Anna Valentina Murch (7 December 1948 – 26 March 2014) was a British artist who was based in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

. She was known for her award-winning public art installations.

Early life and education

Anna Valentina Murch was born in

Dumbarton Dumbarton (; also sco, Dumbairton; ) is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland, on the north bank of the River Clyde where the River Leven flows into the Clyde estuary. In 2006, it had an estimated population of 19,990. Dumbarton was the ca ...

, Scotland, as the only child of Norman Robbins Murch and Valentina Gordikova Murch. Her father, a naval commander, established a charity for women and children following his retirement. Murch's mother, originally from

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

, met her husband in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Subsequently, Murch's mother became an actress in London and played the role of Annushka in a film adaptation of ''Anna Karenina'' (1948), which was released in the same year as Murch's birth. Murch was raised in London. She attended

Croydon College of Art Croydon College is a large further and higher education college located in Croydon, within the London Borough of Croydon. Its origins can be traced to a School of Art that was established in 1868, which subsequently merged with Croydon Polytechnic ...

and earned degrees from the

University of Leicester , mottoeng = So that they may have life , established = , type = public research university , endowment = £20.0 million , budget = £326 million , chancellor = David Willetts , vice_chancellor = Nishan Canagarajah , head_labe ...

and the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It offe ...

in London (1973). She also did graduate work at the

Architectural Association The Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, commonly referred to as the AA, is the oldest independent school of architecture in the UK and one of the most prestigious and competitive in the world. Its wide-ranging programme ...

in London (1974-1974).

Career

In 1976, Murch moved to San Francisco and had a live-work studio a
Project Artaud
From 1983 to 1992, she taught at various institutions, including the

San Francisco Art Institute San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) was a private college of contemporary art in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1871, SFAI was one of the oldest art schools in the United States and the oldest west of the Mississippi River. Approximately ...

and at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

. She began teaching at

Mills College Mills College at Northeastern University is a private college in Oakland, California and part of Northeastern University's global university system. Mills College was founded as the Young Ladies Seminary in 1852 in Benicia, California; it was ...

in 1992, and she held the Joan Danforth Chair of Studio Art there from 2005 to 2007. In 1990, she had a residency at the

Exploratorium The Exploratorium is a museum of science, technology, and arts in San Francisco, California. Characterized as "a mad scientist's penny arcade, a scientific funhouse, and an experimental laboratory all rolled into one", the participatory natur ...

Murch's work often involved large urban spaces, stations, plazas, bridges, and installations that created plays of light, water, and sound. In Miami, she designed ''Water Scores,'' a public plaza with inclined waterfalls. She was part of a team that was commissioned to help with the design of the

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

Metro. The design recycled 160,000 pounds of

colored glass Glass coloring and color marking may be obtained in several ways. # by the addition of ''coloring ions'',Bernard H. W. S. De Jong, Ruud G. C. Beerkens, Peter A. van Nijnatten: "Glass", in: "Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry"; Wiley-VC ...

to "create a shifting, ephemeral light show". One of her last designs was ''Archipelago'', a courtyard for the trauma center at

San Francisco General Hospital The Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center (ZSFG) is a Public hospital in San Francisco, California, under the purview of the city's Department of Public Health. It serves as the only Level I Trauma Ce ...

. In 2010, Murch gave an

oral history Oral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. These interviews are conducted with people wh ...

interview to the

Archives of American Art The Archives of American Art is the largest collection of primary resources documenting the history of the visual arts in the United States. More than 20 million items of original material are housed in the Archives' research centers in Washingt ...

Notable works

*''Waterscape'' (installed in front of

San Jose City Hall San José City Hall is the seat of the municipal government of San Jose, California. Located in Downtown San Jose, it was designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Richard Meier in a Postmodern style. It consists of an 18-story tower, an ic ...

, 2005) *''Skytones'' (Seattle, 1998) *''Confluences'' (Seattle) *''River Wrap'' (Portland) *''Oasis'' (Brea, California, 2006) *''Umbra'' (Charlotte, North Carolina) *''Archipelago'' (San Francisco) *''Folded Light'' (Santa Fe, 1985) *''Light Passageway'' (St. Louis, 1993) *''Cycles'' (New York City, 1997)

Personal life

In 1988, Murch married fellow environmental artist Doug Hollis. She died in San Francisco in 2014, aged 65 years, from cancer.

References

External links

* *Louise Steinman
"Anna the Almaziful: Remembering Anna Valentina Murch"
''The Crooked Mirror'' (31 December 2014), a blogpost in memory of Murch. {{DEFAULTSORT:Murch, Anna Valentina Scottish emigrants to the United States 2014 deaths 1948 births Alumni of the Royal College of Art Artists from San Francisco Scottish women artists Alumni of the University of Leicester University of California, Berkeley faculty Mills College faculty San Francisco Art Institute faculty