An interview of Merry Renk conducted 2001 January 18-19, by Arline M. Fisch, for the Archives of American Art's Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America, in Renk's home and studio, San Francisco, California.
Renk speaks of her family background; growing up during the Depression; her father's creativity and encouragement; early inspiration from "the structure of nature"; attending the School of Industrial Arts in Trenton, N.J., and later the Institute of Design in Chicago; student life at the Institute of Design; establishing a studio and gallery, 750 Studio, at 750 North Dearborn, in Chicago, in 1947, with two other students, Mary Jo Slick [Godfrey] and Olive [Bunny] Oliver; managing 750 Studio and organizing exhibitions of Harry Callahan, Henry Miller, Lazlo Maholy-Nagy, Warren and Ethel MacKenzie, Doris Hall, and others; working with enamels; early "primitive" spirals; decision to be a jeweler; the importance of the "wearability" of jewelry; moving to San Francisco in 1948; living in Paris, 1950-1951; relationship with Shinkichi Tajiri; visiting Constantin Brancusi; traveling with Lenore Tawney through Spain and Morocco; settling in San Francisco; friendship with sculptor and neighbor Ruth Asawa; learning about Josef Albers from Asawa, resulting in experiments with folded metal; meeting her second husband, potter Earle Curtis on Halloween 1954; purchasing and remodeling their home; teaching part-time at the University of California, Berkeley and in workshops; her children, Baunnie and Sandra; managing motherhood and jewelry making in a two-artist household; drawing as a form of inventory; the influence of Lee Nordness; learning the plique-à-jour technique of enameling through trial and error; early influence of Doris Hall's work; working with wire; use of natural forms and interlocking forms; the process of making Wedding Crown (1968) for the exhibition Objects USA; making wedding crowns for her daughters; her shift from non-objective art to portraiture and symbolic imagery in the early 1970s; making large-scale sculpture in 1974, then "drifting back" to jewelry; importance of working independently; her "memory paintings" in the 1980s; evolution of her name from Mary Ruth Gibbs to Merry Renk Curtis (married Stanley Renk in 1941); her involvement with local guilds such as the Metal Arts Guild of San Francisco and national organizations such as the American Craft Council (ACC); lack of critical writing about her work; the value of exhibitions; various pieces in museum collections; early ACC conferences; her long friendship with photographer Imogen Cunningham; posing for Cunningham; becoming an ACC fellow; her jewelry tools; the process of painting compared to jewelry making. She also mentions Kenneth Bates, Trude Guermonprez, Irena Brynner, the Mobilia Gallery in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and her mentor Margaret de Patta.
Biographical / Historical:
Merry Renk (1921-2012) was a jeweler, painter, and sculptor from San Francisco, California. Arline M. Fisch (1931-) is a metalsmith from San Diego, California.
General:
Originally recorded on 3 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 6 digital wav files. Duration is 3 hr., 9 min.
Provenance:
This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators.
The papers of fiber artist and educator Trude Guermonprez measure 1.2 linear feet and date from circa 1900 to 1987 with the bulk of the material dating from 1932 to 1976. The collection includes biographical material, diaries, correspondence, printed material, artwork, and photographs.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of fiber artist and educator Trude Guermonprez measure 1.2 linear feet and date from circa 1900 to 1987 with the bulk of the material dating from 1932 to 1976. The collection includes biographical material, diaries, correspondence, printed material, artwork, and photographs.
Biographical material includes an address book, awards and certificates, two diaries, and a wedding announcement. Correspondence is with Guermonprez's family, Paul Guermonprez, John Elsesser, Gerhard Marcks, and others. Printed materials include Clippings and periodicals about Guermonprez. Artwork contains doodles, sketches and drawings, etchings, and two sketchbooks by Guermonprez and others. Photographs are of Guermonprez and her family.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as five series.
Series 1: Biographical Materials, circa 1950-1975 (0.2 linear feet; Box 1, OV 4)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1930s-1987 (0.4 linear feet; Boxes 1-3)
Series 3: Printed Materials, 1946-1976 (2 folders; Box 2)
Series 4: Artwork, circa 1940-1976 (0.5 linear feet; Boxes 2-3, OV 4)
Series 5: Photographs, circa 1900-circa 1970 (2 folders; Boxes 2-3, OV 4)
Biographical / Historical:
Trude Guermonprez (1910-1976) was a fiber artist and educator in San Francisco, California.
Guermonprez was born in Germany to Dr. Heinrich and Jalena Jalowetz and attended the Municipal School of Arts and Crafts in Halle Saale, Germany where she learned weaving from Bauhaus artist Benita Otte. In 1933, her parents and sister Lisa immigrated to the United States. Her parents began teaching at Black Mountain College in North Carolina. Guermonprez stayed with her husband, photographer Paul Guermonprez, in the Netherlands where he became involved in the Dutch resistance during World War II. Paul was killed fighting with the resistance on D-Day in 1944. After his death, Guermonprez decided to move to the United States to be with her mother and sister. Her father had died a year earlier. Guermonprez temporarily led the weaving program at Black Mountain College when Josef and Anni Albers went on sabbatical, and eventually she became a full time faculty member. When the weaving program ended in 1949, she left North Carolina for California to join her former classmate Marguerite Wildenhain at Pond Farm Workshops. There she met her second husband, craftsman John Elsesser. They moved to San Francisco and Guermonprez began teaching at the California College of Art and Design. She was designated chair of the crafts department in 1960.
Outside of teaching, Guermonprez completed designs for textile companies and commissions while still creating her own works of fiber art. She gained little recognition during her career, winning a couple of awards before her death from cancer in 1976. Her only exhibition, The Tapestries of Trude Guermonprez, was held several years after her death in 1982 at the Oakland Museum of California.
Provenance:
The Trude Guermonprez papers were donated in 2004 by Eric Elsesser, Guermonprez's stepson, as part of the Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center.
Occupation:
Fiber artists -- California -- San Francisco Search this
Educators -- California -- San Francisco Search this
Biographical material includes an address book, an American Institute of Architects craftsmanship award, an American Crafts Council Fellow of the Collegium of Craftsmen certificate, two diaries documenting Guermonprez's travels to Europe and New Mexico, and a handwritten wedding announcement for Guermonprez's marriage to John Elsesser in 1951.
Collection Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center.
Collection Citation:
Trude Guermonprez papers, circa 1900-1987, bulk 1932-1976. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Includes an illustrated card from Marcks, printed materials, and letters from Ruth Kath to Elsesser and his family regarding Marcks' letters to Guermonprez. Also includes a notebook with writings by an unidentified writer.
Collection Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center.
Collection Citation:
Trude Guermonprez papers, circa 1900-1987, bulk 1932-1976. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Correspondence is with Guermonprez's parents Heinrich and Johanna while they were teaching at Black Mountain College in North Carolina and her sister Lisa after they received their first contact from Guermonprez in two years. Other correspondence is with Paul Guermonprez before he died, John Elsesser, and her close friend Gerhard Marcks. Many of the letters exchanged after Trude Guermonprez's death in 1976 are between Ruth Kath, a professor of German researching Marcks, and Elsesser. Kath writes to Elsesser requesting Marcks' letters to Guermonprez for research. Marcks' original letters along with a couple of translated letters by Kath are included in the files. Marcks' files also include photographs of Marcks, his family, and artwork, as well as printed material relating to Marcks.
Collection Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center.
Collection Citation:
Trude Guermonprez papers, circa 1900-1987, bulk 1932-1976. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
