardo Drawing “Woman And Child” In Hand Made frame made by R. Voelker Signed and Dated 1972 with Non-Glare glass. Wonderful old world style/representation. Frame size: 15.5” x 15.5” Please see photos as they are part of the description. It could be said he was a man that lived a double life, and in some respects it was like he was a double agent. Gluing the two different careers together resolves a mystery, as he died before the internet age. There was John R. Morgan, the renown industrial designer and Juan Ricardo, the multifaceted talented artist. Both were the same person configured by his Latino childhood heritage and the American Dream as a prominent professional designer. He was born Juan Ricardo Morgan in Guatemala City, 1903. His family immigrated to Canada in 1913 when he was eleven. That same year he won the first prize for a watercolor submitted to the Canadian National Exhibition for his age category. This opened an opportunity to study landscaping painting with the noted Canadian artist, Thomas John Thompson. He studied with Thompson for just a couple of years, as Thompson died at the age of 39 in 1917. So his artist name of “Juan Ricardo” was not made up, it was his name from birth. John Richard "Jack" Morgan, the Designer: References say that the American “Morgan” loved exotic cars, and when it came time for college in the 1920s he attended the Detroit Technical Institute. In 1927 he started his career with the C. G. Spring and Bumper Company, and quickly moved on to Harley Earl’s new “Art and Color” section of General Motors. Earl was the Vice President of Styling and was instrumental in creating streamlined looking cars. Morgan designed the first automobile bumper to be integrated into the overall design of a car and worked in the Pontiac studio. In 1934, Morgan became the Chief Product Designer for Sears, Chicago. That same year he designed the now noted “Waterwitch” outdoor motor. This boat motor was revolutionary for the times, and it won critical acclaim as part of the Museum of Modern Art’s 1934 Machine Art Exhibit; Examples are in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, Minneapolis Art Institute, and the last time I checked - one is on display in Gallery 912, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC. He designed and held the patents of numerous products for Sears: vacuum cleaners, kitchen cabinet systems and appliances. By 1943 he established his own company called Jack Morgan Associates in Chicago. His company created designs for industrial objects, and his clients included: Hotpoint, RCA, Magic Chef, so on and so on. It was those same skills used to create drawings, renderings for fabrication and patent documents for the US Patent and Trademark Office, that also allowed him to create fine art, both requiring creativity.Juan Ricardo, Artist Bio Information: During his life, Ricardo traveled extensively and he captured ideas for art wherever he went, spending time in Scandinavia and Europe. Eventually, after an exciting life and retiring as an industrial designer, he set up his artist studio in Wheeling, IL, a rented barn. He would open the oversized doors and would draw/paint in the sunshine, while his wife would handle the business matters and art sales.He became an accomplished fine artist in the 1950s, and stepped back into his Latino heritage, using it as part of his identity. It was reported in one document that he “was a colorful personality who wore dapper clothes and had a romantic designer mustache. He affected a Latino persona, had a wonderful sense of humor, and called himself Juan Ricardo, which of course, was his real name.” During his fine art career, he had two one-man shows in Chicago, and exhibited in Palm Beach (Florida), Connecticut and Pennsylvania. Reviews during his life stated that his paintings were powerful, colorful and expressive. His designer skills allowed him to work in several media: oils, acrylic, pastels, and pencil. His oil/acrylic paintings frequently had built up sections of paint, creating an almost three-dimensional quality to the canvas.
Price: 175 USD
Location: Palm Desert, California
End Time: 2023-12-26T03:36:23.000Z
Shipping Cost: N/A USD
Product Images
Item Specifics
Restocking Fee: No
Return shipping will be paid by: Buyer
All returns accepted: Returns Accepted
Item must be returned within: 14 Days
Refund will be given as: Money Back
Type: Drawing
