Archives of American Art

Oral history interview with Merry Renk

Summary

Collection ID:
AAA.renk01
Creators:
Renk, Merry, 1921-2012
Fisch, Arline M.
Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America
Dates:
2001 January 18-19
Languages:
English
.
Physical Description:
49 Pages
Transcript
1 Item
sound file (4 min. 15 sec.) Audio excerpt
digital
Repository:

Scope and Contents

Scope and Contents
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.
Scope and Contents
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

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.

Administration

Sponsor
Funding for this interview was provided by the Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America. 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.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
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.

Digital Content


More Information

General

General
Originally recorded on 3 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 6 digital wav files. Duration is 3 hr., 9 min.


Keywords

Keywords table of terms and types.
Keyword Terms Keyword Types
Enamel and enameling Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Enamelers -- California -- San Francisco -- Interviews Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Jewelry making Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Jewelers -- California -- San Francisco -- Interviews Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Painters -- California -- San Francisco -- Interviews Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Sculptors -- United States -- Interviews Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Sculptors -- California -- Interviews Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Women artists Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Decorative arts Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Interviews Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Sound recordings Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Women jewelers Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Women sculptors Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Women painters Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Albers, Josef Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Asawa, Ruth Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Bates, Kenneth F. (Kenneth Francis), 1904-1994 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Brancusi, Constantin, 1876-1957 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Brynner, Irena Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Cunningham, Imogen, 1883-1976 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Curtis, Earle Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
De Patta, Margaret, 1903-1964 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Godfrey, Mary Jo Slick Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Guermonprez, Trude, 1910-1976 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Hall, Doris. Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Nordness, Lee Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Oliver, Olive Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Tawney, Lenore Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Tajiri, Shinkichi, 1923-2009 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
750 Studio Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
American Craft Council Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Metal Arts Guild Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Mobilia Gallery Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Institute of Design (Chicago, Ill.) -- Students Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
School of Industrial Design (Trenton, N.J.) -- Students Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
University of California, Berkeley. Department of Art -- Faculty Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid

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