1933, Vienna, Austria -
2003, Venice, Italy
Paul von Ringelheim and his family escaped Nazi persecution in Austria in 1941 by emigrating to American and settling in Newark, NJ, before moving to Brooklyn. He studied at the brooklyn Museum Art School and at Fairleigh Dickenson University, Teaneck, NJ. In 1959 he met and was befriended by Pablo Picasso and studied with him before spending 1960-61 in Munich on a Fulbright grant. For the New York World Fair of 1964 and 1965 he was commissioned to create a massive minimalist cast bronze 'Screen of Peace', 50 foot wide and 10 foot high, for the Federal Pavilion, which now stands in the campus of his alma mater.
Von Ringelheim produced his first jewels in the mid-1960s in which he explored his interest in directional art and especially the arrow, lending two pieces to the Museum of Modern Art, New York, exhibition 'Jewelry by Contemporary Painters and Sculptors', while other 'multi-produced art objects' were featured in Vogue. Later in 1971 he exhibited his 'Spacial Series' at Cartier that took the form of troupe l'ceil brooches, money clips, and cufflinks that looked like boxes.