Jim Melchert
{{Short description|American artist (1930–2023)}}
{{Infobox artist
| name = Jim Melchert
| birth_name = James Frederick Melchert
| birth_date = {{birth date|1930|12|2}}
| birth_place = New Bremen, Ohio, U.S.
| death_date = {{death date and age|2023|6|1|1930|12|2}}
| death_place = Oakland, California, U.S.
| field = Ceramics, fine art
| training = Princeton University,
University of Chicago,
University of California, Berkeley
| spouse = Mary Ann Hostetler
| children = 3
| movement = Funk art
}}
Jim Melchert (né James Frederick Melchert; December 2, 1930 – June 1, 2023){{Cite news |date=June 15, 2023 |title=Jim Melchert, artist and beloved UC Berkeley professor, dies at 92 |work=San Francisco Chronicle |url=https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/jim-melchert-sculpture-obituary-18148785.php |issn=1932-8672}} was an American visual artist, arts administer, and professor. He is known for his ceramics and sculptures. Melchert was part of the Funk art movement.{{Cite web |last=Thorpe |first=Renee Melchert |date=2023-06-08 |title=Remembering Jim Melchert, celebrated ceramics artist, teacher, and expert winker |url=http://oaklandside.org/2023/06/08/obituary-jim-melchert-ceramics-artist-berkeley-oakland/ |access-date=2023-09-12 |website=The Oaklandside |language=en-US}}
Early life and education
James Frederick Melchert was born on December 2, 1930, in New Breman, Ohio.{{Cite web |last=Mizota |first=Sharon |date=2023-06-05 |title=Appreciation: Beloved artist and professor Jim Melchert taught us the value of paying attention |url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2023-06-05/appreciation-artist-ceramics-professor-uc-berkeley-jim-melchert |access-date=2023-09-12 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US |issn=2165-1736}} His parents were Hulda Egli and Rev. John Carl Melchert, and he had two older brothers. He graduated in 1948 from Mansfield High School in Mansfield, Ohio.{{Cite web |date=August 3, 2023 |title=Remembering: Jim Melchert |url=https://www.craftcouncil.org/post/remembering-jim-melchert |access-date=2023-09-12 |website=American Craft Council |language=en}}
After earning an AB in art history from Princeton University in 1952, he moved to Japan where he taught English for four years after he declared himself a conscientious objector to the Korean War. Upon returning to the United States, he earned postgraduate degrees in painting at the University of Chicago (1957), and studied ceramics under Peter Voulkos at the University of California, Berkeley (1961).{{Cite book |last=Marter |first=Joan M. |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sPGdBxzaWj0C&pg=PA432 |title=The Grove Encyclopedia of American Art |date=2011 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-533579-8 |pages=432 |language=en |chapter=Peter Voulkos}}
Career
Throughout his career, Melchert worked with many media, including painting, drawing, performance art, film, and most notably sculpture and ceramics.{{Cite web |last=Maloney |first=Patricia |date=2021-10-04 |title=Jim Melchert's Gallery 16 Retrospective Cements His Enduring Influence |url=https://www.kqed.org/arts/13904170/jim-melchert-gallery-16-review |access-date=2023-09-12 |website=KQED |language=en-us}} His unique process involves breaking down, drawing on, and reassembling ceramic tiles before painting the new constructions with glaze.{{Cite web |title=Jim Melchert |url=https://americanart.si.edu/artist/jim-melchert-27561 |access-date=2021-10-23 |website=Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) |language=en-US}}
He taught at San Francisco Art Institute from 1961 to 1965; and the University of California, Berkeley from 1965 to 1992. Theresa Hak Kyung Cha was one of his notable students at UC Berkeley.{{Cite book |last=Marter |first=Joan M. |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sPGdBxzaWj0C&pg=PA433 |title=The Grove Encyclopedia of American Art |date=2011 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-533579-8 |pages=433 |language=en |chapter=Theresa Hak Kyung Cha}}
From 1977 until 1981, Melchert served as the director of Visual Arts Program for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).{{Cite web |last=Lewallen |first=Constance |date=2020-12-14 |title=JIM MELCHERT with Constance Lewallen |url=https://brooklynrail.org/2020/12/art/JIM-MELCHERT-with-Constance-Lewallen |access-date=2023-09-12 |website=The Brooklyn Rail |language=en-US}} From 1984 until 1988, he was the director of the American Academy in Rome.
Death and legacy
Melchert died at his Oakland, California, home on June 1, 2023, at the age of 92, of complications from a stroke he suffered in April.{{cite web |last1=Whiting |first1=Sam |title=Jim Melchert, conceptual and ceramic artist and beloved UC Berkeley professor, dies at 92 |url=https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/jim-melchert-sculpture-obituary-18148785.php |website=San Francisco Chronicle |date=15 June 2023 |access-date=June 15, 2023}} He had three children.
As part of the Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America, Melchert donated his papers to the Smithsonian’s Archive of American Arts in 2004 and 2019–2021.{{Cite web |title=James Melchert papers, circa 1949-2021 |url=https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/james-melchert-papers-11162 |access-date=2021-10-23 |website=Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution |language=en}} His work is held by over two dozen collections, including the Rhode Island School of Design Museum, The Museum of Arts and Design and Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Collections
- San Francisco Museum of Modern Art{{cite web |title=Melchert, Jim |url=https://www.sfmoma.org/artist/Jim_Melchert/ |website=SFMOMA |access-date=23 October 2021}}
- Metropolitan Museum of Art{{Cite web |title=Untitled (Vessel) |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/828167?searchField=All&sortBy=Relevance&ft=Jim+Melchert&offset=0&rpp=20&pos=1 |access-date=2021-10-23 |website=The Met Museum}}
- Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam{{Cite web |last= |title=Changes - Jim Melchert |url=https://www.stedelijk.nl/en/collection/10528-jim-melchert-changes |access-date=2021-10-23 |website=Stedelijk.nl |language=en}}
- Los Angeles County Museum of Art{{Cite web |title=Black A |url=https://collections.lacma.org/node/188529 |access-date=2021-10-23 |website=LACMA Collections}}
Publications
- {{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RUlSHQAACAAJ |title=Nut Pot Bag or Clay Without Tears |publisher=University of California, Davis |others=Authored by Jim Adamson, Robert Arneson, Clayton Bailey, Fred Bauer, Maija Peeples-Bright, Victor Cicansky, David Gilhooly, Jim Melchert, Nicholas Stephens, Chris Unterseher, Peter Vandenberge, David Zack, Lowell Darling |year=1971 |type=artist book}}
- {{Cite book|last=Miller|first=Sequoia|title=The Ceramic Presence in Modern Art: Selections from the Linda Leonard Schlenger Collection and the Yale University Art Gallery|publisher=Yale University Art Gallery|year=2015|isbn=978-0300214406|language=English}}
- {{Cite book|last=Spinozzi|first=Adrienne|title=Shapes From Out of Nowhere: Ceramics from the Robert A. Ellison Jr. Collection|publisher=August Editions|year=2021|isbn=978-1947359062|language=English}}
References
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Category:People from New Bremen, Ohio
Category:Princeton University alumni
Category:San Francisco Art Institute faculty
Category:University of Chicago alumni
Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni