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Interviewee:
Wasserman, Jeanne L., 1915-2006  Search this
Interviewer:
Brown, Robert F.  Search this
Subject:
Agam, Yaacov  Search this
Beale, Arthur  Search this
Cook, Christopher Capen  Search this
Coolidge, John  Search this
Hyde, Andrew C. (Andrew Cornwall)  Search this
Indiana, Robert  Search this
Mangravite, Peppino  Search this
Messer, Thomas M.  Search this
Oldenburg, Claes  Search this
Plaut, James S. (James Sachs)  Search this
Prokopoff, Stephen S.  Search this
Rickey, George  Search this
Ross, David A.  Search this
Saint-Phalle, Niki de  Search this
Stieglitz, Alfred  Search this
Thurman, Sue M.  Search this
Tinguely, Jean  Search this
Wasserman, Max  Search this
Fogg Art Museum  Search this
Institute of Contemporary Art (Boston, Mass.)  Search this
Massachusetts Institute of Technology  Search this
Type:
Sound recordings
Interviews
Place of publication, production, or execution:
United States
Physical Description:
5 sound cassettes (7 hrs., 30 min.), analog.; 125 Pages, Transcript
General Note:
Originally recorded on 5 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 10 digital wav files. Duration is 7 hrs., 12 min.
Summary:
Interview of Jeanne L. Wasserman, conducted by Robert F. Brown for the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, in Cambridge, MA from January 28, 1993-July 19, 1994.
Wasserman speaks of her parents' cultural interests; first becoming interested in sculpture after visiting a Rodin exhibition in Paris with her family; visiting art galleries and studying painting in New York City as a young woman; her education at Fieldston and Radcliffe; trying to get a job in New York after college; working in advertising; meeting her husband, Max, and building a business with him; beginning to collect art; putting together a collection for the condominium project, 180 Beacon; the opening of 180 Beacon; working on a condominium project in the Virgin Islands; curating sculpture exhibitions at the Fogg Museum and at Wellesley; writing the catalogue for a Daumier exhibition at the Fogg; serving on the board of the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; organizing forums on contemporary art with the Council of the Arts at MIT; becoming involved with Harvard's Institute for Learning in Retirement; and notable purchases of work by Daumier, Rodin, Degas, Giacometti, de Chirico, Nicolas Schöffer, Henry Moore, and others. Wasserman also recalls Alfred Stieglitz, Peppino Mangravite, Elie Nadelman, Hyman Swetzoff, Joseph Hirshhorn, Erica Brausen, René and Charles Gimpel, Louise Nevelson, Niki de Saint Phalle, Jean Tinguely, Robert Indiana, Claes Oldenburg, Denise René, Yaacov Agam, George Rickey, George Segal, David Ross, Milena Kalinovska, Jacques de Caso, Yulla Lipchitz, Vera List, Jim Cuno, and others.
Citation:
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Jeanne L. Wasserman, 1993-1994. 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:
Jeanne L. Wasserman, (1915-2006) was a museum curator and art collector from Boston, Massachusetts.
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:
Art -- Collectors and collecting -- Massachusetts -- Interviews  Search this
Art museum curators -- Massachusetts -- Interviews  Search this
Record number:
(DSI-AAA_CollID)11984
(DSI-AAA_SIRISBib)216506
AAA_collcode_wasser93
Data Source:
Archives of American Art
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:AAADCD_oh_216506