An interview of John Marshall conducted 2001 April 5, by Lloyd Herman, for the Archives of American Art's Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America, in Edmonds, Washington.
Marshall speaks of his childhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; participating in an educational program with the Carnegie Museum; his exposure to art while in grade school and throughout his education; joining the army after high school; spending time in Germany with the army and experiencing the metalwork of that area; learning to work hard from his father; his family background; attending Grove City College, then working in construction during the day and going to classes at Carnegie Tech during the night; finally attending Cleveland Institute of Art; some of his teachers at the Institute, Kenneth Bates, Toshiko Takaezu, and John Clague; his first experiences with metal, Fred Miller, and learning how to design metal pieces; getting a job as head of the metals department at Syracuse and completing his MFA there; meeting Paul Smith and Lee Nordness, and participating in Objects: USA; his travels throughout Europe; the many commissions he has done for churches, everything from baptismal bowls, chalices, and crosses; Patrick Lannan, and how instrumental he was in Marshall's career, his collection of work that Lannan bought and where it all is now located; the different types of communities in the different areas he lived; commissions and how they were important to his career; how he challenges himself with new ideas and creations; the Handy and Harman Workshop; the difference between a university trained artist and one who has learned his/her craft outside academia; his students and how much satisfaction he has received from teaching; the decline in metal working programs at the university level; the influence of other faculty members on his work, such as Lee DuSell; the critics of metalwork, Bruce Metcalf and Gary Griffin; his involvement in the Society of North American Goldsmiths; and his two sons. Marshall also recalls John Paul Miller, Winifred Lutz, Ramona Solberg, Ruth Penington, Michael Scott, Don Bacorn, Annie Hauberg, and others.
Biographical / Historical:
John Marshall (1936- ) is a jeweler and metalsmith from Edmonds, Washington. Lloyd Herman (1936- ) is the former director of the Smithsonian Institution's Renwick Gallery from Seattle, Washington.
General:
Originally recorded on 4 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 6 digital wav files. Duration is 3 hrs., 2 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.
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-Ã -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.
Correspondence, photographs, writings, scrapbooks, sketchbooks, awards and printed material.
REEL D295: Correspondence with buyers, museum curators, and students, and with Irving Berlin, George A. Dondero, Robert Philipp, and Malcolm Vaughan; drafts of articles; scrapbooks; photographs of Brackman's paintings; clippings; and other publications.
REELS 2339-2340: Biographical data, with typescript of Kristin Smith's 1968 unpublished essay on Brackman; correspondence, including letters from Irving Berlin, Huntington Hartford, Harold L. Ickes, Robert Philipp, John D. Rockefeller, David O. Selznick, and others; printed material, including newspaper clippings, magazine articles, reproductions, exhibition catalogs, and announcements; awards; 2 scrapbooks, 1930-1952; and 8 undated sketchbooks.
REEL 2380: Photographs, including personal photographs of Brackman, his friends, his students; of Herbert Turner, his home, his school, and studio; and photographs of Brackman's works of art.
UNMICROFILMED: Writings by Brackman for his lectures; typescripts and a copy of BRACKMAN: HIS ART AND TEACHING by Kenneth Bates; and printed material including newspaper clippings, by-laws for the "Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts Manufacturers and Commerce," London, and the "Royal Society of Arts," London, and a 1957 edition of the journal, THE ARTIST.
Biographical / Historical:
Painter and educator; New York, N.Y. Born in Russia. Studied at Francisco Ferrer School, with Robert Henri, and with George Bellows. Came to United States in 1908. Taught at the Art Students League. Died 1980.
Provenance:
Material on reel D295 lent 1966 by Robert Brackman. Portions of this material were subsequently given by Brackman's widow, Frances, with her gift of all other materials, 1981. Twenty-seven personal photographs from reel 2380 were returned to Frances Brackman at her request.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Microfilmed materials must be consulted on microfilm. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Occupation:
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Topic:
Painting, American -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Art -- Study and teaching -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Kenneth Francis Bates (1904-1994) was an enamelist, educator, and author in Euclid, Ohio. He earned his bachelor's degree from the Massachusetts School of Art and in 1927 joined the Cleveland School of Art, teaching design. He taught there through his retirement in 1968. Bates was honored by the National Society of Enamelists with the title Dean of American Enamelists in 1987. He has written three books, Enameling: Principles and Practice (1951), Basic Design, and The Enamelist (1967).
Provenance:
Lent for microfilming 1973 by Kenneth Bates.
Restrictions:
The Archives of American art does not own the original papers. Use is limited to the microfilm copy.
