Oral history interview with Merry Renk
odd: label: General
content: Originally recorded on 3 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 6 digital wav files. Duration is 3 hr., 9 min.
name: label: Interviewee
content: Renk, Merry, 1921-2012
label: Interviewer
content: Fisch, Arline M.
label: Creator
content: Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America
label: Names
content: 750 Studio
label: Names
content: American Craft Council
label: Names
content: Institute of Design (Chicago, Ill.) -- Students
label: Names
content: Metal Arts Guild
label: Names
content: Mobilia Gallery
label: Names
content: Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America
label: Names
content: School of Industrial Design (Trenton, N.J.) -- Students
label: Names
content: University of California, Berkeley. Department of Art -- Faculty
label: Names
content: Albers, Josef
label: Names
content: Asawa, Ruth
label: Names
content: Bates, Kenneth F. (Kenneth Francis), 1904-1994
label: Names
content: Brancusi, Constantin, 1876-1957
label: Names
content: Brynner, Irena
label: Names
content: Cunningham, Imogen, 1883-1976
label: Names
content: Curtis, Earle
label: Names
content: De Patta, Margaret, 1903-1964
label: Names
content: Godfrey, Mary Jo Slick
label: Names
content: Guermonprez, Trude, 1910-1976
label: Names
content: Hall, Doris.
label: Names
content: Nordness, Lee
label: Names
content: Oliver, Olive
label: Names
content: Tajiri, Shinkichi, 1923-2009
label: Names
content: Tawney, Lenore
topic: label: Topic
content: Enamel and enameling
label: Topic
content: Enamelers -- California -- San Francisco -- Interviews
label: Topic
content: Jewelry making
label: Topic
content: Jewelers -- California -- San Francisco -- Interviews
label: Topic
content: Painters -- California -- San Francisco -- Interviews
label: Topic
content: Sculptors -- United States -- Interviews
label: Topic
content: Sculptors -- California -- Interviews
label: Topic
content: Women artists
label: Topic
content: Decorative arts
label: Topic
content: Women jewelers
label: Topic
content: Women sculptors
label: Topic
content: Women painters
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: 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.
creator: label: Interviewee
content: Renk, Merry, 1921-2012
label: Interviewer
content: Fisch, Arline M.
label: Creator
content: Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: 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.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 49 Pages (Transcript)
label: Extent
content: 1 Item (sound file (4 min. 15 sec.) Audio excerpt, digital)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 2001 January 18-19
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.renk01
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Pages
label: Type
content: Interviews
label: Type
content: Sound recordings
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Interviews
label: Genre/Form
content: Sound recordings
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: 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.
label: Scope and Contents
content: 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.