New Deal and the Arts Oral History Project Search this
Type:
Interviews
Sound recordings
Place of publication, production, or execution:
California
Physical Description:
20 Pages, Transcript
General Note:
Originally recorded on 1 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 2 digital wav files. Duration is 52 min.
Access Note / Rights:
Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.
Summary:
An interview of Richard Ayer conducted 1964 September 26, by Mary McChesney, for the Archives of American Art New Deal and the Arts Project.
Ayer speaks of his "haphazard" education, including study with Hilaire Hiler; his work assisting Victor Mikhail Arnautoff on frescos in the Presidio Chapel; the WPA easel painting project in San Francisco; and the Aquatic Park Building mural program, 1934. He recalls some of the artists associated with the Aquatic Park project. He also discusses the Ostwald and Hiler color theories and Herman Volz's mural for the Treasure Island Federal Building.
Citation:
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Richard Ayer, 1964 September 26. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Additional Forms:
Transcript available on line.
Funding:
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.
Biography Note:
Richard Ayer (1909-1967) was a mural painter from San Francisco, California.
Language Note:
English .
Provenance:
This interview conducted as part of the Archives of American Art's New Deal and the Arts project, which includes over 400 interviews of artists, administrators, historians, and others involved with the federal government's art programs and the activities of the Farm Security Administration in the 1930s and early 1940s.
Location Note:
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 750 9th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20001