Description
The Arline Fisch Ephemera Collection contains 36 printed items featuring the work of the American jewelry artist, Arline M.
Fisch. The collection includes exhibition postcards, announcements, advertisements, newsletters, pamphlets, and one booklet.
The artist collected these materials from 1965-2017.
Background
Born in Brooklyn, in 1931, Fisch was inspired by childhood trips to the Met and other museums, as well as the theatrical,
musical, and architectural history of New York City. Fisch studied painting at Skidmore College and received a BS in Art in
1952. Two years later, she earned an MA in Art from the University of Illinois, Urbana, where she first learned to make jewelry.
An internationally-renowned artist, Fisch was declared a Living Treasure of California in 1985; and her work is included in
many public collections, including the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Museum of Arts and Design in New York and
the Renwick Gallery in Washington, D.C. In 1956, Fisch was awarded a Fulbright Grant to study jewelry and modern design in
Copenhagen for 10 months. Greatly influenced by the Danish approach to metalsmithing, which stressed precise workmanship,
simplicity of form, and mastery of materials, Fisch gained the technical expertise in jewelry design and fabrication that
she so desired. She studied weaving with the American textile designer Jack Lenor Larsen at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts
in Maine in 1959, which informed her later experimentation with textile techniques in metal. Teaching positions would occupy
Fisch for nearly 45 years: a two-year stint at Wheaton College, followed by four years at Skidmore College, until 1961, when
Fisch was asked to establish and head-up a newly created jewelry program at San Diego State University, a position she held
until retiring in 2000. Arline Fisch continues to create and exhibit her work and discuss her artistic practice in public
forums.
Arline Fisch's work is part of various collections including Mingei International Museum.
Availability
No interpretive restriction is placed on material. Separate permissions are to be obtained for publishing material. Property
rights to the physical object belong to Mingei International Museum. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine
who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where Mingei International
Museum does not hold the copyright. Mingei International Museum reserves the right to restrict access to any records held
by the Special Collections Archives.