Isabel Borgatta

Isabel Case Borgatta (1921-2017) was a sculptor. At 13, she won first place in a national Ivory Soap carving contest, and never looked back. She attended Smith College and later received a B.F.A. as one of Yale's first female students of sculpture. She honed her hand-carving skills in Jose de Creeft's studio and became a founding member of the Women in the Arts organization. She experienced early critical acclaim, featured in a showcase of women artists at the Whitney, a group show at the Metropolitan, and she won the D'Orsay prize in 1952. She transitioned other media, including wood, metal, fabric, and paper, which she experimented with while raising young children, though she returned to stone as soon as she had the time. Borgatta's work can be found in many public and private collections, she presented a series of solo shows nationally, and she received several Yaddo and MacDowell fellowships as well as numerous other awards and honors. She felt a strong sense of connection to each stone, using its lines, colors, and even flaws to inform her work. She said, "I particularly appreciate the finality of stone, the fact that something you take off cannot be put back. In other words, you can't raise the bridge. You have to keep lowering the river until you get it right." She often combined human and animal characters, inspired by Greek mythology. Isabel was recognized in Greece as well, winning several sculpture grants from the Greek government to carve in Delphi and Crete. In 1995 she was the first woman to earn the Alex J. Ettl grant for Lifetime Achievement in American Sculpture and continued to carve well into her 90s.

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