With its proximity to the cultural hub of New York City and its quieter suburban and rural landscapes, Connecticut was fertile ground for artists and writers in the period of Modernist movements between 1913 and 1979. Many of these cultural figures are well known through biographical and critical studies. Creative Places seeks to show how place played a significant role in creative work, and how in turn the artists and writers influenced communities in Connecticut.
LaGardo Tackett
Architecture/Design, Patronage
1911 – 1984
- Biography/Description of Work
After expanding his ideas for porcelain dinnerware in Tokyo, Tack returned with his family to the United States in 1961, settling in Weston, Connecticut. They rented a locally famous modern home designed in 1954 by George S. Lewis and Allan Gould for Harold Loeb, a friend of Ernest Hemingway and the publisher of the literary magazine The Broom. The house was situated alongside a dam on the Saugatuck River on Buttonball Lane. Tack commuted to New York for meetings at Schmid International. This business arrangement, along with the continued royalties from earlier work, provided continued financial success. In 1964 Tack and Virginia purchased the George Doubleday mansion called ‘Westmoreland’ on Peaceable Street in Ridgefield and renamed it ‘Taleria.’ They filled the 19th-century house with contemporary furniture from the Herman Miller line, which, along with his ceramics, created a modernist environment within the 19th-century landmark. The house still stands, now serving as the Temple Shearith Israel. In 1971, with the children grown and on their own, the couple moved to the Milton section of the town of Litchfield, where Tack built a studio next to their 18th-century house. (from Swanson, Peter, LaGardo Tackett: His Life and Work (2010)
- Sources view
- Swanson, Peter. 2010. Royalty, Douglas. Personal interview with current owner of Tackett's home on Court Street, New Haven.
- Associated Resource(s)