James Frederick Melchert (December 2, 1930 – June 1, 2023) was an American artist best known for his ceramics and sculptures.

Education

After earning an AB in art history from Princeton in 1952, he moved to Japan where he taught English for four years. Upon returning to the United States, he earned postgraduate degrees in painting at the University of Chicago (1957) and ceramics under Peter Voulkos 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 ...

(1961).

Artwork

Throughout his career, Melchert worked with many media, including painting, drawing, performance art, film, and most notably sculpture and ceramics. His unique process involves breaking down, drawing on, and reassembling ceramic tiles before painting the new constructions with glaze. As part of the Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America, Melchert donated his papers to the Smithsonian’s Archive of American Arts in 2004 and 2019–2021. His work is held by over two dozen collections, including the

Rhode Island School of Design Museum The Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design (RISD Museum) is an art museum integrated with the Rhode Island School of Design, in Providence, Rhode Island, US. The museum was co-founded with the school in 1877, and still shares multiple build ...

, The

Museum of Arts and Design The Museum of Arts and Design (MAD), based in Manhattan, New York City, collects, displays, and interprets objects that document contemporary and historic innovation in craft, art, and design. In its exhibitions and educational programs, the mus ...

and

Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile, Los Angeles, California, Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Pa ...

Death

Melchert died at his

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

home on June 1, 2023, at the age of 92, of complications from a stroke he suffered in April.

Collections

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art, and was ...

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (; Municipal Museum Amsterdam), colloquially known as the Stedelijk, is a museum for modern art, contemporary art, and design located in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Appointments

* 1961–65 San Francisco Art Institute * 1965–92 University of California, Berkeley * 1977–81 National Endowment for the Arts Director, Visual Arts Program * 1984–88 American Academy in Rome, Director

Publications

* ''The Ceramic Presence in Modern Art: Selections from the Linda Leonard Schlenger Collection and the Yale University Art Gallery'' by Sequoia Miller With an essay by John Stuart Gordon, 2015 * Shapes From Out of Nowhere Ceramics From the Robert A. Ellison, Jr. Collection

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Melchert, Jim 1930 births 2023 deaths People from New Bremen, Ohio Artists from Ohio Princeton University alumni University of Chicago alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni