Draft:Marian Jacob

Marian Ruth Müeller Jacob (September 24, 1925 - October 3, 2022) was an American sculptor and educator. She created original works of modern art in bronze and other media. Her signature work is an exploration of natural forms, cultivated by a lifelong study of nature, science, history and literature.

Life and Education

Jacob was born Marian Ruth Müeller in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Her father, Herbert Müeller, was a furniture designer and craftsman, and her mother, Ida (Bartel) Müeller was a nurse and teacher. Her older sister, Felicité Doll, was a music educator and community activist. At Sheboygan Central High School, she was elected to the National Honor Society, the Student Senate and played the French horn in the band and orchestra. She also participated in all school plays and the Girl’s Athletic Association. She attended Milwaukee State Teacher’s College, graduating with a Bachelor's of Science in Art Education in 1947. In college she was Editor-in Chief of the quarterly publication, The Cheshire, and served as president of the Women’s Recreation Association. After graduating she worked as a docent at the Toledo Museum of Art for three years before attending Cranbrook Academy of Art with tuition scholarship. At Cranbrook she studied under Carl Milles and his assistant, Berthold "Tex" Schiwetz. In May 1952, she graduated with a Master of Fine Arts in Sculpture and was awarded the Cranbrook Academy of Art Achievement Award in Sculpture. Marian R. Müeller married fellow Cranbrook student David J. Jacob (M Arch Urban Design) in May of 1953; they had five daughters.

Work

Trained first as a teacher, then as a sculptor, Jacob devoted most of her time to creating three-dimensional art and exploring realistic and abstract forms in bronze, terra cotta, plasticine, wood and paper. From 1956-58, she joined a community of multidisciplinary artists and intellectuals at the American Academy in Rome and developed an interest in working in bronze. In 1957 she participated in the "Recent Sculpture USA" competition sponsored by the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Her entry was a bronze sculpture, Totem, which was accepted and included in the ensuing traveling show. Other participating sculptors, also in Rome at that time, included Gilbert Franklin, Jack Zajac and Dimitri Hadzi.

Jacob created a series of bronze sculptures that explored the essence of classical art and natural forms, evolving toward a focused study of shell-like forms. She was awarded a Radcliffe Institute Fellowship in 1969 and gave a Bunting Institute seminar entitled "Shell Sculpture: Growth and Form". In the artist's words, "Traditionally, cast bronze sculpture is a closed, metal shell presenting an outside surface shaped into a symbolic configuration. However, when that shell is opened and visually apparent, exposing both inside and outside surfaces, the role of the shell grows in significance. Technique and symbol seem to fuse. The shoreline of separation becomes the seam line of unity; the mountain is the valley; the suggestion of what will be in the trace left of evidence of what was."

In 1986, her work was included in the exhibition held at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, and was published in Collected visions: women artists at the Bunting Institute 1961-1986: exhibition in celebration of the Institute's 25th anniversary. Jacob continued to explore other media, working with fiberglass, resin and glass. She continued to work and live in both Italy and the United States until her death on October 3, 2022, at her home in Stony Creek, Connecticut.

Awards


 * The Cranbrook Academy of Art Achievement Award in Sculpture, 1952
 * Graham Foundation Fellowship for Advanced Studies in Fine Arts, 1961- 1962
 * The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Grant in Sculpture, 1965
 * Guggenheim Fellowship, 1969
 * Mary I. Bunting Institute Fellow, 1968-70

Exhibits

Solo Shows


 * Sculpture Center, New York, NY; 1966
 * Dene Ulin Gallery, New York, NY; 1968
 * Davison Art Center, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT; 1969, 1979
 * American Academy Gallery, Rome, Italy; 1971-72

Group Shows


 * Traveling show by Cranbrook Academy of Art (seeking validation);1952
 * Young American Artist’s Series - Concert and MRJ Sculpture Exhibit March 6, 1958, American Consulate Theater Via Veneto, Rome, Italy; 1958
 * Recent Sculpture U.S.A, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; Denver, CO; Los Angeles, CA; St. Louis, MO; Boston, MA. Traveling show, May 13, 1959 - October 16, 1960
 * American Academy of Art in Rome, Italy; 1960, 1971
 * Galerie Claude Bernard, Paris, France, 1960
 * Schneider Gallery, Rome, Italy; 1964
 * Sculpture Center, New York, NY; 1966
 * Dene Ulin Gallery, New York, NY; 1966, 1968, 1969
 * Jewish Museum, New York, NY; 1967
 * Portuguese Embassy, New York, NY; 1967
 * Hamden Gallery, New Haven, CT; 1968, 1972
 * Cummings Art Center, Connecticut College, New London, CT; 1969
 * Davison Art Center, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT; 1969, 1975, 1979, 1982
 * Rome Center of Liberal Arts, Loyola University, Rome, Italy; 1971
 * USIS Gallery, Rome, Italy; 1972
 * Galleria Nuovo Carpine, Rome, Italy; 1972
 * Centro Internazionale d’Arte di Orvieto, Orvieto, Italy; 1972
 * Forum Gallery, New York, NY; 1975
 * Willoughby Wallace Library Gallery, Stony Creek, CT; 1981
 * Rolly-Michaux Gallery, New York, NY; 1981-2, 1985, 1987, 1991-2, 1995
 * Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, 1986
 * Rolly-Michaux, Boston, MA; 1995
 * David Findlay Jr. Fine Arts Gallery, New York, NY, and Chicago; 2007

Seminars and Lectures

“Shell Sculpture: Growth & Form”, April 8, 1969. Bunting Institute Seminar, Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Cambridge, MA.

“Janus”, March 31, 1979. Radcliffe Centennial Symposium Women in the Arts, Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MA

“Reflections on Women’s Creativity in the Arts”, November 17, 1981, sponsored by the Seven Sisters Colleges, Waveny Estate (Waveny Park), New Canaan, CT

Publications

Collected visions: women artists at the Bunting Institute 1961-1986 Exhibition in celebration of the Institute's 25th anniversary.

Happiness is being a sculptor who lives and works in Rome by Charles Nopar, Rome Daily American, July 1972

Teaching

Milwaukee Art Institute (during college, 1943-47)

Jewish Art Center in Milwaukee (during college, 1943-47)

Saugatuck School of Painting (summers 1943-47)

Toledo Museum of Art (1947-50)

University of Southern California (Summers 1950-51)

Milwaukee State Teacher’s College (1952-53)

Creative Arts Workshop, (1975-77)