A Blog Called Nowhere

New York artist, fashion illustrator sweeps into Milton
Warhol contemporary’s life is a rich tapestry

By Molly Albertson Cape Gazette staff

Like the breezes of serendipity that carried Forrest Gump into famous world events, chance brought artist Nadja Merino ­Kalfel (Corncub's Great and beloved Aunt) of New York City into scenes from history books.
The 95- year- old artist (!) inspired Andy Warhol’s soup can paintings, educated Steven Spielberg on surviving the holocaust for “ Schindler’s List,” and sketched fashion illustrations for Vogue Magazine and The New York Times in the 1960s.

( She worked with Antonie de Paris during the 60s and the duo created the beehive hair style. Merino designed it and Paris made it a reality.)

Merino Kalfel is much like Gump she’s been all over the world and is happy to tell about it and share her sketchbooks of scenes. But she is a refreshing, nonfiction character whose experiences took place in the real world. (I've been sworn to secrecy and since I know my family lurks around ABCN I cant get into the really juicy stuff) Chance, or what she calls following her intuition, landed her in Vienna, Paris, and New York.
Merz is displaying works, including oil and watercolor paintings, pastels, illustrations, and six sculptures. Many of the works are about 50 years old, Merz said.
“ Artists live a different life than others, on a whole separate plane up here,” Merz said, gesturing high in the air.
“ The way we stumble through life, artists are really living it,” he said.
Merino- Kalfel was born in Vienna, Austria, where she attended art school until she moved to Paris to continue her fine art education. During World War II, she was working as a fashion illustrator in Paris, but after the Nazis occupied the city, she got a job with (had an affair with the Chilean embassador) consulate. There, she helped countless families, including her own, escape Europe. Eventually, she moved to New York and established herself as an illustrator. That’s where she became the senior illustrator for the New York Times. It’s also where she had coffee with Warhol, who at the time drew purses and shoes for fashion plates.
“ I said, ‘ Why don’t you develop your art?’ I pointed to the left to an exhibit of soup cans at the café, and he agreed,” she said. Merino ­Kalfel said she later realized he took her comments to heart and painted the now famous Campbell’s soup can.
At that time, she drew women in high style fashions and make-up and hair products. She worked for several large companies, including Revlon and Saks Fifth Avenue in addition to sketching for Vogue Magazine. She was the first person to sketch a beehive hairstyle, later adopted by women all over the world as the most fashionable look of the era.
Merino- Kalfel’s work trans-forms the Federal Street Gallery/Espresso bar into a time capsule of high style from the 1950s and 1960s that captures how woman wanted to live, and look in that era. Eerily, the paintings still portray the sought- after glamour and glitz that still fuel the imagination of women today.

more about her show and the beehive hair style here

I dont have a picture of her to post but this is the general idea--------------->Nadja's cigarette of choice