Marilyn Levine (born 22 December 1935 in Medicine Hat, Alberta, died 2 April 2005 in Oakland, California) was a Canadian ceramics artist known for her trompe-l'œil art. She built a reputation making ceramic works of art that looked like leather handbags, garments, and briefcases.[1][2] She was associated with the funk art movement.[3]
Career
Levine grew up in Calgary, Alberta, and moved to Edmonton to study chemistry at the University of Alberta where she earned a master's degree in 1959.[3] In 1961, she moved to Regina with her husband, Sidney Levine.[4] Because she was unable to find sufficient employment in the field of chemistry, Levine enrolled in drawing, painting, art history, and pottery courses through the University of Saskatchewan Extension Program.[3][5]
After a trip to California in 1968, she decided to make pottery her career, and she moved to California a year later. She studied sculpture at University of California, Berkeley, under the tutelage of Peter Voulkos.[3] It was during this time that she began to develop her trademark realistic style. It was during her time in California that she became associate with the funk art movement.[6] She completed two degrees at the University of California, Berkeley (MA, 1970; MFA, 1971). During her second year at Berkeley, she became focused on inanimate objects (particularly leather items) as "records of human experience and activity."[5] Levine quickly developed this talent for creating highly realistic representations of leather objects using ceramics, with attention to the fine details of aging, wearing, and shaping of the leather.[5]
She taught art a number of universities including UC Berkeley, the University of Saskatchewan and the University of Utah. In 1975 she divorced Sidney Levine.[6] In 1976, she moved to Oakland, California, and established a studio with Peter Voulkos.[3]
Levine was awarded the Louise and Adolph Schwenk Memorial Prize for Sculpture in 1969. She received a medal at the International Academy of Ceramics in 1973.[9]
^Savig, Mary; Atkinson, Nora; Montiel, Anya (2022). This Present Moment: Crafting a Better World. Washington, DC: Smithsonian American Art Museum. pp. 228–238. ISBN9781913875268.
^"RK Briefcase". Smithsonian American Art Museum. Retrieved 9 December 2022.