Philosophy
Freda Koblick
August 20th, 1920 to June 18th, 2011
The Graduate [1967]
Mr. McGuire: I just want to say one word to you. Just one word.
Benjamin: Yes, sir.
Mr. McGuire: Are you listening?
Benjamin: Yes, I am.
Mr. McGuire: Plastics.
Benjamin: Exactly how do you mean?
Freda Koblick, 90, a San Francisco sculptor who was a pioneer in the use of acrylics as an art medium, died Saturday in San Francisco. She had renal failure and diabetes, according to William Rukeyser, a longtime friend.
Koblick was born in San Francisco on Aug. 20, 1920. While studying English and engineering at San Francisco State College in the late 1930s, she became interested in making art from what were then new materials, particularly plastic, which, as she told the San Francisco Chronicle a few years ago, appealed to her "fascination with transparency." In 1939 she moved to Los Angeles, where she enrolled at the Plastics Industries Technical Institute.
In the early 1940s she returned to San Francisco and made a living by producing small decorative accessories, such as Lucite doorknobs, trays, candleholders and lamps. Architects eventually hired her to make larger pieces such as fountains and wall sculptures, but she yearned to make her own artistic statements.
When an artist rounds out a 65-year career, and suffers the physical setbacks that make work difficult, if not impossible, one might expect wistful regret -- a mourning for power depleted, an aching for departed companions.
But Freda Koblick, a San Francisco-born sculptor who turns 86 next month, seems immune to all that. She lost part of one leg last year to diabetic neuropathy, spent seven months in the hospital and uses a wheelchair. She has a detached retina in her left eye and can't operate the labor-intensive machinery that's necessary to create her art: sanders and polishers; a band saw and table saw; a lathe; and an autoclave, a steam-heated, half-ton device that compresses acrylic forms.
"I haven't worked for 2 1/2 years," Koblick says at a dining table in her all-white loft. "But I'm hoping to get back to it. I have a workshop waiting for me downstairs and when I can walk well enough I imagine I could do it -- do some of it."
Physically diminished, yes, but Koblick's brain is still agile. She speaks eloquently about her work and her life, the changes she's seen in San Francisco.
Koblick's home is a 4,300-foot loft in the Mission District, carved from a former synagogue built in 1908. Her maternal grandfather, Zusya Faverman, was a member of the building committee and her uncles were bar-mitzvahed here before she was born.
The ceilings are 20 feet high, the floor planks are honey-colored pine and the pair of arched windows, each topped by a Star of David, brings in showers of southern light. Downstairs, in what used to be the synagogue's social hall, Koblick has a workshop where she builds the elegant, abstract acrylic sculptures that Allan Temko, the late Chronicle critic, praised for their "mythic grandeur" and "lyrical grace."
"Even as a child," she says, "I had a kind of fascination with transparency. The fact that you could see through it and then if light came against it, you couldn't see through it and it broke into color."
She was probably the first artist to work exclusively in acrylic -- Bruce Beasley came later, but he worked in other media as well -- and says that few took her seriously at first. Plastics were disdained as an art medium and considered illegitimate, more appropriate to toilet seats or cooking utensils.
"I've had galleries say, 'It's wonderful. If it wasn't plastic we could show it.' "
- A Forgotten Plastic...bakelite--functional And Aesthetically Pleasing
The Graduate [1967]... Mr. McGuire: I just want to say one word to you. Just one word. Benjamin: Yes, sir. Mr. McGuire: Are you listening? Benjamin: Yes, I am. Mr. McGuire: Plastics. Benjamin: Exactly how do you mean? Decades earlier Bakelite was...
- Deceased--scott Mckenzie
Scott McKenzie January 10th, 1939 to August 18th, 2012"San Francisco singer Scott McKenzie dies at 73"Performer of San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair) died in Los AngelesAugust 20th, 2012 guardian.co.ukScott McKenzie, the singer who performed...
- Deceased--karl Benjamin
Karl Benjamin December 29th, 1925 to July 26th, 2012 Mondrain 1957 Stage II 1968 "Karl Benjamin dies at 86; painter created colorful geometric works" A longtime Claremont resident, Karl Benjamin taught at Pomona College and Claremont...
- Deceased--roy Gussow
Roy Gussow November 12th, 1918 to February 11th, 2011 "Roy Gussow, Abstract Sculptor, Dies at 92" by Dennis Hevesi February 20th, 2011 The New York Times Roy Gussow, an abstract sculptor whose polished stainless-steel works with swooping contours...
- Homeless Man Acquited
And "justice" is served. "The jury just felt unable to really know what happened out there"...just like "quantum physics". "Jury acquits in quantum physics assault" by Henry K. Lee June 27th, 2009 San Francisco Chronicle A homeless man was acquitted...
Philosophy
Deceased--Freda Koblick
Freda KoblickAugust 20th, 1920 to June 18th, 2011
The Graduate [1967]
Mr. McGuire: I just want to say one word to you. Just one word.
Benjamin: Yes, sir.
Mr. McGuire: Are you listening?
Benjamin: Yes, I am.
Mr. McGuire: Plastics.
Benjamin: Exactly how do you mean?
"Sculptor pioneered work in acrylics"
June 21st, 2011
Los Angeles Times
June 21st, 2011
Los Angeles Times
Freda Koblick, 90, a San Francisco sculptor who was a pioneer in the use of acrylics as an art medium, died Saturday in San Francisco. She had renal failure and diabetes, according to William Rukeyser, a longtime friend.
Koblick was born in San Francisco on Aug. 20, 1920. While studying English and engineering at San Francisco State College in the late 1930s, she became interested in making art from what were then new materials, particularly plastic, which, as she told the San Francisco Chronicle a few years ago, appealed to her "fascination with transparency." In 1939 she moved to Los Angeles, where she enrolled at the Plastics Industries Technical Institute.
In the early 1940s she returned to San Francisco and made a living by producing small decorative accessories, such as Lucite doorknobs, trays, candleholders and lamps. Architects eventually hired her to make larger pieces such as fountains and wall sculptures, but she yearned to make her own artistic statements.
"Plastics -- there was a great future in it for one artist who pursued her passion"
by
Edward Guthmann
August 5th, 2006
SFGate.com
by
Edward Guthmann
August 5th, 2006
SFGate.com
When an artist rounds out a 65-year career, and suffers the physical setbacks that make work difficult, if not impossible, one might expect wistful regret -- a mourning for power depleted, an aching for departed companions.
But Freda Koblick, a San Francisco-born sculptor who turns 86 next month, seems immune to all that. She lost part of one leg last year to diabetic neuropathy, spent seven months in the hospital and uses a wheelchair. She has a detached retina in her left eye and can't operate the labor-intensive machinery that's necessary to create her art: sanders and polishers; a band saw and table saw; a lathe; and an autoclave, a steam-heated, half-ton device that compresses acrylic forms.
"I haven't worked for 2 1/2 years," Koblick says at a dining table in her all-white loft. "But I'm hoping to get back to it. I have a workshop waiting for me downstairs and when I can walk well enough I imagine I could do it -- do some of it."
Physically diminished, yes, but Koblick's brain is still agile. She speaks eloquently about her work and her life, the changes she's seen in San Francisco.
Koblick's home is a 4,300-foot loft in the Mission District, carved from a former synagogue built in 1908. Her maternal grandfather, Zusya Faverman, was a member of the building committee and her uncles were bar-mitzvahed here before she was born.
The ceilings are 20 feet high, the floor planks are honey-colored pine and the pair of arched windows, each topped by a Star of David, brings in showers of southern light. Downstairs, in what used to be the synagogue's social hall, Koblick has a workshop where she builds the elegant, abstract acrylic sculptures that Allan Temko, the late Chronicle critic, praised for their "mythic grandeur" and "lyrical grace."
"Even as a child," she says, "I had a kind of fascination with transparency. The fact that you could see through it and then if light came against it, you couldn't see through it and it broke into color."
She was probably the first artist to work exclusively in acrylic -- Bruce Beasley came later, but he worked in other media as well -- and says that few took her seriously at first. Plastics were disdained as an art medium and considered illegitimate, more appropriate to toilet seats or cooking utensils.
"I've had galleries say, 'It's wonderful. If it wasn't plastic we could show it.' "
- A Forgotten Plastic...bakelite--functional And Aesthetically Pleasing
The Graduate [1967]... Mr. McGuire: I just want to say one word to you. Just one word. Benjamin: Yes, sir. Mr. McGuire: Are you listening? Benjamin: Yes, I am. Mr. McGuire: Plastics. Benjamin: Exactly how do you mean? Decades earlier Bakelite was...
- Deceased--scott Mckenzie
Scott McKenzie January 10th, 1939 to August 18th, 2012"San Francisco singer Scott McKenzie dies at 73"Performer of San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair) died in Los AngelesAugust 20th, 2012 guardian.co.ukScott McKenzie, the singer who performed...
- Deceased--karl Benjamin
Karl Benjamin December 29th, 1925 to July 26th, 2012 Mondrain 1957 Stage II 1968 "Karl Benjamin dies at 86; painter created colorful geometric works" A longtime Claremont resident, Karl Benjamin taught at Pomona College and Claremont...
- Deceased--roy Gussow
Roy Gussow November 12th, 1918 to February 11th, 2011 "Roy Gussow, Abstract Sculptor, Dies at 92" by Dennis Hevesi February 20th, 2011 The New York Times Roy Gussow, an abstract sculptor whose polished stainless-steel works with swooping contours...
- Homeless Man Acquited
And "justice" is served. "The jury just felt unable to really know what happened out there"...just like "quantum physics". "Jury acquits in quantum physics assault" by Henry K. Lee June 27th, 2009 San Francisco Chronicle A homeless man was acquitted...