Papers of Trude Guermonprez, 1947-1976

Summary

Creators:

Guermonprez, Trude, 1910-1976

Abstract:

Contains biographical material, writings and speeches, correspondence, photographs of the artist and her work, workshop and seminar notes documenting the professional career of Trude Guermonprez as an artist and art educator.

Extent:

1.67 linear feet (3 boxes)

Language:

Collection materials are mostly in English; some correspondence is in Dutch.

Background

Scope and content:

Contains biographical material, correspondence, writings and speeches, photographs, slides and negatives of Guermonprez and her artistic works. Includes materials related to Guermonprez's career as artist and educator. The earliest materials date to 1947 with Guermonprez's arrival in the United States and cover the remainder of her life to 1976. Guermonprez's artistic philosophy and development are well represented by this collection.

Biographical / historical:

Trude Guermonprez was born Gertrud Jalowetz in 1910 to Austrian parents in Danzig, Germany. Both parents were involved in the arts and Guermonprez described her childhood home as a place where all forms of art were an integral part of life.

As a student at the School of Fine and Applied Arts in Halle-Saale, Germany—noted for the many Bauhaus-trained artists on its faculty—Guermonprez began textile studies and soon discovered a special affinity for weaving. After receiving her Diploma of Arts in 1933 and then completing further studies at the Textile Engineering School in Berlin, she accepted a position at the Dutch handweaving production studio, Het Paapje. From 1934-1947, she created rugs, upholstery fabrics, and other custom textiles for Het Paapje. During this period she married a young photographer, Paul Guermonprez, who later died during the war.

Her family immigrated to the United States in 1933 and settled in North Carolina where both parents taught at the innovative Black Mountain College. Following the death of her father in 1947, Guermonprez joined her mother and sister and also began to teach at Black Mountain, at the invitation of Josef and Anni Albers. In 1949 she was invited to teach at the Pond Farm Workshops in Guerneville, California, a Bauhaus-inspired school and artist community founded by Marguerite Wildenhain, a potter and former teacher at the School of Fine and Applied Arts in Halle-Saale.

In 1951 Guermonprez married John Elsesser, a San Francisco builder-craftsman whom she met while at the Pond Farm Workshops. They settled in San Francisco and Guermonprez taught part-time at local art schools such as the California School of Fine Arts (now the San Francisco Art Institute) and the California College of Arts and Crafts (now California College of the Arts) in Oakland.

In the 1950's, Guermonprez began a period of great activity that combined both weaving and teaching, and which would last for the next two decades until her death in 1976. She was a gifted teacher who has been cited as a formative influence on such contemporary fiber artists as Barbara Shawcroft and Kay Sekimachi Stocksdale. She joined the faculty of CCAC full-time in 1954 and served as the Chair of the Crafts Department from 1960-1976. She was frequently invited to give public lectures and workshops and her lecture notes from this period illuminate her views on teaching the creative process, particularly through the discipline of weaving.

She continued to produce custom textiles, such as rugs, upholstery fabrics, tapestries, "space hangings," and also to design prototypes for industrial manufacture. She frequently collaborated with architects to create special textiles for building interiors. Her art and craft continued to develop and she regularly experimented with new techniques and materials. Some of her later works, for example, weave text into the fabric or create painted tapestries, which she called "textile graphics," using personal imagery.

The American Institute of Architects awarded the Craftsmanship Medal to Guermonprez in 1970. She was made Fellow of the Collegium of Craftsmen, American Crafts Council, in 1975. Trude Guermonprez died in 1976, in San Francisco, California.

Chronology

Date	Event
1910	Born Gertrud E. Jalowetz in Danzig (then Germany) to Austrian parents.
1930	Enrolled at the School of Art, Cologne, to study painting.
1931	Entered School of Fine and Applied Arts, Halle-Saale. Met Marguerite Wildenhain.
1933	Received Diploma of Arts from School of Fine and Applied Arts. Received diploma from professional training program at Textile Engineering School, Berlin.
1934-1947	Took position at Het Paapje, in The Netherlands. Married Paul Guermonprez.
1944	Began to teach for an adult education program, the Volkschogeschool, in The Netherlands.
1947	Guermonprez immigrated to the United States, settling in North Carolina.
1947-1949	Taught at Black Mountain College in North Carolina.
1949-1952	Taught the weaving workshop at the Pond Farm Workshops in Guerneville, California. Took teaching position at the California School of Fine Arts (later known as the San Francisco Art Institute).
1951	Married John Elsesser and settled in San Francisco.
1954-1976	Became full-time faculty member at CCAC.
1960-1976	Served as Chair of Crafts Department, CCAC.
1961-1965	Produced series of works referred to as "space hangings" - three-dimensional structures that depart from traditional tapestry weaving (e.g., "Arachne," 1963).
1966-1969	Completed Notes to John (1966) and Birth of Round (1968-69) which experimented with incorporating text and symbols into the woven fabric.
1968	Commissioned to weave Sanctuary curtain for Temple Beth Am, Los Altos.
1970	Awarded the Craftsmanship Medal by the American Institute of Architects. Began work on first of the "textile graphics," combining poetry and personal imagery.
1975	Fellow, Collegium of Craftsmen, American Crafts Council.
1976	Guermonprez died, San Francisco, California.
1982	Posthumous exhibition, The Tapestries of Trude Guermonprez, at the Oakland Museum of California.

Information for the biography and chronology of Trude Guermonprez was drawn from the publication, The Tapestries of Trude Guermonprez, published by the Oakland Museum of California in 1982. Additional information was provided by Guermonprez's vitae and writings.

Acquisition information:

Consult repository.

Physical location:

Please contact the Paul Mills Library and Archives of California Art, Oakland Museum of California, for information regarding the location of this collection.

Location of this collection:

Oakland Museum of California

1000 Oak Street

Oakland, CA 94607, US

Contact:

510-318-8400

research@museumca.org

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