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Catalog Data

Interviewee:
Feldman, Walter, 1925-2017  Search this
Interviewer:
Brown, Robert F  Search this
Subject:
Harper, Michael S.  Search this
Schevill, James Erwin  Search this
Brown University  Search this
Yale University. School of Fine Arts  Search this
Ziggurat Press  Search this
Type:
Sound recordings
Interviews
Place of publication, production, or execution:
Rhode Island
Physical Description:
1 Sound cassette, Sound recording (90 min.), analog; 30 Pages, Transcript
Access Note / Rights:
This transcript is open for research. Access to the entire audio recording is restricted. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Summary:
An interview with Walter Feldman conducted 1998 Aug. 10, by Robert Brown, for the the Archives of American Art, in Feldman's home, Providence, R.I.
Feldman discusses attending classes as a youth, 1939-1942, at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; attending Yale's School of Fine Arts, 1942; service in combat infantry in the U.S. Army, Europe, 1943-1946; completing his BFA at Yale, 1946-1950 and MFA, 1951; working as an instructor in painting at Yale until his appointment at Brown University (1953; professor 1961) where he continues to teach; exhibitions and commissions; working in painting, printmaking, mosaics, and in fine book making.
He discusses working as the sole studio art teacher at Brown University until mid-1960s; hiring of additional artist-teachers and the subsequent split of the art department between studio art and art history; bringing book arts to Brown with his establishment of the Brown/Ziggurat Press, which he directs and which mostly publishes poetry; the many visiting arists at Brown; frequent commissions which have kept him young in spirit; and working in widely divergent media: medals, mosaics, and a huge mural commission in 1976; discussion of leading examples of his handmade books, including James Schevill's poetry, "Lager Lieder" (1991), a book of concentration camp songs, and Michael Harper's "Family Sequences" (1998); broadsides he's designed, sculptural "reliqueries" to memorialize the Jewish Holocaust; the current prospering of his artists books; and his success as a teacher.
Citation:
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Walter Feldman, 1998 Aug. 10. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Additional Forms:
Transcript is available on the Archives of American Art's website.
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:
Walter Feldman (1925-2017) was an artist and art educator of Providence, R.I. Established Ziggurat Press in 1984 and, as teaching adjunct at Brown University, the Brown/Ziggurat Press in 1990.
Language Note:
English .
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.
Location Note:
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 750 9th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20001
Topic:
Artists as teachers  Search this
Artists -- Rhode Island -- Providence -- Interviews  Search this
Artists' books  Search this
Record number:
(DSI-AAA_CollID)11787
(DSI-AAA_SIRISBib)216394
AAA_collcode_feldma98
Data Source:
Archives of American Art
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:AAADCD_oh_216394