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.
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Researchers interested in accessing born-digital records or audiovisual recordings in this collection must use access copies. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Collection 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.
Collection Citation:
Joyce J. Scott papers, 1914-2019. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Henry Luce Foundation.
Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America Search this
Type:
Sound recordings
Interviews
Citation:
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with June Schwarcz, 2001 January 21. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
An interview of June Schwarcz conducted 2001 January 21, by Arline M. Fisch, for the Archives of American Art's Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America, in Schwarcz's home and studio, Sausalito, California.
Schwarcz speaks of her family background; early interest in color and form; studies at Pratt Institute; working in as a package designer and free-lance designer for department stores such as Macy's in New York and Hochschild-Kohn in Baltimore; living in Chicago, Brazil, and Denver; learning about enamels from a group of "housewives" in Denver; reading Kenneth Bates's book [Enameling: Principles and Practice] "as if it were the Bible"; visiting America House and meeting Dominick Maillard; settling in Sausalito, California, in 1954; the comparison of natural erosion in streams and rocks to etched surfaces; sources of inspiration including fog, folk art, African art, ancient Chinese ceramics, the Japanese aesthetic, ethnic clothing and fabrics, pleats and folds, and works by Isamu Noguchi, Constantin Brancusi, Morris Louis, and Mark Rothko; the practice of working on several pieces at one time; the influence of two books, Santayana's "The Sense of Beauty" and Junichiro Tanizaki's "In Praise of Shadows;" her desire to "making things that are beautiful"; her husband's support and assistance with tools, materials, and techniques; the significance of various tools and equipment; developing forms through paper patterns; the body as vessel; color as "personality"; technical pitfalls of the enameling process; technical problems of electroplating; the 1974 World Craft Conference in which Stanley Letchzin presented his findings on electroforming; meeting Letchzin and comparing processes; the difficulties in selling work; the lack of an audience; teaching workshops at Arrowmont and Vail; aversion to teaching and commissions; relationships with Susan Cummins Gallery, Bellas Artes Gallery, Japonesque Gallery, De Vera Gallery, Sybaris Gallery, and Mobilia Gallery; travel to Europe and Japan; honors and awards; and interest in transparent enamels. Schwarcz also describes her use of basse taille, plique-à-jour, electroplating, electroforming, brush plating, raku, scotchbrite, and Mi-Tique (patina solutions). She also recalls development of each piece in her retrospective catalog, "June Schwarcz : forty years, forty pieces" (San Francisco Craft & Folk Art Museum, 1998) and concludes the interview by discussing five current pieces in progress.
Biographical / Historical:
June Schwarcz (1918-2015) was an enamaler from Sausalito, California. Arline M. Fisch (1931-) is a metalsmith from San Diego, California.
General:
Originally recorded as 4 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 7 digital wav files. Duration is 3 hr., 36 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.
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Researchers interested in accessing born-digital records or audiovisual recordings in this collection must use access copies. Contact References Services for more information.
Collection 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.
Collection Citation:
Garry Knox Bennett papers, 1917-2017. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
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.
Gold, faience (ceramic frit amulet fragment, Egyptian, 7th-5th century BC), turquoise, carnelian, ebony, silver (brooch); mixed media on slate, joined and painted wood, Plexiglass (holder)
Dimensions:
H x W x D: 38.4 × 31.1 × 6.5 cm (15 1/8 × 12 1/4 × 2 9/16 in.)
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
Researchers interested in accessing audiovisual records in this collection must use access copies. Contact References Services for more information.
Collection 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.
Collection Citation:
Ramona Solberg papers, 1926-2007. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Use of archival audiovisual recordings and born-digital records with no duplicate copies requires advance notice.
Collection Citation:
Roy De Forest papers, 1916-2015. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by Gerald and Bente Buck. Funding for the digitization of this collection was provided by Gloria Marchant.
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is available in the Archives' Washington, D.C. research facility. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Collection 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.
Collection Citation:
Jamison Thomas Gallery records, 1940-1996, bulk 1980-1996. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Smithsonian Institution's Collections Care and Preservation Fund.
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
Researchers interested in accessing audiovisual recordings in this collection must use access copies. Contact References Services for more information.
Collection 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.
Collection Citation:
Irena Brynner papers, circa 1914-2003. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
The processing of this collection received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care and Preservation Fund, administered by the National Collections Program and the Smithsonian Collections Advisory Committee.
