An interview with Vera Klement conducted 2015 June 12 and 14, by Lanny Silverman, for the Archives of American Art's Chicago Art and Artists: Oral History Project, at Klement's home and studio in Chicago, Illinois.
Klement speaks of her early childhood in Danzig (now, Gdansk, Poland) on the eve of World War II; her family's immigration to New York; her early experiences with music and art; her decision to become a painter; her interactions within New York's art community of the 1950s; the change in New York's art scene after the emergence of Pop art; her move to Chicago and subsequent difficulties in showing her work; her involvement within the Chicago art community; the founding of the women's artist cooperative, Artemisia; her involvement with the women's movement in the 1970s; teaching at the University of Chicago; her conception of her artwork as representational and apolitical; her literary influences; and her distaste for the contemporary art world. Klement also recalls Dennis Adrian, Dore Ashton, Marianne Deson, Angelo Ippolito, Miyoko Ito, Phyllis Kind, Harold Rosenberg, Ralph Shapey, Theodoros Stamos, and others.
Biographical / Historical:
Vera Klement (1929- ) is a painter in Chicago, Illinois. Lanny Silverman (1947- ) is a curator at the Chicago Cultural Center in Chicago, Illinois.
General:
Originally recorded as 3 sound files. Duration is 3 hr., 24 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.
Restrictions:
Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.
An interview with Evelyn Statsinger, conducted 2015 May 11-13, by Lanny Silverman, for the Archives of American Art's Chicago Art and Artists: Oral History Project, at Statsinger's studio in Chicago, Illinois.
Statsinger speaks of studying at the High School of Museum and Arts in New York, the Art Students League, and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago; showing at Chicago galleries, including Frumkin, Artemisia, Kovler, and Jan Cicero; how her work fits in with contemporary Chicago artists, including Monster Roster and Imagists; the use of ambiguity in her work; how her travels in Japan and Mexico influenced her style; Japanese theater; and contemporary art and popular culture. Statsinger also recalls Ossip Zadkine, Katherine Kuh, Carl Schniewind, Mies van der Rohe, Leon Golub, Kathleen Blackshear, and others.
Biographical / Historical:
Interviewee Evelyn Statsinger (1927-2016) was a painter in Chicago, Illinois. Interviewer Lanny Silverman (1947- ) is a curator at the Chicago Cultural Center in Chicago, Illinois.
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.
Restrictions:
This transcript is open for research. Access to the entire recording is restricted. Contact Reference Services for more information.
