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Catalog Data

Interviewee:
Milant, Jean Robert, 1943-  Search this
Interviewer:
Drohojowska-Philp, Hunter  Search this
Subject:
Antreasian, Garo Z.  Search this
Auder, Michel  Search this
Baldessari, John  Search this
Blum, Irving  Search this
Burden, Chris  Search this
Card, Greg S.  Search this
Carson, Karen  Search this
Cointet, Guy de  Search this
de Beauvau-Craon, Minnie  Search this
Egelston, Robert  Search this
Francis, Sam  Search this
Gehry, Frank O.  Search this
Goodman, Marian  Search this
Harrison, Newton  Search this
Hill, Charles Christopher  Search this
Inch, Terry  Search this
Irwin, Robert  Search this
Kanemitsu, Matsumi  Search this
Kauffman, Craig  Search this
Leiber, Steven  Search this
Marron, Donald B.  Search this
Mizuno, Riko  Search this
Moses, Ed  Search this
Nauman, Bruce  Search this
Overby, Robert  Search this
Price, Kenneth  Search this
Rivière, Alain  Search this
Rosen, Gerry  Search this
Ruscha, Edward  Search this
Sturman, Eugene  Search this
Trowbridge, David  Search this
Tyler, Kenneth E.  Search this
Viva  Search this
Wayne, June  Search this
Wood, Jonas  Search this
Cirrus Editions  Search this
Cirrus Gallery  Search this
Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art  Search this
Los Angeles Visual Arts (Organization)  Search this
Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles, Calif.)  Search this
Tamarind Institute  Search this
University of New Mexico  Search this
University of Wisconsin  Search this
Type:
Interviews
Sound recordings
Place:
Europe -- description and travel
France -- description and travel
New York (N.Y.) -- Description and travel
Place of publication, production, or execution:
California
Physical Description:
4 Items, Sound recording: 4 sound files (3 hr., 7 min.), digital, wav; 102 Pages, Transcript
Summary:
An interview of Jean Milant, conducted 2015 July 20, by Hunter Drohojowska-Philp, for the Archives of American Art at Milant's home in Los Angeles, California.
Jean Milant discusses growing up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and his French and German heritage; his introduction to art instruction in high school and further studies at the University of Wisconsin; his trips to Europe and New York City as an undergraduate art student; his time as a graduate student at the University of New Mexico, and his work at the Tamarind Institute printmaking program and his introduction to Los Angeles; his work at Tamarind with Ed Ruscha, Sam Francis, Ed Moses, and Ken Price, among others; the beginnings of Cirrus Gallery and Cirrus Editions and his search for backers for the two endeavors; his partnership with Terry Inch as a backer for Cirrus. Mr. Milant also describes the decision to move his gallery and printmaking shop to downtown Los Angeles in 1979; the support of Robert Egelston and the collector Donald Marron and other collectors who first subscribed to his print editions; his experiences in France with Minnie de Beauvau-Craon; the gallery and museum scene in Los Angeles in the early '70s and '80s; his efforts to promote Los Angeles as a vibrant center of art, including trips to Europe in the early '70s to show his artists; the creation of Ed Ruscha's prints using food; working with Bruce Nauman and John Baldessari to create prints; the creation of the Los Angeles Visual Arts group of L.A. art dealers; his involvement with the creation of the Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art in 1974; his work with the artist Guy de Cointet and Mr. Cointet's early performances at Cirrus Gallery; the opening of MOCA in 1984; his desire to create a think-tank institute to help create a viable future for art. Mr. Milant also recalls Garo Antreasian, Newton Harrison, June Wayne, Frank Gehry, Robert Irwin, Eugene Sturman, Matsumi Kanemitsu, Ken Tyler, Riko Mizuno, Irving Blum, Gerry Rosen, Robert Overby, David Trowbridge as well as Chris Burden, Greg Card, Karen Carson, Craig Kauffman, Marian Goodman, Alain Rivière, Charles Christopher Hill, Steven Leiber, Viva, Michel Auder, and Jonas Wood, among others.
Citation:
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Jean Milant, 2015 July 20. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Additional Forms:
Transcript is available on the Archives of American Art's website.
Biography Note:
Jean Robert Milant (1943- ) is an art dealer and publisher in Los Angeles, California. Hunter Drohojowska-Philp is an art critic and writer from Beverly Hills, California.
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 -- Study and teaching  Search this
Prints -- Technique  Search this
Record number:
(DSI-AAA_CollID)16293
(DSI-AAA_SIRISBib)373759
AAA_collcode_milant15
Data Source:
Archives of American Art
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:AAADCD_oh_373759