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Catalog Data

Interviewee:
McChesney, Mary Fuller  Search this
Interviewer:
Landauer, Susan  Search this
Creator:
Women in the Arts in Southern California Oral History Project  Search this
Names:
Women in the Arts in Southern California Oral History Project  Search this
Corbett, Edward, 1919-  Search this
De Kooning, Willem, 1904-1997  Search this
Diebenkorn, Richard, 1922-1993  Search this
Kees, Weldon, 1914-1955  Search this
MacAgy, Douglas, 1913-  Search this
Mandelman, Beatrice  Search this
Marca-Relli, Conrad, 1913-2000  Search this
Martin, Agnes, 1912-2004  Search this
McChesney, Robert, 1913-2008  Search this
Park, David, 1911-1960  Search this
Reinhardt, Ad, 1913-1967  Search this
Ribak, Louis, 1902-1979  Search this
Smith, Hassel, 1915-2007  Search this
Spohn, Clay Edgar, 1898-1977  Search this
Still, Clyfford, 1904-1980  Search this
Vicente, Esteban, 1903-2001  Search this
Extent:
145 Pages (Transcript)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Pages
Sound recordings
Interviews
Date:
1994 Sept. 28
Scope and Contents:
An interview of Mary Fuller McChesney conducted 1994 Sept. 28, by Susan Landauer, for the Archives of American Art, Women in the Arts in Southern California Oral History Project, at the artist's home, on Sonoma Mountain, Calif.
Fuller McChesney discusses her childhood and growing up during the Depression; her student days at the University of California, Berkeley; the political response on the campus to WWII and the Japanese interment; her experience working as a welder in the shipyards which she considers her introduction to sculpture; her introduction to the art community in San Francisco through the cooperative Artists' Guild Gallery; her association with the Abstract Expressionists at the California School of Fine Arts in the 1940s; her foray into writing fiction and her success as a mystery writer; her work on the Archives of American Art's oral history project documenting the WPA art project in California; her first significant publication on the San Francisco School of Abstract Expressionism, Period of Exploration, and the interviews she conducted in the mid-late 1960s for the project.
She describes her attitudes and philosphies about art; living at Point Richmond with her husband Robert McChesney, Edward Corbett, Hassel Smith, and poet Weldon Kees during the late 1940s; her impressions of the Cedar Bar and New York artists during the mid-late 1960s; her own artistic evolution and career as a sculptor; the intellectual and artistic sources of her work; her subjects and techniques; her public commissions; her audience and market; and her experiences and perspectives as a woman artist and feminist. She recalls Edward Corbett, Willem De Kooning, Richard Diebenkorn, Weldon Kees, Douglas MacAgy, Bea Mandelman, Conrad Marca-Relli, Agnes Martin, Robert McChesney, David Park, Ad Reinhardt, Louis Ribak, Hassel Smith, Clay Spohn, Clyfford Still, and Esteban Vicente.
Biographical / Historical:
Mary Fuller McChesney (1922-2022) was a sculptor and art historian in San Francisco and Petaluma, Calif.
General:
Originally recorded on 2 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 4 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hrs., 58 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 administrators. Funding for this interview was provided by the Margery and Harry Kahn Philanthropic Fund of the Jewish Communal Fund of New York.
Restrictions:
Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.
Occupation:
Sculptors -- California -- San Francisco  Search this
Art historians -- California -- San Francisco  Search this
Topic:
Women artists  Search this
Abstract expressionism  Search this
Art, Modern -- 20th century -- California -- San Francisco  Search this
Women sculptors  Search this
Women art historians  Search this
Genre/Form:
Sound recordings
Interviews
Identifier:
AAA.mcches94
Archival Repository:
Archives of American Art
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw97e983a8f-dabb-47d0-b2b6-2af7d79164de
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-aaa-mcches94