Margaret De Patta

American, (1903–1964)

Margaret De Pattawas born in Tacoma Washington in 1903. She attended the Art Students League in New York for painting. In 1941 she studied under the painter László Moholy-Nagy at the School of Design in Chicago, Illinois. After graduating, De Patta began experimenting with jewelry, and combined ideas from the avant-garde, the Bauhaus school, constructivism, and democratic ideals to create unique jewelry designs that featured refraction, reflection, and magnification. Her work is collected in many museums including, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Oakland Museum of California. She died in Oakland, California in 1964.