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.
John Vassos
Architecture/Design, Illustration
1898 – 1985
Vassos’s career as artist, industrial and graphic designer, illustrator and architect was not only rich, but evocative of his era. His output of commercial and theater art covered everything from print advertising to modernistic window displays for Macy’s, as well as murals and curtains for movie palaces.
- Biography/Description of Work
John Vassos was born in 1898 in Romania to Greek parents. His family moved to Constantinople (present day Istanbul) when he was a child. As a young teenager, John drew cartoons for his father’s newspaper. By 1919, Vassos had emigrated to the United States, first moving to Boston, and eventually settling in New York City in the 1920s. While in Boston he attended Fenway Art School and assisted the renowned set designer Joseph Urban at the Ziegfeld Follies. In New York City he went to the Art Students League and opened a design studio. He met Ruth (Carrier) at a party in The Chelsea Hotel in New York City, and they were married in 1924. The couple moved to Norwalk in the 1930s, where Vassos became a member of the Silvermine Guild. He began working with Radio Corporation of America (RCA) in 1932 and would remain associated with them for the next forty years, designing numerous radios and television sets. In 1939, he helped to design the RCA exhibit displaying television for the first time at the New York World’s Fair. He also collaborated with his wife, providing illustrations for her science fiction short stories.
- Sources view
- Brophy, Kirsten; The Wright-Vassos House c. 1925, The Norwalk Historical Society Plaque Program, March 27, 2010. Connecticut State Library online accessed 6/25/2014: iconn.org or http://www.cslib.org/iconnsitemap/staff/SiteIndex.aspx#directories Carley, Rachel. Creative Places: Modern Arts and Letters in Connecticut. Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation & State Historic Preservation Office, 2014. Levey, Lee; John Vassos and the Cartoonists of Silvermine, 2009. Can be accessed at http://www.nashct.com/history/silvermines-history/john-vassos-and-the-cartoonists-of-silvermine McAlester, Virginia and Lee; A Field Guide to American Houses, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York, 2003. The New York Times (1851-2010) accessed through ProQuest Historical Newspapers on 6/25/2014 John Vassos – December 10, 1985 Ruth C. Vassos, Fashion Writer, 70 – February 21, 1965 U.S. Federal Census, accessed at http://persi.heritagequestonline.com/hqoweb/library/do/census/search/basic
- Associated Resource(s)