Marian Fay Levitt, New York Jewelry Designer & Teacher

Joyous, Bold & One of a Kind

Marian Fay Levitt was an award-winning studio art jewelry designer and master instructor at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City.

Statement Jewelry With a Fine Art Soul

Marian Fay Levitt approached jewelry as an artist, teacher, and lifelong collector of beauty. Her pieces are expressive, tactile, and richly composed, bringing together color, texture, movement, beadwork, metalsmithing, and enamel.

With the eye of a fine artist and the curiosity of a world traveler, Marian Fay Levitt gathered inspiration across more than 60 countries and transformed it into bold, expressive, one-of-a-kind jewelry.

Marian Fay Levitt with husband and wild cat in New York Marian Fay Levitt in stylish black coat in New York City

MARIAN FAY LEVITT (1938 – 2022)

Artist Biography: Jewelry, Fine Art, and a Life Shaped by Creative Reinvention

Marian Fay Levitt lived many creative lives: artist, executive, patron, educator, and jewelry designer. Born in Budapest and later raised in New York City, she grew up close to the arts and carried that visual intelligence into everything she built. She earned her fine arts degree at the High School of Music & Art, later renamed LaGuardia, completed a B.S. from Cornell University, and attended the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration.

Her early life was shaped by history as well as art. As a child in wartime Hungary, Marian survived the Holocaust by staying hidden until the war ended. After reuniting with her family in New York, she entered a world of museums, galleries, education, business, and design that would continue to influence her work for the rest of her life.

One of the First Women Executives in Mid-Century New York

Back in New York, Marian built a corporate career that lasted several decades. She led in Human Resources and was one of the first female executives of the mid-century era. She stayed close to the arts throughout as a patron, and she handled marketing and publicity for her mother’s Mayfair Gallery shows.

Mixed Media Studio Jewelry, a Second Career Begun in the 1990s

In the 1990s Marian turned her fine arts training toward jewelry and began a second career. Her multimedia studio art jewelry combines varied elements with expert bead stringing, metalsmithing and enamel work, and she made every piece by hand, many of them one of a kind. She sourced materials on her travels around the world and drew ideas from paintings, sculpture, architecture and nature, which gives her designs their international flair. Joyous self-expression runs through all of it.

Teaching Jewelry Design at FIT for Nearly 20 Years

For almost 20 years Marian was a respected instructor of jewelry design at the Fashion Institute of Technology, where she taught the Collectible Jewelry series of classes. The Craft Students League and the Greater New York Bead Society also invited her to teach workshops. Over those years she taught and inspired thousands of students from around the world.

Award-Winning Jewelry in Juried Exhibitions and Art Shows

Marian’s designs appeared in art shows, juried exhibitions, retail shops and collaborative events with other artists. The Bead Society at the American Craft Museum (now the Museum of Arts and Design) featured her work in six of its annual juried exhibitions. She was also admitted to the Salmagundi Club, one of the oldest arts organizations in the United States.

With an array of shapes, colors, textures, and dynamic movements in space, Marian’s sculpture-like creations stand out as remarkable expressions of her creativity, her crafting skills, and her personal perception and interpretation of reality.

A statement necklace with colorful beads by Marian Fay Levitt.

Marian Fay Levitt’s Artist Statement

Marian Levitt was an eclectic multimedia artist and studio jewelry designer and maker. She effortlessly channeled her boundless creativity into captivating jewelry designs. 

A globetrotter at heart, Marian infused an international flair into her pieces by sourcing materials during her travels around the world. The fascination for the different cultures she came across during those trips is reflected in the strong symbolic value of her creations. A symbolism  wisely combined with a witty sense of humor, expressed by the unconventional intertwine of different shapes, colors and textures.

Marian’s inspiration for her art came from painting, sculpture, architecture, decorative arts, fashion and above all from nature, with its infinite variety of colors, shapes and phenomena. 

The textures of her materials and the way she combines and links them evoke an untamed and fierce nature, encapsulating a powerful force yearning to break free from its material confines. The multifaceted elements of her jewelry creations are combined in unexpected patterns that leave the viewer wondering about the enigmatic nature of what they behold.

Her statement pieces feature an harmonious blend of sophisticated colors and intricate sculptural designs, mirroring her artistic vision and vibrant personality.

Each piece bore Marian’s personal touch as she personally designed and meticulously handcrafted them, employing various techniques such as bead stringing, wirework, metalsmithing and enamel work.

With an array of shapes, colors, textures, and dynamic movements in space, Marian’s sculpture-like creations stand out as remarkable expressions of her creativity, her crafting skills and her personal perception and interpretation of reality.

Elaborate bead patterns and  captivating color palettes showcase her attention to detail and her background in art history and painting. Marian, akin to a painter’s brush strokes on a canvas, masterfully wove an intricate tapestry of beads, stones  and gems using diverse knotting techniques. With each careful arrangement and layering, she transformed these elements into wearable works of art. 

As light gracefully dances through the elements of each piece, it creates a mesmerizing interplay of movement, transforming the jewelry’s appearance from every viewing angle. 

From luminous pearls to vibrant turquoise, from elegant onyx to mesmerizing amethyst, she skilfully blended elements like silver, gold, silk, quartz, topaz, jasper, citrine, china, crystals and vintage beads to create truly distinctive wearable wonders like her intricate multiple waves and multi-stranded necklaces. 

Each element harmoniously contributes to a symphony, where the rhythm can swiftly transition from an adagio to a presto creating dynamic energy.

Each piece is a story and tells a story; it transcends being a mere embellishment for the body and instead exudes its unique character and individuality with unwavering confidence and resolute determination. 

Marian’s jewelry inhabits the space, it creates dynamic vibrations that reverberate throughout its surroundings expressing authenticity and joy: the joy of creating, the joy of beauty, the joy of colors and light, the joy of movement, the joy of self-expression.

An Artist Legacy HONORED by Her Daughter, Lisa Levitt

Marian’s daughter, Lisa Levitt, has gathered her jewelry into the collection shown on this site, alongside her grandmother Elizabeth‘s paintings and the family letters behind Marvelisa Legacies.

Lisa Levitt and her mother, Marian Fay Levitt, on a New York City street, photo printed on a floral plate

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