Works of late artist featured in exhibit
George Ivers managed to create an ideal world with his artwork
BY SETH MANDEL
Staff Writer

PHOTOSBY MIGUEL JUAREZ staff Above, Jennifer Postelnek, of South Brunswick, and Christa Weber, Monroe, admire one of the works on display at the George Ivers exhibit at Family Framers. At left, Rothi Bernard, of Monroe, takes a closer look at one of the “Small Treasures” in the George Ivers exhibition.

An old fairy tale centers around a character who can turn straw into gold.

Monroe artist George Ivers, who died in 2001, possessed a talent that may have been just as valuable. He could turn pain into beauty.

“That’s the thing about him,” said Teddy Ehmann, a local art instructor. “Despite the hardship of his life, he remained very childlike, very romantic, very imaginative. He almost created another world [with his art work]. You could say he created an ideal world.”

Before emigrating from Poland after World War II, Ivers had been a prisoner of war on three separate occasions, escaping each time.

But those experiences were never reflected in his art.

“He really had this innocent view of life that was just so great,” Ehmann said. “As he got older, it just got more so. He kind of dedicated his life to love and beauty and imagination.”

Ehmann owns Family Framers of Jamesburg, which will exhibit Ivers’ work through March 31.

The exhibit will include 31 pieces from each period of Ivers’ life, which, Ehmann said, provides for an eclectic mix of styles.

“As a highly imaginative person, he was interested in many things. So, as far as style, there are several different themes that run through his entire career,” Ehmann said. “One is mythology. He did numerous pictures of the Garden of Eden or, (as) he called it, the Peaceable Kingdom.”

Ehmann said the gallery will display two oil paintings and several prints on that subject, which include Ivers’ depiction of Adam and Eve, the landscape of the Garden, and the peaceful coexistence of the lion and the lamb.

“That’s the idea of the Peaceable Kingdom, the lion and the lamb being in the same place without killing each other,” Ehmann said.

He said Ivers, while living in Trenton, also went through a period during which his work paid homage to another local artist, Ben Shahn.

Although the paintings were of urban settings and ghettos, Ehmann said they were never dark, dreary or depressing.

“He didn’t portray it as injustice,” Ehmann said. “He did a bunch of tenements, broken-down tenements, but he found beauty in them.”

Before finally succumbing to Parkinson’s disease in 2001, Ivers painted from his hospital room, but although his health had changed drastically, his view of the world clearly had not.

“You would never imagine the man was in pain,” Ehmann said.

Ivers worked as a designer for Lenox China and then Cybis Porcelain until 1986, when he retired. Ehmann said this helped develop Ivers’ attention to detail, which he expressed in some of his smallest paintings.

“He worked in porcelain, and he had this incredible drawing ability and painting ability,” Ehmann said. “He did very detailed work. So, I have these incredible paintings — some are only 4 by 6, but you cannot believe the detail. They’re like gems, they’re jam-packed, gorgeous little paintings. You don’t find artists like this anymore. He’s in another league.”

Those pieces, Ehmann said, are the inspiration behind the title of the exhibit, “Small Treasures.”

All the pieces in the show are for sale, and Ehmann kept that in mind while selecting the ones to display.

“I’m not just a gallery owner, I’m an artist myself, and I just chose those that I thought were just so unique, so wonderful, so lovely, and that people who are collecting his work would just go nuts over,” Ehmann said.

He said he has already received calls from collectors of Ivers’ work, as well as art fans in general, who were eager to find out which pieces will be for sale.

“If you’re going to buy a George Ivers print, you’re just buying a true work of art,” Ehmann said. “The craftsmanship is just unbelievable.”

The U.S. government seems to agree, as one of Ivers’ pieces is part of the art collection at the White House. Ehmann said the piece was commissioned by Pat Nixon, wife of former President Richard M. Nixon.

Ehmann has owned Family Framers for almost three years. The gallery is in a three-story Victorian mansion known as the Courter Brooks Mansion, in which Ehmann also lives.

He said the gallery focuses on exposing local artists, of whom, he said, there are more than he ever expected.

“It never ends, and they’re still moving here,” he said. “It’s an unknown fact, and it was what really surprised me. I had no idea until I opened the gallery doors and they started coming in to have their things framed.”

Ehmann is a retired schoolteacher and still gives drawing and painting lessons all week to students of all ages. He said every summer the gallery hosts a show exhibiting the work of his students.

“I’m very passionate about the arts, and bringing the arts fully alive in Jamesburg and Monroe,” Ehmann said.

Ehmann said he knew Ivers personally, and that Ivers was as “delightful” as his art work.

“When I was younger, I lived in Trenton,” he said. “I also used to submit my work in some of the shows that he was in, and I got to see his work, and I do remember him from the old days.”

Perhaps the best indication of Ivers’ character could be found in a subtle but consistent aspect of his work, Ehmann said. Although his paintings represented a wide array of subjects and themes, Ivers’ wife, Iris, was clearly on his mind while he was painting.

Ehmann said that most of Ivers’ paintings contain an iris flower.

“He was indeed an extraordinary man who never thought of himself that way and who was, in fact, quite modest, considering all his gifts, of which artistic talent was only one,” Iris Ivers said.

Iris is vacationing for the winter, but, Ehmann said, the gallery will probably have another show of Ivers’ work in the spring, when Iris will be back in her Concordia home.

Iris is happy to have her husband’s work on display.

“He truly touched people with his warmth, his wit, his talent, and his love of life,” Iris said. “I don’t know how I got so lucky to be able to spend 24 years with him.”