Beryl McCarthy Wynnyk (1902 - ?)

Portrait (Untitled), c. mid 1930s, hammered copper, 11 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches

$2500

Beryl McCarthy Wynnyk was a California-based painter, sculptor, and craftsperson. She studied at the California School of Fine Arts before being drawn to puppetry by fellow artists Ralph Chesse and Blanding Sloan. During the late 1920s and early 1930s, she was owner of the McCarthy-Wynnyk Puppet Company, the only open-air professional marionette company in the United States. Wynnyk designed and created puppets, which she considered to be moving sculpture, and worked as a performer. The Company’s production were well reviewed and Wynnyk’s puppet designs and costumes, were considered among the best in the United States. By 1937, she was employed by the Federal Art Project (FAP) of the Works Progress Administration where she worked together with Benjamin Bufano from whom she was said to have developed a certain “Orientalism.” Wynnyk was the only women on the San Francisco FAP working in hammered copper as her main medium. She also created innovative direct carved wood and plaster sculpture with copper and glass adornments. One such creation won third prize at the Oakland Art Gallery’s Annual Sculpture Exhibition in 1938, finishing behind another talented California woman sculptor, Claire Falkenstein. By 1941, one of her sculptures had been acquired by The Library of Congress. Wynnyk was the third wife of fellow artist Ray Boynton with whom she shared a studio during the 1940s. By 1948, Wynnyk and Boynton moved to Santa Fe where she expanded her practice to include ceramics. In addition to the Oakland Art Gallery, Wynnyk exhibited at the San Francisco Art Association, the Crocker Museum of Art, the Golden Gate International Exposition, and the New Mexico State Art Museum. She is Listed in Who Was Who In American Art and other standard references.