Skip to main content Smithsonian Institution

Catalog Data

Interviewee:
Rorimer, Anne  Search this
Interviewer:
Richards, Judith Olch  Search this
Names:
Albright-Knox Art Gallery  Search this
Art Institute of Chicago -- Faculty  Search this
Bryn Mawr College -- Students  Search this
Elizabeth Murray Oral History of Women in the Visual Arts Project  Search this
Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.) -- Employees  Search this
Victoria and Albert Museum  Search this
Acconci, Vito, 1940-  Search this
Asher, Michael  Search this
Broodthaers, Marcel  Search this
Buchloh, B. H. D.  Search this
Buren, Daniel  Search this
Castelli, Leo  Search this
D'Harnoncourt, Anne, 1943-2008  Search this
Geldzahler, Henry  Search this
Graham, Dan, 1942-  Search this
Hale, Robert Beverly, 1901-1985  Search this
Hesse, Eva, 1936-1970  Search this
Kuh, Katharine  Search this
LeWitt, Sol, 1928-2007  Search this
Lippard, Lucy R.  Search this
Lowry, Bates, 1923-  Search this
Maxon, John, 1916-  Search this
Morris, Robert, 1931-2018  Search this
Nauman, Bruce, 1941-  Search this
Newman, Muriel Kallis Steinberg  Search this
Rorimer, James J. (James Joseph), 1905-1966  Search this
Smith, Tony, 1912-1980  Search this
Speyer, A. James  Search this
Stamos, Theodoros, 1922-1997  Search this
Tucker, Marcia  Search this
Wegman, William  Search this
Weiner, Lawrence  Search this
Extent:
147 Pages (Transcript)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Pages
Sound recordings
Interviews
Date:
2010 November 15-16
Scope and Contents:
An interview of Anne Rorimer conducted 2010 November 15-16, by Judith Olch Richards, for the Archives of American Art's Elizabeth Murray Oral History of Women in the Visual Arts project, at Rorimer's home, in Chicago, Illinois.
Rorimer speaks of her family background; her early life and education in New York City; her father, James Rorimer, and his influence as director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art; college life at Bryn Mawr; how she became interested in modern art; her internship at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London after college; her master's degree thesis on Tony Smith; her job as a curator at the Albright-Knox Gallery and then at the Art Institute of Chicago; memorable exhibitions at the AIC throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, including the annual "American Exhibition," "Europe in the Seventies: Aspects of Recent Art," (1977), and "Idea and Image in Recent Art" (1974); her close relationship with Anne D'Harnoncourt; how she left the AIC in 1984 to write, "New Art in the '60s and 70s: Redefining Reality," (2001); her role in acquisitions of contemporary art at the AIC; her thoughts on art education; her work with collectors; the process of getting her book published and reactions to it; her curatorial projects in the 1980s and early 1990s that focused on conceptual art; her relationship with artists like Michael Asher and Daniel Buren; her extensive book collection; her thoughts on being a freelance curator and writer. She recalls Whitney Stoddard, Robert Beverly Hale, Theodoros Stamos, Leo Castelli, Henry Geldzahler, Anne D'Harnoncourt, Renee Marcuse, Bates Lowry, Tony Smith, Marcia Tucker, A. James Speyer, Bruce Nauman, Lawrence Weiner, Vito Acconci, William Wegman, Robert Morris, Lucy R. Lippard, Katharine Kuh, Sol Lewitt, John Maxon, Eva Hesse, Muriel Newman, Judith Kirschner, Dan Graham, Benjamin Buchloh, and Marcel Broodthaers.
Biographical / Historical:
Anne Rorimer (1944-) is a curator and art historian in Chicago, Illinois. Judith Olch Richards (1947-) is a former executive director of iCI in New York, New York.
General:
Originally recorded on 4 memory cards. Reformatted in 2010 as 6 digital wav files. Duration is 5 hr., 36 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.
Occupation:
Art historians -- Illinois -- Chicago -- Interviews  Search this
Authors -- Illinois -- Chicago  Search this
Topic:
Art -- Collectors and collecting  Search this
Art, Modern -- 20th century  Search this
Conceptual art  Search this
Curators -- Illinois -- Chicago -- Interviews  Search this
Women art historians  Search this
Women authors  Search this
Genre/Form:
Sound recordings
Interviews
Identifier:
AAA.rorime10
Archival Repository:
Archives of American Art
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw9377eddf5-b420-452e-8171-3b181c505e3d
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-aaa-rorime10