Anna Valentina Murch

Anna Valentina Murch (7 December 1948 – 26 March 2014) was a British artist who was based in San Francisco. She was known for her award-winning public art installations.

Anna Valentina Murch
Born7 December 1948
Dumbarton, Scotland
Died26 March 2014
San Francisco, California
NationalityBritish
OccupationArtist

Early life and education

Anna Valentina Murch was born in Dumbarton, 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, met her husband in Shanghai during World War II. 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.[1]

Murch was raised in London.[2] She attended Croydon College of Art and earned degrees from the University of Leicester and the Royal College of Art in London (1973). She also did graduate work at the Architectural Association in London (1974-1974).[1][3]

Career

In 1976, Murch moved to San Francisco and had a live-work studio at Project Artaud. From 1983 to 1992, she taught at various institutions, including the San Francisco Art Institute and at the University of California, Berkeley.[3] She began teaching at Mills College in 1992, and she held the Joan Danforth Chair of Studio Art there from 2005 to 2007.[4][5] In 1990, she had a residency at the Exploratorium.[2]

A train stop in North Carolina, with a white canopy, curved blue glass windscreen, and metal bench.
Anna Valentina Murch and Douglas Hollis designed this train stop in North Carolina as a unique white canopy with curved blue glass windscreen, inspired by Charlotte's historic textile industry.

Murch's work often involved large urban spaces, stations, plazas, bridges, and installations that created plays of light, water, and sound.[2][6] 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 Metro.[7] The design recycled 160,000 pounds of colored glass to "create a shifting, ephemeral light show".[8] One of her last designs was Archipelago, a courtyard for the trauma center at San Francisco General Hospital.[2]

In 2010, Murch gave an oral history interview to the Archives of American Art.[1]

Notable works
  • Waterscape (installed in front of San Jose City Hall, 2005)[9]
  • Skytones (Seattle, 1998)[10]
  • Confluences (Seattle)[11][12]
  • River Wrap (Portland)[13]
  • Oasis (Brea, California, 2006)[14]
  • Umbra (Charlotte, North Carolina)[15]
  • Archipelago (San Francisco)[16]

[17]

  • Folded Light (Santa Fe, 1985)[18]
  • Light Passageway (St. Louis, 1993)[7]
  • Cycles (New York City, 1997)[19][3]

Personal life

In 1988, Murch married fellow environmental artist Doug Hollis.[5] She died in San Francisco in 2014, aged 65 years, from cancer.[11][20]

References
  1. Riedel, Mija. "Oral history interview with Anna Valentina Murch, 2010 May 21-22". Archives of American Art. Archived from the original on 2012-11-11. Retrieved 2020-05-16.
  2. Guthrie, Julian (2014-03-29). "Anna Valentina Murch - teacher created oases of art". SFGate. Retrieved 2020-05-16.
  3. Johnstone, Mark; Aboud Holzman, Leslie (2002). "Anna Valentina Murch". Epicenter: San Francisco Bay Area Art Now. Chronicle Books. pp. 166–171. ISBN 0-8118-3541-3.
  4. "Anna Valentina Murch - Sculptures and Art". Wescover. Archived from the original on 2020-09-24. Retrieved 2020-05-16.
  5. Nussbaum, Ari (April 29, 2014). "Anna Valentina Murch: Never Forgotten". The Campanil. Archived from the original on 2019-07-04. Retrieved 2020-05-16.
  6. "Artist Collection: Anna Valentina Murch". ArtsWA. Archived from the original on 2020-04-13. Retrieved 2020-05-16.
  7. Tipton, Virgil (1993-05-03). "Glass Brightens Tunnel 'Vision'". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. p. 3. Retrieved 2020-05-16 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. Fuller, Diana Burgess; Salvioni, Daniela (2002). Art, Women, California 1950-2000: Parallels and Intersections. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-23066-8.
  9. "Waterscape". City of San Jose. Retrieved 2020-05-16.
  10. "Skytones". Anna Valentina Murch. Archived from the original on 17 June 2016. Retrieved 24 April 2018.
  11. Callahan, Anna (2014-04-01). "Remembering Anna Valentina Murch". 4Culture. Retrieved 2020-05-16.
  12. "Confluences". Americans for the Arts. 2019-05-15. Retrieved 2020-05-16.
  13. "River Wrap: Anna Valentina Murch and City of Portland and Multnomah County Public Art Collection courtesy of the Regional Arts & Culture Council". CultureNOW. Retrieved 2020-05-16.
  14. "Oasis (video) - Douglas Hollis and Anna Valentina Murch". Google Arts & Culture. Retrieved 2020-05-16.
  15. BLE 9th Street Station, City of Charlotte, Art in Transit projects.
  16. "Anna Valentina Murch, Archipelago, 2015; Stainless steel, granite and LED lights (City Agency : San Francisco General Hospital : Acute Care Unit : Plaza)" (PDF). www.sfgov.org.
  17. "Public Art and Architecture from Around the World". www.artandarchitecture-sf.com. 11 August 2017. Retrieved 28 August 2023.
  18. Wilson, MoLin (1985-07-12). "Engaging artist invites viewers to join her on higher ground". The Santa Fe New Mexican. p. 39. Retrieved 2020-05-16 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. "San Francisco Arts Commission - Anna Valentina Murch". kiosk.sfartscommission.org. Retrieved 2023-03-29.
  20. Nussbaum, Ari (April 4, 2014). "Mills professor Anna Valentina Murch dies at age 65". The Campanil. Archived from the original on 2020-10-20. Retrieved 2020-05-16.
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