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Art History Studies |
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Collections Assembled 1973-1996 |
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Ongoing Study of Art History& Forming Collections |
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Novak’s entire life, creative qualities of whatever medium, culture, or period, drew his spontaneous attention of proportionate degree to his aroused interest. Most times his natural intensity of one track mind scanned, absorbed and compiled many subjects of creativity, and a few times such experiences focused and energized him way beyond his norm, to form outstanding accumulations of both knowledge and collections. Assisted primarily by his gifted photographic memory and total recall to subjects of his committed interest, Novak swiftly formed a few collections which were in a category all their own. He focused primarily on less recognized, unaccredited, forgotten, neglected, past creativity by recent history and present powers of the arts, intent on sharing his recognitions of qualities by publicizing them through manuscripts, photography, and exhibits. His focus on “English Majolica”, a Victorian ceramic category , at the time devoid of one single book on the subject, drew within weeks the “English Pottery and Porcelain Encyclopedia” author, Geoffrey Godden’s comment : “Novak, three more weeks of such intensity and you will be the world expert on the subject”. Few months into it, Novak received a phone call from Armand Allen, at the time the head of Sotheby’s New York City ceramics department: “I heard on the grapevine that you are the world’s foremost expert on English Majolica, would you teach me?” The most respected position of personal stature, a uniquely British practiced criteria, is that of “the amateur who became the world expert”, a place where Novak by default had arrived. When a few months into his Majolica quest he wrote to Her Majesty the Queen, requesting permission to examine unique Majolica examples at the Dairy House on the grounds of Windsor Castle, a quick check was made on Novak. The palace did contact several English ceramic experts, who by then knew of Novak’s efforts and unanimously reported: Novak is doing a great contributing job of reviving appreciation for the English Majolica pottery of Victorian times. Based on that response, a fortnight since his approach, Novak received the letter shown below.
In the mid 1990's the Metropolitan Museum of New York City set up a
19th century hall of creativity where highly selected objects best
representing their category are displayed. In the exhibit, side by side,
standing five feet tall are two Wedgewood swan vases of Majolica
ceramics, which uniquely represent their category. The two, which are
glazed individually, found one year apart, were acquired, restored,
shipped to America, formed the crown of Novak’s Majolica collection, and
were eventually donated to the museum. |
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Charles Toft Pottery, copies of the French St. Porcher 16thC through 18thC |
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My Soul
Touching Passions |
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Artists
Chronology | My
Blessings | Invitation
| Art Objects
| 10 One Man Shows |
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