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Page 1: The Oral History Program

The Smithsonian Institution

The Oral History ProgramAuthor(s): Paul CummingsSource: Archives of American Art Journal, Vol. 15, No. 4 (1975), pp. 17-18Published by: The Smithsonian InstitutionStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1557167 .

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Page 2: The Oral History Program

17

The Curator's

Report Arthur Breton

During the period October through De- cember 1975, papers or microfilms of the following persons or organizations were received in the Washington office of the Archives. This list includes both gifts and loans.

American Artists' Professional League James Auer Will Barnet Beachcombers' Club Arnold Blanch Lucile Blanch Gutzon Borglum Solon Borglum Nancy Douglas Bowditch Telles Gilbert Brouillette Margaret Fitzhugh Browne Joseph Camins Eleanor Coen Charles J. Connick Lucille Corcos Florence Cramer Konrad Cramer John Steuart Curry Adolf Dehn William Germain Dooley Arthur Wesley Dow Henry Francis Famy Jonathan Fisher Edward Alan Forman John Stark Frazee Emil Frei, Jr. Emil Frei, Sr. Ken Friedman Francis Getty Howard Gibbs Richard Guggenheimer Frederick Garrison Hall Tullah Hanley Arthur Hazard Arthur W. Heintzelman Ferdinand Howald Isabella Howland Patricia Johanson Albert Kahn Max Kahn Maxim Karolik Adaline Kent Elizabeth Klavun Gaston Lachaise John LaFarge Edgar Levy Longacre Family Marcia Marcus Michigan Artrain Frank D. Millet John A. P. Millet Isabelle Nagle James C. Nichols Anne Nutzhom Otis Oldfield Pewabic Pottery

Willis Polk Portland Art Museum Tina Prentiss Quay Gallery Charles Rosen E. J. Rousuck Salmagundi Club Charles N. Sarka Marlis Schratter George Russell Shaw Thomas Mott Shaw Theodore C. Steele Daniel Vamey Thompson Alfredo Valente Jack Vallee Vickery, Atkins, & Torrey, Inc. C. Howard Walker Clarence Ward Franklin Watkins E. Ambrose Webster Charles White Nina Winkel Womanspace Grant Wood

During the period October through De- cember 1975, microfilms of papers of the following persons or organizations were distributed to all branch offices of the Archives. Lucile Blanch Rhys Capam J. Eastman Chase Charles J. Connick Lily Cushing Worden Day Arthur Wesley Dow Moses Jacob Ezekiel Ferargil Galleries Jan Gelb Mark Green George Groce Joseph Gropper Frederick Garrison Hall Cleo Hartwig Mabel K. Hatt Leroy Ireland William James, Jr. Nell Choate Jones Morris Kantor Miner Kilboume Kellog Marian King Gaston Lachaise Jules Langsner Percy Leason Reverend Andrew Longacre Charles Waldo Love Stantor MacDonald-Wright Sibyl Moholy-Nagy Otis Oldfield Ivan Olinsky Frederick Papsdorf Willis Polk Charles Rosen Helene Sardeau Charles N. Sarka Saul Schary Marlis Schratter Truman Seymour Otto Stark

Mary Chase Stratton Thayer Gallery Vickery, Atkins, & Torrey, Inc. Emil Weddige Irma Whitney Willard Gallery Ezra Winter Grant Wood Philip Newell Youtz

The Oral History Program Paul Cummings The year's final quarter brings on a rush to complete interviews and attend holi- day entertainments. During this period there was a short interview with Klaus Kertess, founder and former director of the Bykert Gallery, New York City. Kertess describes the development of his interest in art, his becoming an art dealer, and his later rejection of the art business for the art work itself. His inter- view portrays the avant-garde during the 1960s and the early 1970s, reflecting a specific taste for minimalism. Marcia Marcus documents the halcyon days of New York's 10th Street galleries during the fifties and early sixties, and depicts the Provincetown summer crowd, whose main interest was in figurative painting. Marcus presents another side to the oft- told tales of the abstract painters of the period. The topic of teaching art in a university provokes several explosive moments when she describes both stu- dents and fellow teachers at various institutions. A. M. Adler, long a New York art dealer, was trained as an archi- tect at Yale University. During the De- pression, his first business endeavor, that of dealing in the decorative arts, provided an opportunity to sell a group of paintings, thereby reaping a substan- tial profit. This lucrative transaction induced Adler into dealing in paintings as well as in the decorative arts. The dis- cussion of his four decades of art dealing offers a unique insight into the shifting taste of American collectors and institu- tions. The business of art dealing is also commented upon in additional chapters to the interview with Perry Rathbone. The operation of the St. Louis Museum, the development of its collections and exhibitions, as well as vignettes of sev- eral patrons, trustees, and art dealers illuminate this continuing series. The story of his transfer to Boston is typical of the wit exercised by Bostonians in selecting the directors of their local cul- tural institutions.

Two interviews were conducted in Washington, D.C., during this quarter.

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Page 3: The Oral History Program

18

Abram Lerner, director of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, tells of his years as painter, art dealer, and finally as curator of Joseph Hirshhom's private collection. The problems involved with the operation of such a massive collec- tion proved to be excellent preparation for his position as director of the Hirsh- horn Museum. His description of the final settlement of the collection with the Smithsonian Institution and its transfer to Washington is told with wry humor and clear insight. Alice Denney, currently director of the Washington Project for the Arts, has been for years one of the most potent forces for modem- ism in that city. Her numerous stories about exhibitions, artists, the Venice Biennial, patrons, and the press in New York and elsewhere enliven this discus- sion of the American art scene during the past two decades.

Regional Office Reports

Boston

Robert Brown

The Archives has microfilmed a com- pilation of printed material related to the career of Harriet Goodhue Hosmer, probably the leading woman sculptor of her day. Though she was born in Massa- chusetts and her works were collected avidly in Boston, her reputation was achieved in Italy and England where she worked for many years. Our material includes European and American writ- ings about her from the 1860s onward, and detailed notes on her work by several generations of researchers.

The principal collection of records of Arthur Wesley Dow, painter and educa- tor, was also microfilmed in late 1975. Among these documents are sketches and photographs that illustrate Dow's assimilation of both the French plein air movement in painting and the esthetic technique of the Japanese woodblock print. The success of this synthesis is evi- dent in Dow's work, but of much greater importance was the influence it had on his teaching at Pratt Institute, at the Teacher's College of Columbia Univer- sity, and at Dow's own summer school in his native Ipswich, Massachusetts.

Frederick G. Hall was an etcher trained first as an architect, a common occurrence during the first quarter of this century. His skill at achieving the

nuances of tone and texture demanded in architectural renderings of that time was applied to his sensitive etchings of architecture and street scenes. Hall's correspondence and sketches indicate a small body of work, eagerly sought after by print connoisseurs in the East and Midwest. Photographs of his oil portraits and still lifes suggest Hall's close rela- tionship to the naturalism of the Boston school of painters.

The papers of Howard Gibbs, partic- ularly the letters of painter William Littlefield, scrapbooks, and photographs of the artist and his milieu, produce a picture of a man who was, at the same time, both a bohemian and a loner. Gibbs' only sustained public career came in the 1950s, when he was represented by Boston's Margaret Brown Gallery.

The most comprehensive collection acquired in late 1975 was the records of Wilbur H. Bumham, a Boston stained- glass designer. Trained by craftsmen working with church architect Ralph Adams Cram, Bumham's designs paral- lel in stained glass the imitative medi- eval taste favored by Cram and by most American ecclesiastical patrons of the first half of the 20th century. The bulk of the collection consists of the complete project files of St. John the Divine and St. Bartholomew's, both in New York City, and for the National Cathedral in Washington, D. C. Autobiographical notes, photographs of designs and work, and annotated watercolor studies of medieval glass made by the artist during visits to France and England provide a complete view of Bumham's career.

In October, the New England office and its membership committee offered a tour of contemporary artists' studios in the venerable Fenway Studios building in Boston. In December, in collaboration with the Boston Public Library, the Archives sponsored an evening with artist Adja Yunkers and Octavio Paz, the noted poet whose works Yunkers has illustrated.

Detroit

Dennis Barrie

For the last three years, oral history has been a vital part of the Midwest center's activities. During that time several dozen interviews have been conducted with major figures of the midwestern art scene. Until recently funds have not been provided for the establishment of a well-planned oral history program in our region. The Matilda Wilson Foundation and the Michigan Council for the Arts have both provided substantial grants for the interviewing of artists, art ad-

ministrators, collectors, and dealers important to the Midwest. Under the Matilda Wilson grant, fifteen interviews were scheduled with individuals from Ohio, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, and Michigan. This program was designed to provide in-depth, biographical inter- views with key members of the art com- munity, thus serving as a stimulus for the development of even more compre- hensive oral history programs through- out the region. The Michigan Council monies were employed exclusively for interviews in Michigan.

In Missouri, painters Siegfried Reinhardt and Arthur Osver were inter- viewed. Osver, an instructor of painting at Washington University, discusses his training in Chicago under Boris Anisfeld, his teaching years at the Cooper Union and Yale, and his work at the American Academy in Rome. Reinhardt, nationally known for his surrealistic painting, speaks of the various media he has em- ployed during his career, including enamel and stained glass, the influence of stained-glass-making on his work, and his association with the art department at Washington University. William Eisendrath, former assistant director of the St. Louis Art Museum, comments on many topics related to his activities at the Chicago Arts Club, the University of Chicago's Renaissance Society, and the St. Louis Museum, including major exhibitions guided by Eisendrath and former director Perry Rathbone.

William Milliken and Joseph McCullough, two leaders of the Ohio art community, were interviewed at length. Milliken, who served as director of the Cleveland Museum of Art from 1930 to 1958, discusses his role in its development, the building of its collec- tion, its major patrons, and his many associations with legendary art figures such as Bemard Berenson, Isabella Stewart Gardner, and Henry Clay Frick. Milliken also talks of his involvement as regional director with the Public Works of Art Project and about the many artists he knew under its auspices. Joseph McCullough, president of the Cleveland Institute of Art, one of the most promi- nent art schools in the Midwest, pro- vides information on the policies and philosophy of the school, the artists who worked there, and changes in studio art education there and at other schools.

Ellen Lanyon, a major influence in Chicago painting, was the subject of an extensive interview. Lanyon imparts important information on the Chicago Monumentum Movement of the early 1950s, Chicago Surrealism, Ivan Albright, Allan Frumkin, and the Oxbow Summer School of Painting. Aris Koutroulis, a Michigan painter and printmaker, speaks about his years at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, his study

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