Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America Search this
Type:
Sound recordings
Interviews
Citation:
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Harvey K. Littleton, 2001 March 15. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Topic:
Glass artists -- North Carolina -- Interviews Search this
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Ilya Bolotowsky, 1968 March 24-April 7. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Mark Rothko and His Times Oral History Project Search this
Type:
Sound recordings
Interviews
Citation:
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Katharine Kuh, 1982 Mar. 18-1983 Mar. 24. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
This archive includes interesting documents related to Trude Guermonprez's life and work as a weaver. The archives are especially related to the designer's work for her major clients, like Holland America Line and Owens Corning Fiberglass; other pieces in this archive are related to Guermonprez's work for custom curtains made for major synagogues and her designs, interior fabrics, screens and rugs realized in conjunction with J.P. Oud, Architects Associated, New York; Eric Mendelsohn, Warren Callister, etc. The correspondence and the photographs in this collection provide insight into the designer's private life. Included in this collection are press articles, brochures, correspondence, postcards, photographs, color slides, notebooks, textiles, and textile wood patterns.
Arrangement note:
Unprocessed; Included in this collection are press articles, brochures, correspondence, postcards, photographs, color slides, notebooks, textiles, and textile wood patterns.
Biographical/Historical note:
Trude Guermonprez is an experienced weaver as well as a designer, artist, craftsman and teacher. She has executed architectural commissions and has done interior design for industry. Her work is of great variety in character and form. Guermonprez started weaving in Halle, Germany at the Municipal School of Arts and Crafts. Six years of weaving in a Dutch rug shop preceded her coming to America, at the invitation of Anni Albers, to teach at Black Mountain College, and later to northern California to join her friend Marguerite Wildenhain, at Pond Farm Workshops in a producing-teaching cooperative. She served as Chairman of the Craft Department at The California College of Arts and Crafts. Though she designed fabrics for New York textile manufacturers, her works were mainly custom produced for architects and individuals. In 1970 she was honored the Craftsmanship Medal from the American Institute of Architects.
Guermonprez published works in Art and Architecture, 1949; Shuttlecraft Weaving Magazine, 1957; and Research in Crafts, 1961.
She also participated in the following exhibitions: de Young Museum; American Wallhangings, London; Oakland Art Museum; Pasadena Art Museum; U.S. Information Agency State Department Show, traveling Europe exhibition; "Craftsmen of the West", "Fabrics International" and "10 American Weavers" at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. In 2000 at Staatliche Galerie Moritzburg Halle Landeskunstmuseum, Halle (Salle), Germany: "From Bauhaus to the Pacific: The Impact of Emigration on Marguerite Wildenhain and Trude Guermonprez".
Location of Other Archival Materials Note:
The North Carolina State Archives web site has material in its collection related to Guermonprez as a teacher and artist-in-residence at Black Mountain College.
The Archives of American Art hasoral history interviews of Merry Renk conducted 2001 Jan. 18-19 by Arline M. Fisch for Nanette L. Laitman's, Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America. Guermonprez is only mentioned.
Provenance:
All materials were donated to the museum by Mr. Eric and Mrs. Sylvia Elsesser in 1993.
Restrictions:
Unprocessed; access is limited. Permission of Library Director required. Policy.
276 photographs, ca. 1946-1966, taken by Kalisher of artists teaching at Bennington College, Bennington, Vermont, Black Mountain College, North Carolina, and the MacDowell Colony, Peterborough, New Hampshire.
Artists include: Peter Abate, Kongo Abe, Cora-Beth Abel, Samuel M. Adler, Paul Aschenbach, Josef Albers, Ture Bengtz, Wieslaw Borowski, Ms. Coonhan, Jan Cox, Merce Cunningham, Dorothy Dehner, Elaine de Kooning, Garabed der Hovanesian, Blanche Dombek, Jan Doubrova, Franc Epping, Vernon Fimple, Miles Forst, Helen Frankenthaler, Buckminster Fuller, David Gil, Maurice Glickman, Julio Granda, Philip Grausman, Cleve Gray, Stanley William Hayter, Victoria Kilbourn, Oskar Kokoschka, Alexander Lieberman, Michael Mazur, ? McKenzie, Ivan Mestrovic, George L. K. Morris, Robert Motherwell, Alice Neel, Kenneth Noland, Mine Okubo, Gregorio Prestopino, Norman Rockwell, Jakob Rosenberg, David Smith, John Torres, Wen Ying Tsai, Asapia Voulis, Iain Whitecross, Marguerite Wildenhain, and ? Zhermansky.
Biographical / Historical:
Photographer.
Provenance:
Lent for microfilming 1982 by Clemens Kalischer.
Restrictions:
The Archives of American art does not own the original papers. Use is limited to the microfilm copy.
An interview of Katharine Kuh conducted 1982 Mar. 18-1983 Mar. 24, by Avis Berman, for the Archives of American Art's Mark Rothko and His Times oral history project.
Kuh speaks of her invalid childhood in Chicago, the development of her interest in art, classes in art history at Vassar College, and her career as curator of modern art at the Art Institute of Chicago. She recalls in particular the "Sanity in Art" movement against modern art in Chicago. Kuh describes her relationship with Mark Rothko and Rothko's relationships with Mark Tobey, Clyfford Still, Kate Rothko, Theodoros Stamos, Milton Avery, Stanley Kunitz, and Hans Hofmann.
Kuh discusses her parents, the family silk business, travelling in Europe as a child, life in Chicago, the effects of polio and other illnesses on her interests, and her student years at Vassar College. She remembers visiting Bernard Berenson in Italy with her family and again with Daniel Catton Rich, with whom she worked very closely at the Art Institute of Chicago. She speaks of the Katharine Kuh Gallery, which she started in the mid-1930s and its place in the vanguard of the Chicago art scene.
Kuh remembers the effects of the stock market crash on her personal situation, her marriage to businessman George Kuh, distaste for life in the suburbs, and her divorce. She discusses the Katharine Kuh Gallery and the actions taken against her business by members of the reactionary "Sanity in Art" movement (including a very funny anecdote concerning Carlos Merida). She speaks of the classes in modern art that she taught at her gallery and of some of the artists she exhibited there, including the photographers Ansel Adams, Alfred Stieglitz, and Edward Weston.
Kuh remembers the McCarthy era and the political conservatism in Chicago, including her testimony on behalf of Bill Zimmerman, Acting Commissioner of Indian Affairs. She criticizes blockbuster exhibitions and the changes in the role of a museum curator. She reminisces about building the collection at the Art Institute of Chicago and the art education program she ran there, and recalls Stuart Davis, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Gyorgy Kepes, and Ivan Albright.
Kuh remembers Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and Marcel Duchamp, as well as the collectors Walter Paepcke and Walter and Louise Arensberg (whose collection she surveyed in their home for an exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago).
Kuh focuses on her memories of Mark Rothko, recalling when they met, their friendship, his manner of working, his feelings about his work, and his worries towards the end of his life. She talks about Clyfford Still, Barnett Newman, and Mark Tobey. Some parts of this tape repeat what she said earlier.
Kuh continues discussing Rothko, particularly his Houston chapel murals and the retrospective exhibition at MOMA in 1961. She remembers visiting Rothko's studio and describes his working methods. She relates Rothko's views on other artists, including Milton Avery, Clyfford Still, Turner, Robert Motherwell, and Adolf Gottlieb; parts repeat things said before. Kuh also discusses Rothko's wife and daughter.
Kuh recounts building the collection at the Art Institute of Chicago and speaks of the museum staff, trustees, and donors. She remembers Alfred Barr at MOMA.
Kuh continues speaking about the Art Institute of Chicago, describing the circumstances of her resignation and subsequent move to New York. She talks of knowing Peggy Guggenheim, Max Ernst, and Fernand Leger.
Kuh describes her work as a consultant to college museums and her writings. She discusses the field of art criticism and her career as art editor at Saturday Review. She recalls Clyfford Still's retrospective exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and his death.
Kuh describes her work as a collector for the First National Bank of Chicago.
Kuh recounts more about her work at Saturday Review and her resignation. She goes into great detail about her travels in Alaska and British Columbia surveying Northwest Indian art for a government report. She speaks again about the McCarthy era.
Kuh speaks again about the Katharine Kuh Gallery and the artists she exhibited there, including Josef Albers (and his Black Mountain College), Alexander Archipenko, Stuart Davis, Paul Klee, Alexander Calder, and Man Ray.
Kuh continues her discussion of artists she exhibited at the Katharine Kuh Gallery, including Mark Tobey, Paul Klee, and Isamu Noguchi.
Kuh continues talking about artists she exhibited at the Katharine Kuh Gallery, including David Smith, Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Eliot Porter, Rufino Tamayo, and Jack Tworkov.
Biographical / Historical:
Katharine Kuh (1904-1994) was an art consultant, curator, and critic from Chicago and New York City.
General:
Originally recorded on 16 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 31 digital wav files. Duration is 21 hrs., 52 min.
Provenance:
This interview was conducted as part of the Archives of American Art's Mark Rothko and his Times oral history project, with funding provided by the Mark Rothko Foundation.
Others interviewed on the project (by various interviewers) include: Sonia Allen, Sally Avery, Ben-Zion, Bernard Braddon, Ernest Briggs, Rhys Caparn, Elaine de Kooning, Herbert Ferber, Esther Gottlieb, Juliette Hays, Sidney Janis, Buffie Johnson, Jacob Kainen, Louis Kaufman, Jack Kufeld, Stanley Kunitz, Joseph Liss, Dorothy Miller, Betty Parsons, Wallace Putnam, Rebecca Reis, Maurice Roth, Sidney Schectman, Aaron Siskind, Joseph Solman, Hedda Sterne, Jack Tworkov, Esteban Vicente and Ed Weinstein. Each has been cataloged separately.
Restrictions:
Transcript: Patrons must use microfilm copy.
Rights:
Authorization to quote or reproduce for the purposes of publication requires written permission from Avis Berman. Contact Reference Services for more information.
An interview of Harvey K. Littleton conducted 2001 March 15, by Joan Falconer Byrd, for the Archives of American Art's Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America, in Littleton's home, Spruce Pine, N.C.
Littleton speaks of his family background including the work of his father [Jesse Talbot Littleton] at Corning Glassworks, and his early experiences with glass at Corning. He discusses his studies at the University of Michigan in physics and his switch to sculpture; his studies at Cranbrook Academy, in 1941, and his teachers Marshall Fredericks and Carl Milles; his studies on industrial design; becoming a potter; and working at Corning Glassworks, in the summers, inspecting hand-blown coffee pots and top-of-the-stove ware. He discusses his service in the 849th Signal Intelligence Unit in North Africa and Italy during WWII; studying with Norah Braden, at the Brighton School of Art, in England; the importance of, "A Potter's Book," by Bernard Leach; teaching pottery at night, in Ann Arbor, Michigan; the beginnings of the Ann Arbor Potters Guild; making his own potters' wheels; serving on the board of Penland School of Crafts; the development of "American" art and the impact of the GI Bill on the creation and expansion of art departments; the "master-slave apprentice system"; "the genius of Shoji Hamada"; the properties of porcelain; artist communities at Penland and Cranbrook; the influence of Bill Brown, director of the Penland School of Crafts; art education and the impact of the MFA; Black Mountain College, Pilchuck Glass School, and Haystack Mountain School of Crafts; problems with the European educational system; the importance of Erwin Eisch's work on his development; his relationship with galleries and museums, particularly the Museum of Modern Art, the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and American Craft Museum; and consignment laws. He also comments on the founding of the Midwest Designer Craftsmen; his involvement with the American Crafts Council (ACC) and the distinction between "the indigenous craftsman" and the "artist-craftsman"; American Crafts Council fairs; his printmaking; his techniques of sandblasting; teaching vitreography; and his plans for opening a print gallery. He recalls Charles Eames, Peter Voulkos, Shoji Hamada, Robert Turner, Dante Marioni, Fritz Dreisbach, and others.
Biographical / Historical:
Harvey K. Littleton (1922- ) is a glass artist, potter, sculptor, and printmaker from Wisconsin and Spruce Pine, N.C. Joan Falconer Byrd (1939-) ia a professor in the art department of Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, N.C.
General:
Originally recorded on 3 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 6 digital wav files. Duration is 3 hrs., 10 min.
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.
Topic:
Glass artists -- North Carolina -- Interviews Search this
An interview of V. V. Rankine conducted 1990 Mar. 2-22, by Liza Kirwin, for the Archives of American Art.
Rankine discusses the evolution of her nickname, V.V.; discovering her dyslexia; growing up in Boston; auditioning for a part in, "The Philadelphia Story"; her art studies with Amedee Ozenfant from 1944 to 1946; her studies at Black Mountain College with Josef Albers and Willem De Kooning in 1947; her friendship with Morris Louis and watching him work; living with her brother-in-law Arshile Gorky, in New York City; her first one-woman show at the David Herbert Gallery in New York in 1962; exhibiting at the Betty Parsons Gallery in New York and at the Jefferson Place Gallery in Washington, D.C.; Robert Richman and the Institute of Contemporary Arts; the relationship between her painting and her sculpture; favorite shapes and materials; and her summer home in East Hampton and artist friends there. Rankine also recalls Robert Rauschenberg, Jack Youngerman, Manoucher Yektai, Betty Parsons, Ibram Lassaw, Buckminster Fuller, Elaine De Kooning, Arthur Penn, Richard Leopold, John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Ken Noland, Morris Louis, Ray Johnson, Kenneth Snelson, David Hare, Frederick Kiesler, Raphael Soyer, Moses Soyer, Jean Renault, Agnes Gorky, Esther Magruder, James Johnson Sweeney, Jim Brooks, John Graham, Phillip Guston, Duncan Phillips, Theresa Helburn, Augustine Duncan, Tom Downing, Gene Davis, Alice Denney, Nesta Dorrance, Kevin Merrill, Sam Gilliam, Dylan Thomas, Kay Halle, Kit Kennedy, Naum Gabo, President Lyndon B. Johnson, Anne Truitt, Wretha Nelson, Franz Bader, Louise Nevelson, Andy Warhol, Jackson Pollock, Bonnie Newman, Alexander Russo, Walt Sheridan, Gilbert Kinney, Saul Sherman, Steve Pace, Lee Krasner, and others.
Biographical / Historical:
V.V. Rankine (1920-2004) was a painter and sculptor from Washington, D.C. Variable forms of the artist's name are notably E. R. (Elvine Richard) Rankine, Vivian Scott Rankine, and her married name, Mrs. Paul Scott.
General:
Originally recorded on 3 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 5 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hrs., 53 min.
Provenance:
These interviews are 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 others.
Zorach, William, 1887-1966 -- Photographs Search this
Extent:
28.1 Linear feet
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Photographs
Sound recordings
Video recordings
Diaries
Interviews
Scrapbooks
Sketches
Date:
1871-2004, bulk 1910s-1980s
bulk 1910-1990
Summary:
The papers of Spanish-born sculptor and educator José de Creeft measure 28.1 linear feet and date from 1871 to 2004 with the bulk of the material dating from the 1910s to the 1980s. Found are biographical materials, correspondence, fifty diaries, writings, subject files, personal business records, printed materials, twenty-seven photo albums and other photographs, scrapbooks, and scattered sketches.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of Spanish-born sculptor and educator José de Creeft measure 28.1 linear feet and date from 1871 to 2004 with the bulk of the material dating from the 1910s to the 1980s. Found are biographical materials, correspondence, fifty diaries, writings, subject files, personal business records, printed materials, twenty-seven photo albums and other photographs, scrapbooks, and scattered sketches.
Biographical materials include address books, awards, recorded interviews with and about de Creeft, membership materials, naturalization records, resumes, and travel documents.
Correspondence is primarily professional in nature and concerns exhibitions, de Creeft's involvement in arts organizations, and awards. There are also scattered personal letters from family and friends. Correspondents include Alexander Calder, Nina, Alice, Barbara and William de Creeft, Hunt Diederich, Joseph Escudar, and Gil Gomez, Jacques Lipchitz, Edwin Dickinson, James Johnson Sweeney, Costantino Nivola, Abraham Rattner, and Lamar Dodd, among others.
De Creeft's fifty diaries are nearly complete for the period dating from 1926 to 1981. Some are bound volumes and others are loose pages. The bulk of the diaries are in Spanish and many include sketches. Additional writings, called "escritos varios" by José de Creeft, are mostly in Spanish and consist of typed manuscripts and essays, including "Roosty Was My Friend, 1957, notebooks, an artist's statement, and writings by others, including drafts for The Sculpture of de Creeft by Jules Campos, and a video recording entitled José de Creeft by Bob Hanson. There is one sound recording of Lorrie Goulet reading poetry.
Subject files are varied and include files on de Creeft's teaching positions at the New School for Social Research, Black Mountain College, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, and the Art Students League. There are files for some of his sculpture projects, inlcuding Alice in Wonderland, Poet, and a proposed model for the Stone Mountain Confederate Memorial in Georgia, as well as compiled information about various art related topics of interest.
De Creeft's business records include appraisals, contracts, leases, price lists, and scattered receipts. Also found are art inventories in the form of three sets of index cards, some of which include photographs.
Printed materials include books, clippings, exhibition announcements and catalogs, exhibition labels, postcards, and posters.
There are loose photographs and twenty-seven photograph albums depicting de Creeft, his family, friends, and works of art. There are photos of Alexander Calder; de Creeft and Goulet with Raphael Soyer, posing with Soyer's portrait of them; Gertrude Lawrence; art juries, which also include images of Chaim Gross, Jacques Lipchitz, Theodore Roszak, and William Zorach; students, friends, and faculties of Black Mountain College, the Art Students League, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, and the Norton School of Art, which also includes images of Joseph Albers, Alexander Calder, Julio De Diego, Walter Gropius, J. B. Neumann, and Abraham Rattner.
Seven mixed media scrapbooks document de Creeft's career from 1929 to 1982. Also found are scattered pen and pencil sketches and one sketchbook dating from the 1920s.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 10 series:
Missing Title
Series 1: Biographical Material, 1914-1979 (Boxes 1, 27; 0.9 linear feet)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1910s-1980s (Boxes 1-6; 4.2 linear feet)
Series 3: Diaries, 1926-1981 (Boxes 6-11; 5.4 linear feet)
Series 4: Writings, 1871-1977 (Boxes 11-13, 28; 2.5 linear feet)
Series 5: Subject Files, 1924-1980 (Boxes 13-16, 27; 2.4 linear feet)
Series 6: Personal Business Records, 1909-1980s (Boxes 16-17, 27; 1.0 linear feet)
Series 7: Printed Material, 1921-1980s (Boxes 17-21, 27, 33; 4.7 linear feet)
Series 8: Photographs, 1900-2004 (Boxes 21-25, 29, 31; 5.1 linear feet)
Series 9: Scrapbooks, 1929-1982 (Box 26, 30, 32; 1.8 linear feet)
Series 10: Artwork, 1920s-1930s (Box 26; 2 folders)
Biographical / Historical:
José de Creeft (1908-1982) was a Spanish-born sculptor active in New York City, New York.
José de Creeft was born in Guadalajara, Spain and raised in Barcelona. In 1900, he apprenticed to sculptor Don Augustine Querol and studied drawing with Idalgo de Caviedas. De Creeft moved to Paris in 1905 and began formal art training at the Académie Julianand. He also took a studio in the Batteau Lavoir in Montmartre, where he interacted with Pablo Picasso, Juan Gris, Manolo, and Pablo Gargallo, all of whom also had studios there. During this period, de Creeft became friends with the artist Mateo Hernandez.
In 1915, de Creeft rejected the traditional technique of reproducing sculpture in stone from clay and plaster models and turned to direct carving in wood and stone. He was also one of the first sculptors who practiced assemblage and incorporated found objects into his work. His notable assemblage sculpture El Picador, a large figure on horseback, received worldwide press coverage and was exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Independents in 1926. Between 1919 and 1928, his work was exhibited in various Paris salons. In the late 1920s, he created 200 stone carvings for Roberto Ramonje's Forteleza (fortress) in Mallorca. It was around this time frame when de Creeft met Alexander Calder, who became his student in direct carving. De Creeft encouraged Calder to display his mechanical toys and Calder put his Circus together for the first time in de Creeft's studio.
De Creeft emigrated to the United States in 1929, right after marrying fellow sculptor Alice Robertson Carr. They divorced nine years later.
While in New York, de Creeft began sculpting with lead sheets beaten into three-dimensional forms and established a studio at 1 Washington Square. His first solo exhibition was at the Ferargil Galleries in New York City and included The Portrait of Cesar Vallejo in chased lead and The Silver Fox of found materials.
In 1932, de Creeft accepted a teaching position in sculpture at the New School for Social Research. He also taught courses at Black Mountain College, where he met his second wife, sculptor Lorrie Goulet, the Art Students League, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, and the Norton Gallery and School of Art. In 1946, de Creeft and Goulet purchased a hundred-acre farm in Hoosick Falls, NY where they established a studio and part-time residence.
Perhaps De Creeft's most well-known monumental scuplture is Alice in Wonderland in Central Park, New York City. The 12' x 16' bronze was dedicated during a public event in 1959 and gave de Creeft worldwide recognition. In 1995 a short film about the making of the sculpture was produced by J. D'Alba and narrated by Lorrie Goulet.
De Creeft was as founding member of the American Artist's Congress, the Sculptors Guild, and the Artist's Equity Association. De Creeft was represented by the Georgette Passedoit Gallery from 1936 to 1949. Later, he joined The Contemporaries (gallery) and exhibited there until 1966. Kennedy Galleries represented de Creeft from 1970 until his death in 1982.
Related Materials:
The Archives of American Art also holds an interview of José De Creeft conducted October 1-8, 1968 by Forrest Selvig and the papers of de Creeft's wife Lorrie Goulet.
Separated Materials:
The Archives of American Art also holds microfilm of material lent for microfilming (reels D150 and 375-378). While most of the items were included in subsequent gifts, material not donated to the Archives remain with the lender and are not described in the collection container inventory.
Provenance:
The José de Creeft papers were first lent for microfilming by the artist in 1963 and 1972. Lorrie Goulet, José de Creeft's widow, donated most of this material along with additional items in 1985 and 2009.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment. Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice.
Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Interview of Ilya Bolotowsky conducted 1968 March 24-April 7, by Paul Cummings, for the Archives of American Art.
Bolotowsky, a lively raconteur, recalls a host of episodes from his personal and professional life. He speaks of his childhood in Russia and Azerbaijan; the effects of war and communism; the family's flight as refugees into Georgia and then to present-day Istanbul; and his early education with a private tutor and at a Jesuit school in Istanbul. Bolotowsky recalls his family's emigration to the United States by ship in 1923; his first impressions of New York City; and early visits to the city's museums. He relates numerous anecdotes about faculty and fellow students at the National Academy of Design, including Ivan Olinsky, Raymond Neilson, Charles Hawthorne, Amedee Ozenfant, and William Henry Johnson.
He speaks of various early exhibitions of his work, including those with the Art Students League, G.R.D. Studio, and the J.B. Neumann Gallery. He also describes a stay at Yaddo in 1934.
Bolotowsky recounts his participation in the Public Works of Art Project as a teacher of art to delinquent children; later work on the mural project of the Works Progress Administration; the picketing of WPA offices, providing anecdotes about Max Spivak and Joseph Vogel; military service during World War II, first working on a Russian dictionary of technical terms and then as a liason officer with the Soviet Air Force in Nome, Alaska.
Upon his return from the military, Bolotowsky immediately resumed his painting career, and describes his involvement with artists' organizations such as the American Abstract Artists, the American Artists' Congress, the Concretionists, the Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors, and the Ten; he mentions in these contexts such personalities as Byron Browne, Burgoyne Diller, Werner Drewes, Arshile Gorky, Clement Greenberg, Balcomb and Gertrude Greene, Harry Holtzman, Fernand Leger, Piet Mondrian, and Meyer Schapiro.
Bolotowsky gives an extensive description of his experiences filling in for Joseph Albers for a year at Black Mountain College, and goes on to discuss his subsequent teaching positions at the University of Wyoming (including a discussion of the impact of the Wyoming landscape on his painting), Brooklyn College, Southampton College, and SUNY New Paltz. He devotes great attention to the development of his painting, his understanding of neo-plasticism and abstraction, and his efforts in filmmaking and playwriting.
Biographical / Historical:
Ilya Bolotowsky (1907-1981) was a Russian-American abstract painter in New York, New York.
General:
Originally recorded on 2 sound tape reels. Reformatted in 2010 as 12 digital wav files. Duration is 6 hr., 37 min.
Provenance:
These interviews are 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 others. Funding for the interview was provided by the New York State Council on the Arts.
Black Mountain College (Black Mountain, N.C.) Search this
Extent:
0.2 Linear feet
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Date:
1924-1969
Summary:
The papers of artist and weaver Anni Albers measure 0.2 linear feet and date from 1924-1969. They consist primarily of printed materials about Alber's exhibitions, Bauhaus training, and Black Mountain weaving classes.
Scope and Content Note:
The papers of artist and weaver Anni Albers measure 0.2 linear feet and date from 1924-1969. They consist primarily of printed materials about Alber's exhibitions, Bauhaus training, and Black Mountain weaving classes.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as one series:
Missing Title
Series 1: Printed Materials, 1929-1969 (Box 1; 0.2 linear feet)
Biographical Note:
Anni Albers (1899-1994) was a textile designer, weaver, writer, and printmaker who worked in Connecticut and at the Black Mountain College in North Carolina.
Anni Albers was born in Germany in 1899 and attended the Bauhaus where she met her husband designer Josef Albers in 1922; they married in 1925. At the Bauhaus. she experimented with new materials for weaving and executed richly colored designs on paper for wall hangings and textiles in silk, cotton, and linen yarns.
When the Bauhaus moved to Dessau, the Albers lived alongside the families of artist teachers Lyonel Feininger, Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, Oscar Schlemmer, and others in one of the masters' houses designed by Gropius. In 1933, the Albers emigrated to the U.S. to work at the experimental Black Mountain College in North Carolina. Both taught at Black Mountain until 1949. During these years Anni Albers' weavings were shown throughout the US and she published many articles on textiles and design, culminating in a 1949 show at the Museum of Modern Art, the first of its kind for a textile artist.
In 1950, Josef accepted the position of chair of the design department at Yale and the Albers moved to Connecticut. During the 1950s and 1960s, Anni worked productively from a home studio, producing fabric patterns, creating "pictorial" weavings, and writing articles and books about weaving, including On Designing in 1952 and On Weaving in 1965. During the 1960s she also started printmaking and devoted much of her later career to this artform.
Anni Albers died in Connecticut in 1994.
Related Material:
Also found among the holdings of the Archives of American Art is an oral history interview with Anni Albers by Sevim Fesci on July 5, 1968.
Provenance:
Anni Albers donated the papers in 1969.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment.
Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Occupation:
Art teachers -- Connecticut -- New Haven Search this
Black Mountain College (Black Mountain, N.C.) Search this
Type:
Correspondence
Date:
1952 Jul. 15
Citation:
Jack Tworkov. Jack Tworkov letter to Janice Biala and Daniel 'Alain' Brustlein, 1952 Jul. 15. Jack Tworkov papers, 1926-1993. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Black Mountain College (Black Mountain, N.C.) Search this
Type:
Printed Materials
Date:
1952
Citation:
Black Mountain College (Black Mountain, N.C.). Black Mountain College bulletin, 1952. Jack Tworkov papers, 1926-1993. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Black Mountain College (Black Mountain, N.C.) Search this
Type:
Correspondence
Date:
not after 1953 Jan. 13
Citation:
Stefan Wolpe. Stefan Wolpe letter to Jack Tworkov, not after 1953 Jan. 13. Jack Tworkov papers, 1926-1993. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
