1985 MFA Exhibit Fort Mason & Paul Kos, Fred Martin, Mark Alice Durant and more!

The 1985 MFA exhibition was the first that took place at Fort Mason’s Pier 2.  The cast of MFAs included this terrific array of artists such as Anne Veraldi, Richard Huntingdon, Thomasina De Maio, Elizabeth Ruane, Joan Thornton, Linda Wilkinson, Bonita Cohn, Francis Snyder, Ali Saif, Mei-Ling Hong, Donald Branscom, Mario Martinez, Chantal Decleve, Heungmo Kim, Joan Miller, Mark Durant, Kim Anno, Yee-Ping Wu Ching, Patricia Stroud, Ryung Kal, Jeremy Morgan, Pamela Tristram and Richard Owen.  And those are the only ones that showed up for the class photo on the roof!  Many more were not pictured such as Steve Briscoe, Lisa Bryant, Joyce Burstein, Kathy Clark, Lucas Felzmann, Susan Friedman, Frederick Hayes, Su-Chen Hung, Benito Jalbuena, Jock Sturges, Haruhiko Sugimoto, Karin Wikstrom, and many more. 

And a couple of images from the 1985 Opening at Fort Mason with Mark Alice Durant, cross armed amongst other students.  Paul Kos, Performance Video faculty member with Dean Fred Martin in front of Amy Nicholson’s paintings.

With permission, SFAA is re-posting the emails Jeff Gunderson Librarian/Archivist Anne Bremer Memorial Library has been sending out since March 2020. Please enjoy this magnificent archive.

1962 circa, Jim Melchert, SFAI, Studio 9 & 10

Jim Melchert (at far left) with British ceramicist Nick Stephens in Studio 9. Melchert had studied with Peter Voulkos at UC prior to teaching ceramics at SFAI in the early 1960s alongside Manuel Neri and Ron Nagle.  Jim went on to teach at UCB, then head the Visual Arts Program at the NEA, and worked at the Academy in Rome. (photo by student Susan Weber).

And for an interview with Jim Melchert by Connie Lewallen orchestrated yesterday by the Brooklyn Rail:  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmQ5ickBTbA

and a nice  2 minute video from SFMOMA with Jim talking about his 1971 piece Changing Walls in cahoots with Howard Fried:    https://www.sfmoma.org/watch/jim-melchert-on-his-slide-projection-changing-walls/

and a link to Renny Pritikin's Oral History with Jim at the Smithsonian's Archives of American Art:   https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-james-melchert-11926#transcript

With permission, SFAA is re-posting the emails Jeff Gunderson Librarian/Archivist Anne Bremer Memorial Library has been sending out since March 2020. Please enjoy this magnificent archive.

1946 Ansel Adams and SFAI

After World War 2, Ansel Adams, who had been associated with the School through friends like art patron, Albert Bender, saw the vacated space left by the Red Cross Blood Bank in the Eastern wing of the building as the perfect opportunity to begin planning a full fledged Photography Department with the blessing of Board Chair, architect Eldridge “Ted” Spencer, and CSFA Director, Douglas MacAgy.  By the Fall of 1945 Ansel had seed money from a grant secured from the Columbia Foundation and started a 6 week session that would be followed by a full class in the summer of 1946 and the launching of the official first fine arts Photography Department in the Fall. The BxW photo above shows Ansel in the School's darkroom with Philip Hyde, John Bertolino, Muriel Green, and Pirkle Jones.

With permission, SFAA is re-posting the emails Jeff Gunderson Librarian/Archivist Anne Bremer Memorial Library has been sending out since March 2020. Please enjoy this magnificent archive.