Peter Macchiarini (August 27, 1909 – July 3, 2001) was an American Modernist

jeweler A bench jeweler is an artisan who uses a combination of skills to make and repair jewelry. Some of the more common skills that a bench jeweler might employ include antique restoration, silversmith, Goldsmith, stone setting, engraving, fabrica ...

and sculptor, who was a pioneer in the field of avant-garde jewelry. He maintained an art studio and shop on

Grant Avenue Grant Avenue in San Francisco, California, is one of the oldest streets in the city's Chinatown district. It runs in a north–south direction starting at Market Street in the heart of downtown and dead-ending past Francisco Street in the North ...

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 ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, for more than 50 years. He was instrumental in organizing the first San Francisco outdoor art festival in 1938 as well as founding the Upper Grant Avenue Street Fair in 1954, an event that spawned similar artist-run festivals in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Biography

Macchiarini was born in

Santa Rosa, California Santa Rosa (Spanish language, Spanish for "Rose of Lima, Saint Rose") is a city and the county seat of Sonoma County, California, Sonoma County, in the North Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, Bay Area ...

, on the Wohler Ranch in Sonoma County, on August 27, 1909. In 1923, when he was age thirteen, he and his family moved to the northwestern region of Italy, where he went on to study for four years at the

Art Academy An art school is an educational institution with a primary focus on the visual arts, including fine art – especially illustration, painting, photography, sculpture, and graphic design. Art schools can offer elementary, secondary, post-second ...

Pietrasanta Pietrasanta is a town and ''comune'' on the coast of northern Tuscany in Italy, in the province of Lucca. Pietrasanta is part of Versilia, on the last foothills of the Apuan Alps, about north of Pisa. The town is located off the coast, where the ...

. Macchiarini returned to the United States in 1928 and, with the arrival of the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

worked from 1929 to 1935 as a stone carver, with several Bay Area firms; some of which were funded by the

Federal Arts Project The Federal Art Project (1935–1943) was a New Deal program to fund the visual arts in the United States. Under national director Holger Cahill, it was one of five Federal Project Number One projects sponsored by the Works Progress Administratio ...

of the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

(WPA). While employed as a stone carver, he worked on projects in the 1930s with such sculptors as Beniamino Bufano and

Ralph Stackpole Ralph Ward Stackpole (May 1, 1885 – December 10, 1973) was an American sculptor, painter, muralist, etcher and art educator, San Francisco's leading artist during the 1920s and 1930s. Stackpole was involved in the art and causes of social realis ...

. Like Bufano, Stackpole, and many other Bay Area artists, Macchiarini was active on the political left. At a student demonstration during the

1934 West Coast waterfront strike The 1934 West Coast Waterfront Strike (also known as the 1934 West Coast Longshoremen's Strike, as well as a number of variations on these names) lasted 83 days, and began on May 9, 1934 when longshoremen in every US West Coast port walked out ...

, he was severely beaten by San Francisco police officers. In 1936, following the suggestion of jeweler and artist

Margaret De Patta Margaret De Patta ('' née'' Strong; 1903–1964) was an American jewelry designer and educator, active in the mid-century jewelry movement. Early life and education She was born in 1903 in Tacoma, Washington, and grew up in San Diego, Califo ...

, he started to create

art jewelry Art jewelry is one of the names given to jewelry created by studio craftspeople. As the name suggests, art jewelry emphasizes creative expression and design, and is characterized by the use of a variety of materials, often commonplace or of low e ...

and began his own jewelry studio. After studying art at the California School of Fine Art (now known as 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 ...

) he went on to teach metalsmithing and jewelry making 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 ...

during the summer sessions from 1952 to 1955 as well as, in the same period, in his own studio. In 1954, he helped co-found the Upper Grant Street Festival, which later became the North Beach Festival, a local artisan street fair and sale. In 1980, he was awarded a gold medal from the Association of the Lucchesi nel Mondo, which annually recognizes those who, as citizens abroad, bring honor to the Italian

province of Lucca The province of Lucca ( it, provincia di Lucca) is a province in the Tuscany region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Lucca. It has an area of and a total population of about 390,000. There are 33 ''comuni'' (singular: ''comune'') in the pro ...

through personal merit. In 1999, the 90 year old Macchiarini was subject to an

Ellis Act The Ellis Act (California Government Code Chapter 12.75) is a 1985 California state law that allows landlords to evict residential tenants to "go out of the rental business" in spite of desires by local governments to compel them to continue provid ...

eviction of his apartment in North Beach. In 2000, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors renamed a portion of

Kearny Street Kearny Street () in San Francisco, California runs north from Market Street to The Embarcadero. Toward its south end, it separates the Financial District from the Union Square and Chinatown districts. Further north, it passes over Telegraph ...

– near

Telegraph Hill A telegraph hill is a hill or other natural elevation that is chosen as part of an optical telegraph system. Telegraph Hill may also refer to: England * A high point in the Haldon Hills, Devon * Telegraph Hill, Dorset, a hill in the Dorset Down ...

– "The Peter Macchiarini Steps" in his honor.

Death and legacy

On June 29, 2001, he was declared an official "San Francisco Legend" for his contributions to the local culture. A few days later on July 3, 2001, Peter Macchiarini died of pneumonia at the age of 91. As of 2001, his son, Daniel Macchiarini owns, ''Macchiarini Creative Design and Gallery'' on Grant Street in San Francisco, nearby where his father Peter had his studio and his granddaughter Emma also works there.

References

External links

Oral history interview with Peter Macchiarini, 1964 Oct. 18

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 ...

, Smithsonian Institution
Short biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Macchiarini, Peter 1909 births 2001 deaths American people of Italian descent People from Santa Rosa, California American jewellers North Beach, San Francisco 20th-century American sculptors 20th-century American male artists American male sculptors Artists from San Francisco