New Deal and the Arts Oral History Project Search this
Type:
Sound recordings
Interviews
Place of publication, production, or execution:
United States
Physical Description:
27 Pages, Transcript
General Note:
Originally recorded on 1 sound tape reel. Reformatted in 2010 as 4 digital wav files. Duration is 4 hr., 29 min.
Access Note / Rights:
This interview is open for research. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Summary:
An interview of William Cumming conducted by Dorothy Bestor on 1965 April 3 for the Archives of American Art.
Cumming speaks of getting on the Federal Art Project; meeting Morris Graves; problems with the way the project was administered and supervised; destruction of some of the art work produced by the project; his feelings about federal support for the arts; his existential philosophy on life; and his views on current trends in painting. He recalls Jacob Elshin, Robert Bruce Inverarity, Mark Tobey, Denise Farwell, Guy Anderson.
Citation:
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with William Cumming, 1965 April 3. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Additional Forms:
Transcript: 35mm microfilm reel 3418 available at Archives of American Art offices and through interlibrary loan.
Transcript is available on the Archives of American Art's website.
Biography Note:
William Cumming is a painter from Seattle, Washington.
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
