An interview of Gary L. Noffke conducted 2010 December 4 and 5, by Mary Douglas, for the Archives of American Art's Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America, at Noffke's home, in Farmington, Georgia.
Noffke speaks of growing up in Sullivan, Illinois; disliking school; the absence of formal art education before college and doing art on his own; his grandfather's farm; attending Eastern Illinois University to study painting, receiving a BS and MS in education with a major in art; what classes he took and his professors; his opinion about art programs in universities; the influence of the Vietnam draft; attending the University of Iowa and his introduction to metals; transferring to Southern Illinois University and his peers; learning techniques with metals; early metal work; working at Stetson University in Deland, Florida; working with colleagues and students and its influence on work; experimenting with different techniques; transition from graduate school to professional life; developing different methods for metal work, and motivations; how the notion of form and function has changed in design, especially regarding metal work and artists; the dynamics of working with students throughout the years; discusses in detail individual works and his approaches and anecdotes; his attraction to rings, simple hardware, and traditional, ancient forms; other teaching jobs before landing at the University of Georgia; building his house and studio; working in the Italy program at Cortona; his experiences at Cranbrook, Michigan and Summervale, Colorado; current and past exhibitions including the National Ring Shows; entering competitions; how the hand-made motif is important in his work; the connotation of labels of craft artist; his casual approach to the art market and formalities in the art world. Noffke also recalls Garret DeRuiter, Brent Kington, Elliot Pujol, May Lee Hu, Marci Zelmanoff, Dickie Nettles, Robert Ebendorf, Gary Erbe, Phil Fike, Bill Brown, Evon Streetman, Lane Coulter, Sue Wilde, Lydia Norell, Fred Messersmith, Tom Gingras, Charles Loloma, Fritz Dreisbach, Barry Merrit, and others.
Biographical / Historical:
Gary L. Noffke (1943- ) is a goldsmith in Farmington, Georgia. Mary Douglas (1956- ) is a curator and artist in Statesville, North Carolina.
General:
Originally recorded on 4 SD memory cards. Reformatted in 2010 as 4 digital wav files. Duration is 4 hr., 49 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; gallery, organization, exhibition and artists' files; photographs and slides; printed material; 2 VHS videos and miscellaneous.
Correspondence is with galleries, art museums, business associates and friends, 1971-2002 and undated. Files are on the ACA Gallery, the Pastel Society of America, the Ettinger Gallery, the Philbrook Museum of Art, the Butler Institute of American Art, Allied Artists of America, Salmagundi Club; files on commissions; exhibition files on "The Salgamundi Club: An American Institution" and "Gabriel Dellosso: An Artist's Journey," both curated by Erbe, as well as files on Erbe's one-man exhibitions at the ACA Gallery, Alexander Gallery, Boca Raton, Florida Museum of Art, Butler Insitute of American Art, the Canton Art Institute, James A. Michener Art Museum, Montclair Art Museum, National Arts Club, New Britain Museum of American Art, New Jersey State Museum, Sordoni Gallery- Wikes College, Woodmere Art Museum, a twenty-five year retrospective, "The Best of American Realism" at the Marin-Price Gallery and the Meridian True Colors exhibition; 33 photographs and several negatives of Erbe, Erbe with family and with works of art, and of exhibition installations as well as miscellaneous photographs; 61 color slides, mainly of works of art. Also included are 2 video cassettes, "Brand New Day," which aired on WPIX Aug. 23, 1983, and "At the Butler," May 25, 1985, done in connection with Erbe's exhibition at the Butler Institute.
Biographical / Historical:
Trompe l'oeil painter; Union City, N.J.; self-taught artist.
Provenance:
Donated by Gary Erbe in 1991, 2002 and 2006.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Gary T. Erbe : trompe l'oeil paintings and dimensional compositions : an exhibition / organized by the Montclair Art Museum in association with the Westmoreland Museum of Art, the Canton Art Institute, the Woodmere Art Museum
Gary T. Erbe : 25 years in retrospect / an exhibition organized by the Butler Institute of American Art in association with New Britain Museum of American Art ..
John R. Grabach, century man / curated by Gary T. Erbe ; organized by The Butler Institute of American Art, OH, in conjunction with The Morris Museum, NJ ... [et al.]
