Post #731876 by aratinga on Fri, Nov 21, 2014 10:09 AM

I'm glad someone is interested in RanSu. The artist and owner was my uncle Jerome Perlmutter. He grew up in Elmhurst, Queens, attended Newtown High School (which was behind their house) and went to Parsons School of Design. He was a commercial artist for a few years before starting his company, which he named for his two daughters, Randee and Susan.

He must have had some sort of catalog, as he distributed his wall decor to stores all over the country. Each figure was cut out in multiple using a saw, then hand painted by himself or his crew after the original design was painted by himself. (Andy Warhol followed his example!) He sent me once or twice to the NY Public Library picture collection when I was in college, but generally he went himself. This was before internet research!

I don't think his production runs were very large. He came up with new designs and color schemes all the time. He could really draw, and this is reflected in his designs, which were and are better drawn than most of this sort of art.

He lived in Merrick, Long Island, where he finally retired, and he died prematurely during a hip transplant operation several years ago.

I didn't know this before, but he was awarded a patent for a mat cutting machine! http://www.google.com/patents/US3463041