Overview
Carpay was born in 1917 in South Holland, the Netherlands. In the late 1930s, he studied ceramics, metalwork, graphic art, and textile design. By the outbreak of World War II, he had joined a small pottery where he eventually became the head designer. Here, he produced decorated earthenware which he named ‘Handwerk’, a term which he used later in New Zealand. Carpay was heavily influenced by Picasso and Matisse, and in 1950, he visited Picasso’s studio in France.
Like many Dutch in the early 1950s, Carpay sought work overseas. He wrote to the Mayor of Auckland, asking if there were any positions available in Auckland potteries. The Mayor passed his request on to Crown Lynn Potteries Ltd (makers of the NZ Railways Cup and Saucer). Crown Lynn aimed to capture the New Zealand market for fine china, and was looking for new designers, so when Carpay arrived in Auckland in 1953 with his wife Carla, he began work at Crown Lynn.
Carpay’s job was to design and paint a series of works that would be exhibited through art societies and upmarket department stores. The works the public liked best would go into mass production, with Carpay supervising their manufacture.
Carpay’s Crown Lynn ‘Handwerk’ designs were first shown at the Auckland Society of Arts in 1953, where they received a rapturous response. On the strength of these first works, Carpay was awarded the Esmonde Kohn Prize for Applied Arts. At subsequent showings, there were equally enthusiastic responses to Carpay’s designs. However, the works didn’t prove popular with the general public, who thought them too ‘way out’.
Carpay’s ceramics were modern in design and boldly coloured. This was in great contrast to the pale and pretty English-made ceramics that were favoured by most New Zealanders. During this time, many Kiwis still believed that locally designed and manufactured ceramics were, by definition, inferior to goods made overseas.
In 1956, Frank Carpay was ‘let go’ from Crown Lynn. He tried advertising, then teaching, before developing a new career in textile design and manufacturing. Under the name Carpay Designs, Frank and Carla Carpay produced a range of towelling beachwear. Frank screen-printed the fabric, while Carla cut, styled, and made the beachwear, which included towels, beach bags, shifts, jackets, and cover-ups.
Many of Carpay’s designs were inspired by the Pacific, preceding the current fashion for clothing based on Pacific icons. Frank Carpay also drew on a number of other New Zealand influences, including Māori rock drawings, plants, and birds. He even named one series of designs after local beaches including Ohope and Piha. Frank Carpay died in 1985.
Text originally published in Tai Awatea, Te Papa's onfloor multimedia database.