San Francisco and the world lost one of it’s grand old ladies last
night. She was one of the last of her breed, a founding member of
the Metal Arts Guild back in the days of the arts and crafts
movement. Her bio, curtesy of Jack Da Silva:
Florence Resnikoff (born 1920, Ft. Worth, TX) Jeweler, sculptor and
teacher Florence Resnikoff combines complex electrical-based
processes with ancient techniques to create vibrantly colored jewelry
and metalwork. Resnikoff began exploring enameling by reading books
on the topic while working as a registered medicaltechnician in
Chicago. In 1949 she took a one week workshop at the summer school of
the Chicago Art Institute where she was introduced to metalwork by
Robert Von Neuman. It was at this time that Florence became
interested in becoming a metalsmith. In the early 1950s, she
relocated to Palo Alto, and had her first one-person show at the Art
Gallery at Stanford University in 1956. In 1958, she had a second
one-person show at the Art Room at the Chicago Public Library. These
two shows qualified her for the professional level status in the
Metal Arts Guild (SF Bay Area), whereshe met Margaret De Patta, a
jewelry designer whose modern approach to structure and materials
guided Resnikoff’s jewelry-making investigations. Her interactions
with the Metal Arts Guild helped her build her repertoire of
techniques and materials in which she accented her gold and silver
jewelry with colorful jewels and enamels. In the early 1960’s, she
returned to school to pursue a degree in sculpture, studying at the
California College of Arts and Crafts (BFA in Sculpture,1967) and San
Jose State University (MA in Art, 1973). In 1968, Florence began to
teach herself about electroforming and with her husband’s electronic
knowledge, set up her first electoforming tank. She also taught
herself about anodizing reactive metals and learned more about the
subject after a trip to the Royal College of Art in London in 1978.
In 1973, an NEA grant allowed her to further her studies of
electroforming with Stanley Lechtzin at Tyler School of Art in
Philadelphia, PA. In 1973, she returned to CCAC as a teacher and
later became a professor, serving as Head of the Metal Arts Program.
While Program Head of Jewelry and Metal Arts at CCAC, Florence
received an NEA Grant to bring leading craftsmen to CCAC for a series
of one week advanced workshops during the summers of 1979 -1983.
Artists that taught included June Schwartz, Helen Shirk, Harold
O’Connor, Fred Fenster, Douglas Steakley, David La Plantz, Florence
Resnikoff, Merry Lee Hu, Jamie Bennett and Edward De Large, among
others. (Florence has the original flyers for these summer sessions
if they are needed for the exhibition.) Florence’s later work
included both jewelry and liturgical commissions. Florence retired as
Program Head of the Jewelry & Metal Arts Program at the California
Collegeof Arts & Crafts in 1989 and was designated a Professor
Emerita in 1990and the Florence Resnikoff Emerita Scholarship Fund
was created at the California College of Arts at this time. Among her
many honors and numerous exhibitions, Resnikoff was named a
California Living Treasure in 1985. Her work in included in the
permanent collections of the City and County of San Francisco, The
California Art Collection of the Oakland Art Museum, the Smithsonian
American Art Museum, the Boston Museum of Fine Art, and the Permanent
Collection of the Museum of Arts and Design, NY.