Interview of Robert Breer conducted 1973 July 10, by Paul Cummings, for the Archives of American Art.
Breer speaks of his boyhood in Detroit; his family, and its activities in early auto engineering; attending Stanford University and drawing cartoons for its daily paper; Stanford's art department, his U.S. Army service; the influence of the Tannerhill collection; going to Paris and the art scene there in the 1950s; Galerie Denise René; making his first films in 1952; the experimental film movement and his involvement in it; Studio Parnene and its showings of his films; showings in America; tachism; his return to the United States; the Brussels Fair Film Festival; mutascopes; early sculptures; his "Bent Whale" transitional piece; kinetic sculpture; Tinguely and Oldenburg films; descriptions of some of his sculptures; his design for the Pepsi Cola Pavilion at the Japan Expo in 1970; the Bonino Gallery.
Biographical / Historical:
Robert Breer (1926-2011) was a sculptor and filmmaker from Tappacu, New York.
General:
Originally recorded on 2 sound tape reels. Reformatted in 2010 as 6 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hr., 43 min.
Provenance:
This interview is part of the Archives of American Art 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.