The Smithsonian Institution

The Oral History ProgramAuthor(s): Paul CummingsSource: Archives of American Art Journal, Vol. 16, No. 1 (1976), p. 23Published by: The Smithsonian InstitutionStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1556876 .

Accessed: 12/06/2014 16:56

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

The Smithsonian Institution is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Archives ofAmerican Art Journal.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 91.229.248.187 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 16:56:50 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

23

Edwin J. Hipkiss Gerrit Hondius Harriet Goodhue Hosmer Buffie Johnson Una Johnson Philip Kappel Helen Keen Gyorgy Kepes William King Frances Kish Henry Hudson Kitson Theo Ruggles Kitson Daniel Koemer Lucien Labaudt Art Gallery Frances Lamont Robert Laurent Rico Lebrun Henry Linder Los Angeles County Museum of Art Ferdinand Lundgren Irving Marantz Fred Martin Ralph and Bena Mayer Fred Nankivel Bamrnet Newman New Orleans Scrapbook Nordness Gallery Otis Oldfield Lillian Orlowsky David Park Philip Pearlstein Otis Philbrick Arthur Polonsky Tina Prentiss Charles Raleigh William Clark Rice Chris Ritter Aline Saarinen Lily Swan Saarinen Emilio Sanchez Ludwig Sander Charles Sarka Antoinette Schulte Truman Seymour Thomas Mott Shaw Lily Shuff Violet Sigismund Nell Sinton Lily Martin Spencer Stendhal Gallery Daniel V. Thompson Hanna Thompson John Vanderlyn Coulton Waugh Frederick J. Waugh Samuel Bell Waugh Emil Weddige Marion E. Wheeler John Whorf Frank Wilcox Sol Wilson Emerson Woelffer Womanspace

During the same period, microfilms of papers of the following persons or or- ganizations were distributed to all branch offices of the Archives. John Ottis Adams

Robert Aitken Artists' Gallery Richard Brown Baker Margaret Wendell La Barre Martin Bimrnbaum Hans Boehler Brooklyn Museum Alexander Calder Clarence Kerr Chatterton Herman Cherry Konrad and Florence Cramer Joseph L. Curran, Jr. Adolf Dehn Arthur Wesley Dow Frederick Garrison Hall Mabel Hatt Harriet Goodhue Hosmer Percy Leason Longacre family Los Angeles County Museum of Art Fred Nankivel Arnold Newman Helene Sardeau Saul Schary Truman Seymour George Henry Smillie Suzanne Mullett Smith C. Howard Walker Adja Yunkers

The Oral

History Program Paul Cummings

The winter quarter saw interviews con- ducted with several figures active on the national art scene. Concluding ones with Al Lemer of the Hirshhom Museum and Sculpture Garden and Alice Denney took place in Washington, D. C. Lemer completed his interview with descrip- tions of the 1974 opening of the museum, plans for its development, the museum's place in society, and comments on Joseph Hirshhomrn's continued interest and sup- port of the museum. Mrs. Denney's series of dialogues ended with a discus- sion of the cultural life of Washington and her part in it during recent years.

Two painters, Al Held and Clay Spohn, were also interviewed during this period. Held describes several raucous adventures of his youth in New York City, his post-World War II years in Paris as an art student, and his return and establishment as an Abstract Ex- pressionist painter. His ideas on the development of his art, teaching, and the art scene in general vividly recall the color and flavor of the 1950s and 1960s. Clay Spohn relates the story of his re-

bellious years as a young Califomrnia painter. Lack of support for his modem artistic tendencies led to travels in Europe and around the United States, teaching posts in several cities, and, recently, to residence in New York. De- scriptions of many of his peers and stu- dents round out this interview.

Two New York City dealers docu- ment the history of their activities in the art business. Brooks Jackson tells of his long association with the Alexander Iolas Gallery, and describes its presenta- tion of many Surrealists in America, its major patrons, and the new directions the gallery recently has taken. Tibor deNagy, whose gallery has shown the works of many distinguished American painters and sculptors for over two decades, comments on his own life as well as the history of the gallery and the influence of his associate of many years, John Bernard Myers. DeNagy's stories of many of the poets of the New York school depict an art world with closer literary ties than now exists. The con- tinuing interview with Perry Rathbone proceeds with his move to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the problems he encountered there, and the changes he wanted to make. The development of the Ladies' Committee and its influence is of major importance in the history of the museum and could serve as a useful pattern for other institutions. Rathbone also comments on several of the mu- seum's collections and patrons.

Regional Office

Reports

Boston

Robert Brown

During the first quarter of 1976, the New England office received the papers of a notable 19th-century Boston painter, William Morris Hunt, additional rec- ords of the Waugh family, whose art careers spanned over 150 years, and the files of an ad hoc group of New England artists created in the 1960s during a time of intense controversy between tradi- tionalist and avant-garde artists.

A series of letters written in the late 1870s by William Morris Hunt to Rose Lamb, an aspiring young Boston artist, contains advice and practical sugges- tions. Other correspondence, written

This content downloaded from 91.229.248.187 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 16:56:50 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions