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Smithsonian Libraries
Trude Guermonprez collection, 1950-1976
Summary
- Collection ID:
- SIL-CH.1993-121-118
- Creators:
-
Guermonprez, Trude, 1910-1976
- Dates:
-
1950-1976
- Languages:
-
Undetermined.
- Physical Description:
-
3 Boxes
- Repository:
This archive includes interesting documents related to Trude Guermonprez's life and work as a weaver. The archives are especially related to the designer's work for her major clients, like Holland America Line and Owens Corning Fiberglass; other pieces in this archive are related to Guermonprez's work for custom curtains made for major synagogues and her designs, interior fabrics, screens and rugs realized in conjunction with J.P. Oud, Architects Associated, New York; Eric Mendelsohn, Warren Callister, etc. The correspondence and the photographs in this collection provide insight into the designer's private life. Included in this collection are press articles, brochures, correspondence, postcards, photographs, color slides, notebooks, textiles, and textile wood patterns.
Arrangement note
Arrangement note
Unprocessed; Included in this collection are press articles, brochures, correspondence, postcards, photographs, color slides, notebooks, textiles, and textile wood patterns.
Biographical/Historical note
Biographical/Historical note
Trude Guermonprez is an experienced weaver as well as a designer, artist, craftsman and teacher. She has executed architectural commissions and has done interior design for industry. Her work is of great variety in character and form. Guermonprez started weaving in Halle, Germany at the Municipal School of Arts and Crafts. Six years of weaving in a Dutch rug shop preceded her coming to America, at the invitation of Anni Albers, to teach at Black Mountain College, and later to northern California to join her friend Marguerite Wildenhain, at Pond Farm Workshops in a producing-teaching cooperative. She served as Chairman of the Craft Department at The California College of Arts and Crafts. Though she designed fabrics for New York textile manufacturers, her works were mainly custom produced for architects and individuals. In 1970 she was honored the Craftsmanship Medal from the American Institute of Architects.
Guermonprez published works in Art and Architecture, 1949; Shuttlecraft Weaving Magazine, 1957; and Research in Crafts, 1961.
She also participated in the following exhibitions: de Young Museum; American Wallhangings, London; Oakland Art Museum; Pasadena Art Museum; U.S. Information Agency State Department Show, traveling Europe exhibition; "Craftsmen of the West", "Fabrics International" and "10 American Weavers" at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. In 2000 at Staatliche Galerie Moritzburg Halle Landeskunstmuseum, Halle (Salle), Germany: "From Bauhaus to the Pacific: The Impact of Emigration on Marguerite Wildenhain and Trude Guermonprez".
Administration
Immediate Source of Acquisition note
All materials were donated to the museum by Mr. Eric and Mrs. Sylvia Elsesser in 1993.
Using the Collection
Conditions Governing Access note
Unprocessed; access is limited. Permission of Library Director required. Policy.
More Information
Location of Other Archival Materials Note
Location of Other Archival Materials Note
The North Carolina State Archives web site has material in its collection related to Guermonprez as a teacher and artist-in-residence at Black Mountain College.
Location of Other Archival Materials Note
The Archives of American Art hasoral history interviews of Merry Renk conducted 2001 Jan. 18-19 by Arline M. Fisch for Nanette L. Laitman's, Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America. Guermonprez is only mentioned.
Bibliography
Bibliography
The tapestries of Trude Guermonprez : The Oakland Art Museum, November 13-December 26, 1982. Oakland, Calif. : Oakland Museum, 1982.
Other Finding Aids note
Other Finding Aids note
No finding aid available.
Keywords
Smithsonian Libraries
P.O. Box 37012
NMAH 1041, MRC 672
Washington, DC 20013-7012
AskaLibrarian@si.edu