To start our celebration of the 70th anniversary of the Metal Arts Guild, we want to highlight the background of a few of its founding members, Merry Renk, Tex Geiling, Florence Resnikoff.

Photo: merry renk, Tex Geiling, Florence Resnikoff (2011, MAG 60th anniversary symposium).

Imogene Tex Gieling Founder Imogene “Tex” Gieling was a pioneer in the metal arts in the Bay area-an artist, educator, visionary, and philanthropist. During her career, which spanned decades, she influenced a generation of teachers in the field while continuing her own work in metals. Dedicated to the metals field in the Bay Area, she was a founder of MAG, and of the metals departments at the University of California Berkeley and San Francisco State University. To the Oakland Museum of California she endowed the Imogene Gieling Curator of Crafts and Decorative Arts position (held by Julie Muniz). Her jewelry has been widely exhibited in the United States and abroad, and she has completed numerous public and private commissions including one for the San Francisco Arts Commission. In 2003 she received the Honorary Member Award from the Society of North American Goldsmiths (SNAG) in recognition of a lifetime of achievements in the metal arts field.

“I really have tried to assess what it is that I love so about trying to make jewelry. First of all, it’s being able to handle all this incredibly beautiful material… What you do in the material should be something that is equal; the idea should be equal to the material itself. Your position as a jeweler is to enhance the material.” –Imogene (Tex) Gieling ***

More about Tex Gieling:

Transcript of interview with the Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Art

2004 SNAG Lifetime Achievement Award

*** [1] Jo Lauria, “Interview of Imogene Gieling”, November 21, 2008, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution taken from https://sfmcd.org/tex-gieling-sixty-years/

Photo 1: Brooch; 1990s. Sterling silver, 18k gold, druzy quartz, amethyst, diamonds.  Photography by Claire Konig. Courtesy of Tex Gieling.

Photo 2: Museum of Craft and Design exhibit in 2019

Photo 3 & 4: Necklaces, Mutual Art

Other Sources: 

https://sfmcd.org/tex-gieling-sixty-years/