No mid-century modern home is complete without a wall sculpture by C. Jeré. The works by the artist are so quintessentially 1960's modern art, and they're pretty good investments too (very desirable in the art auction world).
The story behind C. Jeré is quite interesting. You see, to most everyone C. Jeré is known to be a single prolific artist working in metal, but in fact, there was never an artist named C. Jeré at all... the name C. Jeré is a pseudonym front for a large manufacturer of metal based decorative accessories!
C. Jeré is a play on the names of Jerry Fels and Kurt Freiler, founders of the Los Angeles based metal working company "Artisan House". Legend has it that the two combined their first names to form the name of the imaginary artist, and added the accent so the artist sounded french. The company, Artisan House, behind the name was actually composed of many metal workers, some of whom were indeed artists in their own right, but many of whom were merely welders and machinists. While many of the items produced by Artisan House are indeed "art", the goal of artisan house was never really about fine art, but more about commerce. Some of the items produced by "C. Jeré" are really quite unique and stunning and do rise to the level of fine art and high design, but lots of the items produced were more in the line of "dogs playing poker".
Artisan House is still in existence (and online), but no longer owned by Jerry and Kurt or based in southern California.
-S
SYI: The truth shall set you free
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