An interview of Dorothy Canning Miller conducted 1981 May 14, by Avis Berman, for the Archives of American Art's Mark Rothko and His Times oral history project.
Miller talks about the first time she, with Alfred Barr, saw Mark Rothko's work in Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors exhibitions. She remembers her first visit to Rothko's studio and frequent conversations at an Italian restaurant near the studio. Miller recounts incidents involving Rothko and Clyfford Still while she was organizing the show "15 Americans" and others at the Museum of Modern Art. She recalls the relationship between Rothko and Still, their split, her own split with Still, and the psychological changes she noted in Rothko. She recalls Holger Cahill, Alfred Barr, Barnett Newma, Robert Motherwell, Clyfford Still, Howard Putzel, Carla Panicali, de Kooning, and others.
Biographical / Historical:
Dorothy Miller (1904-2003) was an art museum curator and art consultant from New York, N.Y.
General:
Originally recorded on 3 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 5 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hrs., 24 min.
Provenance:
This interview was conducted as part of the Archives of American Art's Mark Rothko and his Times oral history project, with funding provided by the Mark Rothko Foundation.
Others interviewed on the project (by various interviewers) include: Sonia Allen, Sally Avery, Ben-Zion, Bernard Braddon, Ernest Briggs, Rhys Caparn, Elaine de Kooning, Herbert Ferber, Esther Gottlieb, Juliette Hays, Sidney Janis, Buffie Johnson, Jacob Kainen, Louis Kaufman, Jack Kufeld, Katharine Kuh, Stanley Kunitz, Joseph Liss, Betty Parsons, Wallace Putnam, Rebecca Reis, Maurice Roth, Sidney Schectman, Aaron Siskind, Joseph Solman, Hedda Sterne, Jack Tworkov, Esteban Vicente and Ed Weinstein. Each has been cataloged separately.
Restrictions:
Transcript is available on the Archives of American Art's website.
Art museum curators -- New York (State) -- New York -- Interviews Search this
Genre/Form:
Sound recordings
Interviews
Sponsor:
Funding for the interview was provided by the Mark Rothko Foundation.
Funding for the digital preservation of this interview was provided by a grant from the Save America's Treasures Program of the National Park Service.