An interview of Linda Nochlin conducted 2010 June 9-30, by James McElhinney, for the Archives of American Art's Oral History of Women in the Visual Arts project at Nochlin's home in New York, N.Y.
Nochlin speaks of her family background; growing up in Crown Heights, Brooklyn; her antireligious and intellectual home environment; her childhood as "Eden"; the influence of her uncle, Robert Heller; in high school "hanging out" in museums in New York City; her studies at Vassar, Columbia University, and the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University; her early interest in and writings about Gustave Courbet; teaching at Vassar; the "homosexual matriarchy" at Vassar; feminism; her identity as a New Yorker; Pierre-Auguste Renoir as a painter of men; teaching the first "women in art" class; her article "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists"; pre-women's liberation artists; how she has evolved as a writer; her taste in music, movies, and television; her research on Jean François Millet's, "The Gleaners"; how the discipline of art history has changed; her emphasis on "thinking, looking, explaining, and talking" about art and "new ways of looking at old material"; her students; her preference for the essay form; her current interest in the present moment; how research has changed with the availability of online resources; and other topics. She recalls Meyer Schapiro, Erwin Panofsky, Wendell Jones, Karl Lehmann, Aby Warburg, and others.
Biographical / Historical:
Linda Nochlin (1931-) is a professor of art history in New York, N.Y. James McElhinney (1952-) is an artist, writer and educator in New York, N.Y.
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.
Restrictions:
The transcript and audio recording are open for research. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Occupation:
Art historians -- New York (State) -- New York -- Interviews Search this
