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 midway: Crowd merry-go-round, barker ; Outside fun house, animal barker ; Ferris wheel ; Motodrome barker ; Roll-o-plane ; Strange people barker ; Laughing clown ; Interviews
Local Numbers:
FW-ASCH-7RR-0755
General:
Folkways 6126
CDR copy FW-ASCH-7RR-0755 is a "dubbed master" of side A of the Folkways record entitled "Sounds of Carnival" (FX6126). No other information is on the tape box; however the record album liner notes state that "These recordings are from tapes made by students of the Chicago Institute of Design, who did a documentary film of the Royal American midway." I have used the track names as they appear on the album (with exception of unidentifed 15- second segment). The date of the recording isn't mentioned, but the record was first copyrighted in 1955.
Restrictions:
Restrictions on access. No duplication allowed listening and viewing for research purposes only.
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections. Please visit our website to learn more about submitting a request. The Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections make no guarantees concerning copyright or other intellectual property restrictions. Other usage conditions may apply; please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for more information.
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Robert O. Preusser, 1991 January-October. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Topic:
Art -- Study and teaching -- Massachusetts Search this
Art -- Study and teaching -- Texas -- Houston Search this
An interview of Robert O. Preusser conducted 1991 January-October, by Robert F. Brown, for the Archives of American Art.
Preusser discusses the establishment of an art department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his involvement with it first as a visiting lecturer and then as a professor of visual design. He speaks often of Gyorgy Kepes, whom he had known at the Institute of Design, Chicago, in the early 1940s, and who recruited him to M.I.T; he also discusses other faculty members, like Minor White, professor of photography. He gives attention to his courses at M.I.T., 1954-1985; early computer design projects by students; his writings on the importance of visual arts to technology; and his supervision of educational programs at M.I.T.'s Center for Advanced Visual Studies, 1974-85. An extensive part of the interview is held in an exhibition of Preusser's work at the M.I.T. Museum (April 4, 1991), discussing in particular his incorporation of various plastic and metallic materials in his works from the 1960s and 1970s. He speaks as well of the importance of his inclusion in group exhibitions at the Downtown Gallery, New York, ("Newcomers," 1951, and "Recent Arrivals, 1952) and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston ("Collectors Exhibition," 1954), and of his exhibitions at the Boris Mirski Gallery and the Joan Peterson Gallery, Boston, during the 1950s and 1960s, and at various galleries in Houston during the 1980s. Other topics of discussion are his early art instruction in his native Houston, Texas, by the painter Ola McNeill Davidson, 1930-39; further training in painting and design at the Institute of Design, Chicago, 1930-39, 1941-42; Newcomb School of Art at Tulane University, 1940-41; service with a camouflage unit in the U.S. Army, 1942-45; classes at the Art Center School, Los Angeles, 1946-47; his teaching at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1947-54, and at the University of Houston, 1951-54, and his role as co-director of the Houston Contemporary Arts Association, 1948-50.
Biographical / Historical:
Robert Preusser (1919-1992) was a painter and art instructor from Houston, Texas and Cambridge, Massachusetts.
General:
Poor sound quality. The first 35 minutes of the interview have been lost.
Originally recorded on 1 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 7 digital wav files. Duration is 4 hr., 18 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.
Topic:
Art -- Study and teaching -- Massachusetts Search this
Art -- Study and teaching -- Texas -- Houston Search this
Art Schools in California Oral History Project Search this
Type:
Sound recordings
Interviews
Citation:
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Emerson Woelffer, 1999 March 26. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Topic:
Art -- Study and teaching -- California Search this
School of Industrial Design (Trenton, N.J.) Search this
University of California, Berkeley. Department of Art Search this
Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America Search this
Type:
Interviews
Sound recordings
Citation:
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Merry Renk, 2001 January 18-19. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
An interview of Emerson Woelffer conducted 1999 March 26, by Paul Karlstrom, for the Archives of American Art's Art Schools in California Project, in Woelffer's studio/home, Los Angeles, California.
Woelffer briefly discusses his own student experience at the Art Institute of Chicago (1933-1937), and focuses more on his teaching at Moholy Nagy's Institute of Design in Chicago, Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center (1954-1960) where he was head of the fine arts department, and the many years in Los Angeles as an educator at Chouinard Art School (now California Art Institute) and Otis Art Institute (now Otis College of Art and Design). Woelffer recalls Chouinard students who were the most "far out," among them Larry Bell, Joe Goode, and Ed Ruscha. He credited the free-wheeling stimulation of Los Angeles itself as the source for these experimental artists who were different from those in Chicago. In his final remarks, Woelffer emphasized the importance of drawing to the training of an artist.
Biographical / Historical:
Emerson Woelffer (1914-2003) was a painter and educator from Los Angeles, California. One of the leading senior modernists working in Los Angeles, Woelffer was invited in 1960, by Mitch Wilder, to head the fine arts department at Chouinard Art Institute where he taught until it was moved to Valencia and transformed into California Institute of the Arts (CalArts).
General:
Originally recorded on 2 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 4 digital wav files. Duration is 1 hr., 50 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.
Restrictions:
Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.
Occupation:
Art teachers -- California -- Los Angeles -- Interviews Search this
Topic:
Art -- Study and teaching -- California Search this
Function:
Art Schools -- California -- Los Angeles
Genre/Form:
Sound recordings
Interviews
Sponsor:
Funding for the transcription of this interview is provided by the Bente and Gerald E. Buck Collection. Funding for the digital preservation of this interview was provided by a grant from the Save America's Treasures Program of the National Park Service.
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Hubert Leckie and Alexander Giampietro, 1992 Feb. 13. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Topic:
Art -- Study and teaching -- Washington (D.C.) Search this
Art -- Study and teaching -- Illinois -- Chicago Search this
The papers of Massachusetts-based designer, sculptor, painter, filmmaker, and educator Richard E. Filipowski measure 4.1 linear feet and date from circa 1940 to 1998. The papers document his career through biographical material, correspondence, writings, teaching files, project files, printed material, photographic material, artwork, and a sound recording.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of Massachusetts-based designer, sculptor, painter, filmmaker, and educator Richard E. Filipowski measure 4.1 linear feet and date from circa 1940 to 1998. The papers document his career through biographical material, correspondence, writings, teaching files, project files, printed material, photographic material, artwork, and a sound recording.
Biographical material consists of a Bauhaus questionnaire, marriage license, various identification documents, Canadian selective service documents, resumes, and other miscellaneous material.
Correspondence mostly relates to Filipowski's teaching and sculpture, including letters from Herbert M. Agoos, Lawrence B. Anderson, Pietro Belluschi, Stuart Davis, Garrett Eckbo, Walter Gropius, Gyorgy Kepes, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, and others.
Writings consist of Filipowski's lectures on art, notes, and other material. There is also one sound recording of a lecture.
Teaching files are mostly from the Institute of Design, Harvard University, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The series includes syllabi, faculty meeting minutes, notes and drafts for lectures, school catalogs and schedules, and files on student exhibitions and projects, including two films, Do Not Disturb and Hearts and Arrows.
Project files contain correspondence, business records, printed material, sketches and photographs on commissions in architecture, sculpture and furniture design. There are also files on programs which Filipowski assisted in planning and organizing, including the Boston Art Festival and a few exhibitions.
Printed material consists of exhibition catalogs, announcements, and clippings mostly about Filipowski.
Photographs, slides, and negatives are of Filipowski and others, sculpture, furniture designs, and works of art by his students from Harvard and MIT.
Art work includes sketches, sketchbooks, cardboard studies for sculptures, and Christmas card designs.
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged as eight series.
Series 1: Biographical Material, 1941-1974 (Box 1; 7 folders)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1941-1998 (Box 1, OV 6; 0.6 linear feet)
Series 3: Writings, 1951-1969 (Box 1; 0.4 linear feet)
Series 4: Teaching Files, 1943-1970 (Box 2, OV 6; 0.7 linear feet)
Series 5: Project Files, 1944-1976 (Boxes 2-3, OV 6-7; 0.6 linear feet)
Series 6: Printed Material, 1941-1989 (Box 3, OV 7; 0.4 linear feet)
Series 7: Photographic Material, circa 1940-1989 (Boxes 3-4, OV 8; 0.7 linear feet)
Series 8: Artwork, circa 1940-circa 1985 (Boxes 4-5, OV 6, 8; 0.7 linear feet)
Biographical / Historical:
Richard E. Filipowski (1923-2008) was a designer, sculptor, painter, filmmaker and educator mostly based in Massachusetts. Richard Filipowski was born in Poland in 1923 and he and his family moved to Ontario, Canada in 1927. He studied under Laszlo Moholy-Nagy at the Institute of Design (formerly known as the New Bauhaus) from 1942 to 1946 and taught there after graduating, 1946-1950. Filipowski was invited by Walter Gropius to organize and teach Design Fundamentals at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design where he stayed until 1952. He then taught as an Associate Professor of Visual Design in the Department of Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1953-1989.
Filipowski also took on numerous commissions for sculptures and artwork. One especially noteworthy commission was a sculpture for an Ark created for the Temple B'Rith Kodesh in Rochester, New York. The sculpture was intricately wrought and welded from bronze and silver alloys and it remained a source of inspiration for other later sculptures and commissions which had a similar style of metal-working. Many of his works were also marked by his Bauhaus training. Filipowski passed away in 2008.
Related Materials:
Also found in the Archives of American Art is an oral history interview with Richard E. Filipowski conducted by Roger Brown on September 25, 1989 through March 14, 1990.
Provenance:
The papers were donated to the Archives of American Art by Richard E. Filipowski in multiple installments from 1989 to 1998.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center.
An interview with Hubert Leckie and Alexander Giampietro conducted 1992 Feb. 13, by Liza Kirwin, for the Archives of American Art.
Leckie and Giampietro recall their student days at the New Bauhaus in Chicago (fall 1937- summer 1938) and the teaching methods of Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Alexander Archipenko, Hin Bredendieck, Gyorgy Kepes, David Dushkin, and others there; the New Bauhaus approach to design; the closing of the school in 1938 and its reincarnation in the Institute of Design; Leckie's application of New Bauhaus principles in his teaching at American University and the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in Washington, D.C.; ICA exhibitions and programs; both teaching at the ICA from 1948 to 1951; their impressions of ICA director Robert Richman; the impact of the ICA on the Washington, D.C. art scene; and the exchange between the ICA, American University, the Washington Workshop Center for the Arts, Catholic University, and other schools. Leckie also discusses his role as the designer of the Archives of American Art Journal.
Biographical / Historical:
Hubert Leckie (1913-1993) was an art instructor and designer in Washington, D.C. Leckie is a former art instructor and was the designer of the Archives of American Art Journal. Alexander Giampietro (1912-2010) was a professor of art at Catholic University.
General:
Originally recorded on 1 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 2 digital wav files. Duration is 1 hr., 34 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.
Occupation:
Art teachers -- Training of -- Illinois -- Chicago Search this
The papers of Illinois glass artist Michael Higgins measure 1.2 linear feet and date from 1949 to 1973. The collection documents Higgins's role in founding and furthering craft organizations in the Midwest through correspondence, professional files, exhibition records, transcripts, organizational files for several craft organizations including Midwest Designer-Craftsmen, and printed materials.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of Illinois glass artist Michael Higgins measure 1.2 linear feet and date from 1949 to 1973. The collection documents Higgins's role in founding and furthering craft organizations in the mid-west.
Records include correspondence regarding exhibitions and craft organization activities. Professional files contain drawings, photographs of the exhibition Contemporary Living (1952), exhibition records, transcripts for panel talks, a Kenneth Bates show review typescript, and organizational files for the American Craftsmen's Council, Midwest Designer-Craftsmen, and a few other organizations. Also found are printed materials consisting of clippings and exhibition catalogs.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 3 series.
Series 1: Correspondence, 1951-1967 (0.4 linear feet; Box 1)
Series 2: Professional Files, 1951-1969 (0.5 linear feet; Box 1)
Series 3: Printed Materials, 1949-1973 (0.3 linear feet; Boxes 1-2)
Biographical / Historical:
Michael Higgins (1908-1999) was a glass artist in Riverside, Illinois.
Higgins was born in London, England and attended the London Central School of Arts and Crafts. He emigrated to the United States in 1939 becoming the head of Visual Design at the Chicago Institute of Design after World War II. There, he met his wife Frances Stewart, who was one of his students. They married in 1948 and opened their own glass studio outside of Chicago in Riverside.
In the early 1950s, Higgins became involved with a special crafts exhibit at the Chicago Art Institute and an eventual spin-off organization, the Midwest Designer-Craftsmen. The organization was interested in developing exhibitions, markets, and professional associations for craft professionals in the Midwest. Higgins was one of the main forces behind the organization and the body which followed it, the Illinois Craftsmen's Council.
Higgins died in Riverside in 1999.
Provenance:
The collection was donated in 1975 by Michael Higgins.
Restrictions:
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
The New vision : forty years of photography at the Institute of Design ; edited with interviews by Charles Traub, essay by John Grimes ; photographs by students and teachers of the Institute of Design
