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Catalog Data

Interviewee:
Arient, James, 1946-  Search this
Arient, Beth, 1946-  Search this
Interviewer:
Blum, Betty  Search this
Names:
Camp, Jeffrey Thomas, 1944-  Search this
Dawson, William, 1901-1990  Search this
Finster, Howard, 1916-2001  Search this
Webster, Derek, 1934 - 2009  Search this
Extent:
213 Pages (Transcript)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Pages
Sound recordings
Interviews
Date:
1988 April 27-29
Scope and Contents:
An interview of James and Beth Arient conducted 1988 April 27-29, by Betty Blum, for the Archives of American Art.
The Arients describe their backgrounds and talk about their initial interest in art and early collecting, their philosophy of collecting, their discovery of Eskimo sculpture and their first awareness of folk art. They comment on meeting Howard Finster and their subsequent relationship with him, Finster's relationship with collector Jeff Camp, the marketability of folk art, a 1987 exhibition of part of their collection at Northern Illinois University Art Gallery, and folk art patronage. They recall William Dawson and Derek Webster.
Biographical / Historical:
James Arient (1946-) and Beth Arient (1946-) are folk art collectors from Chicago, Illinois. James Arient is a dentist.
General:
Originally recorded on 3 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 6 digital wav files. Duration is 4 hr., 29 min.
Provenance:
These interviews are part of the Archives' Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and others.
Topic:
Art -- Collectors and collecting -- Illinois -- Chicago -- Interviews  Search this
Folk art -- Collectors and collecting -- United States  Search this
Genre/Form:
Sound recordings
Interviews
Identifier:
AAA.arient88
Archival Repository:
Archives of American Art
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw968c3fe7c-62d8-4d33-98fd-dac6182baffa
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-aaa-arient88